My Review of "Big George Foreman"

Big George Foreman is a biographical movie that came out in 2023. I'm sure many people today don't really know who he is other than maybe the George Foreman grill. He has a long and storied life and I'm glad that they made a biographical movie about him. Though I can see how they can go in different angles with this movie.

The movie starts off young George Foreman with his impoverished family. They're just barely scraping by but somehow they're very happy to be where they are. His loving mother has been a stone that the whole family counts on. She's a beacon of light despite the hardships that all of them go through.

From George's early days it seems as though he has had an anger problem. Well I'm not totally sure if it's an anger problem or a social awareness problem. He has a problem with people disrespecting him. It's a chip on his shoulder since he grew up poor. All his life he's been worried about others making fun of him so all he's done is get into fights.

There are a number of occasions where this fighting has almost gotten himself into very big trouble. Yet somehow he always eludes these disasters. We kind of figure out how he's been able to avoid these terrible problems later on in the movie.

This eventually leads George to a life of boxing. This is where he amassed a fortune. We learn of all of the trials and tribulations that he had gone through and even the vices that he had as a young man with money. He's not a perfect person but they could exposed this portion of his story a little more.

They kind of skim some of the bad things that he's done in life so we don't really paint him as a horrible person. Eventually something happens to George that causes him to do a 180 and he becomes a changed man. This is when the movie kind of really starts picking up. I felt George's exuberance and new lease on life when this happens. It does happen in quite a short period of time and somewhat unbelievable but if it's biographical maybe it did happen.

I felt that the pacing of this movie was quite off. There were bits of the beginning that could have been trimmed as it didn't really serve the story. It focused on aspects of George's life that could easily have delineated this movie.

A little later at the end of the first half of the movie the focus is more clear and the movie then gets its legs. Though at times they speed past some of these scenarios when they could have let things simmer a little. I'm glad that they found their focus but I wished they found it earlier on.

This is also a very low budget film. It shows in a lot of ways. The flow of the movie felt like it was rushed into production. The special effects are also very bad. There were certain scenes where they super imposed the actor's face to real life footage. It really took me out of the movie. Some of these scenes were totally unnecessary whereas I could see why they did some of the special effects.

Overall, what's most important was if it was entertaining. I would say yes it was entertaining for the fact that the events of the movie actually happened in real life. The execution of the movie was quite poor though. I really wished they could try this again with a little more attention with the editing. They didn't need to pile in all aspects of George's life in this movie. Just focus on the pertinent information that helps keep this movie going. I have to give them props for getting this movie going in the first place though because it is an incredible story. I have to give this movie a 5.5 out of 10. It may be tough for some people to watch this even though they love biographical dramas like me.