Photo-Illustration: Emily Denniston/Vulture and photos courtesy of the studios This article has been updated to include Smith’s recent films.
29. Collateral Beauty Yeah, it’s the complete misguided mess that you’ve heard it is, but all told, it’s more embarrassing for Edward Norton, Michael Pena, and Kate Winslet — who play the awful human beings meant to be the “good guys” of this bewildering “heartwarmer” — than it is for Smith, who is mostly put-upon and thus escapes the true awfulness.
25. Where the Day Takes You What’s it like when a seemingly random smattering of early ‘90s up-and-coming young “stars” all don’t take a bath for a day and pretend to be “troubled” drug addicts on the streets of Los Angeles? Well, it looks like a movie-of-the-week with everybody wearing flannel.
21. Suicide Squad Well, you certainly can’t blame Smith for everything that goes wrong with Suicide Squad, and at the very least, he’s a reason to keep watching when the movie is flapping all over the place and running into walls. He and Robbie are the only people who seem to have put much thought into what went onscreen, and for that, we must express our gratefulness. And then run out of the theater.
17. Focus Smith is extremely fun as a con man — the first con man he’d played since Six Degrees of Separation 20 years earlier, a movie that strikes a very different pitch — in a movie that never quite figures out whether it’s a heist comedy, a dark thriller, or something. He has obvious rapport with Margot Robbie, which would carry over to a worse movie in Suicide Squad, and, as usual, he effortlessly gets the audience on his side.
13. Bad Boys Smith and director Michael Bay teamed up when both men were on a career upswing, and Bad Boys was the very appealing result. This is where the Fresh Prince graduates to big-screen badass action hero, setting the stage for Independence Day, Men in Black and the title of King of the Fourth of July Blockbuster. What’s funny about watching Bad Boys now: Dude seems so young, but his smartass chemistry with Martin Lawrence still shines.
9. Enemy of the State This Tony Scott action-thriller came out during Smith’s bulletproof period where he could do no wrong. He’s not the cool cat or the cocky showboat this time, though: He plays a mild-mannered lawyer mixed up in a government conspiracy, with only Gene Hackman’s mysterious operative able to save him. Enemy of the State was Smith’s dry run for the dramatic roles he would soon be pursuing, and he’s commanding and sympathetic as a regular guy fighting for his life.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: Variety - 🏆 108. / 63 Read more »
Source: wwd - 🏆 24. / 68 Read more »
Source: DEADLINE - 🏆 109. / 63 Read more »
Source: WSJ - 🏆 98. / 63 Read more »