King has a stretch in prison, where he expands his vocabulary and plots the conquest of the heavyweight boxing division as a promoter. Upon release, he loquacious King takes advantage of a friendship with former Billboard chart-topper Lloyd Price (Vondie Curtis-Hall) to gain access to boxing's biggest draw, Muhammad Ali (Darius McCrary), and rides that to glory promoting one of the most famous upsets ever, Ali over George Foreman.
Although the financing for his fights always seems to be on the brink of collapse, King continues to make inroads in the heavyweight division, signing up the biggest names, most of whom see little screen time. King cheats his fighters, especially long-reining champ Larry Holmes (Danny Johnson).
King's partners include immature son-in-law Carl (Lahmard J. Tate), closed circuit television czar Hank Schwartz (Jeremy Piven), and loyal wife Henrietta (Donzaleigh Abernathy). Interesting actors in supporting roles include Bernie Mac, Lou Rawls, and Keith David.
How others will see it. Don King: Only in America is nothing if not entertaining, and it comes as little surprise that the HBO movie won a Golden Globe for Ving Rhames, and was nominated for another Golden Globe as Best Made For Television movie. It also received a slew of nods from the Primetime Emmy Awards, winning in the categories of Outstanding Made for Television Movie and Outstanding Writing.
It is also a surprise that at imdb.com, the user ratings are lower than expected, at 6.9 out of 10. The user reviews predictably praise Ving Rhames, and condemn Don King as a scoundrel, albeit one who survives hard times and succeeds despite long odds. The majority of the reviews credit the accuracy of the portrayal of King, and some even make bold claims of greatness: "One of the best TV movies ever made!" and "Better than the real thing" which must be a reference to the Ali-Wepner fight.
How I felt about it. The most obvious problem with this film is that it covers too much ground for its two- hour running time. King's early career as a gangster, shocking in its own right, is dealt with swiftly, as is his relationship with the second-most famous heavyweight of all time, Mike Tyson. Don King is larger than life, and his biography demands a miniseries.
Another problem, hardly unique to the present movie, is that the boxing scenes are exaggerated. Ali-Spinks I is depicted (for all of one minute) as a slugfest in which the two boxers simply exchange haymakers.
Then there is the casting. Muhammad Ali is admittedly difficult to cast, but Darius McCrary (a.k.a Eddie Winslow from "Family Matters") lacks the charisma needed for the role. On the other hand, Ving Rhames is wonderful as Don King and Lahmard J. Tate is funny as Don King's go along, get along son-in-law.
Besides Rhames' performance, the highlight is the screenplay, which is loaded with bon mots for Rhames to deliver. Nothing is too outrageous for Rhames as King to say, whether he is addressing a Christian minister or the heavyweight champion.
It has been nearly a quarter century since Don King: Only in America was made, and the characters of the film's top three leads are still alive. Don King is 89, Lloyd Price is 87, and Hank Schwartz is 92. King's primary business rival, Bob Arum, is 88 and to this day is a dominant figure in American boxing promotion.