‘Bad Boys: Ride or Die’ and Will Smith’s desperate bid for career salvation
Under normal circumstances, one of the most popular and successful movie stars of the modern era securing an Academy Award win for ‘Best Actor’ to underline their dramatic credentials should be the crowning achievement of their career. However, one rash decision would obliterate Will Smith‘s reputation.
Slapping Chris Rock across the chops at the Oscars will take some beating as the most shocking moment in the ceremony’s history, leaving the former ‘Fresh Prince’ scrambling to pick up the pieces of his career. Before that point he was pretty much a universally beloved presence and a bankable blockbuster leading man, but his first credit since that infamous day is indicative of where he finds himself.
Antoine Fuqua’s period drama Emancipation may have been his first release of any kind since he forcibly removed the taste from Rock’s mouth in front of a stunned audience both in the auditorium and watching at home, but it’s very telling that the first movie he’s shot since that moment is Bad Boys: Ride or Die.
After a 17-year absence from screens, Smith’s Mike Lowrey and Martin Lawrence’s Marcus Burnett returned with a vengeance in Bad Boys for Life, which became the franchise’s best-reviewed and highest-grossing instalment to date. Directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah also have a point to prove after having Batgirl ripped away from them and stuffed into the Warner Bros vault after production had wrapped, but it’s clear that Smith is viewing it as the first step on the road towards rehabilitation.
Even before the Oscars incident, the evidence was beginning to mount up that his star power was already on the wane. At his peak, Smith became the first actor to ever headline eight consecutive movies that cleared $100million at the domestic box office between 2002’s Men in Black II and 2008’s Hancock, but cracks soon started to appear in his armour.
After Earth was a vanity project gone horribly awry that tanked spectacularly, while Suicide Squad‘s commercial success was offset by its evisceration as one of the weakest comic book adaptations bearing the DC branding. Likewise, Collateral Beauty was cynically transparent awards bait declared dead on arrival, and Gemini Man failed to justify escaping development hell after almost a quarter of a century. Aladdin was a rare bright spot, but even then, the live-action remakes of the Mouse House’s animated classics are nigh-on bulletproof as a brand.
King Richard should have been the catalyst for a brand new era, but it took him right back to square one instead. Smith needs to convince audiences that he’s still got what it takes to be a viable mainstream concern, but it remains entirely up for debate how much damage has really been done. The fourth entry in a proven brand is a decent place to start on paper, but it’s what comes next that could make or break him.
It’s back to the action arena with Sugar Bandits next, and he’s planning to remain in that sandbox with Netflix’s Fast and Loose, while Kevin Hart maintains they’re still seeking to co-star in that long-mooted Planes, Trains and Automobiles remake nobody really seems to be asking for.
King Richard should have signalled to the world that Smith was ready to leave his action hero days behind in order to further the dramatic side of his filmography, but one bad decision has left him heading back to his comfort zone in an effort to salvage his standing as a mainstream concern. That’s not to say he won’t be able to return to something resembling former glories, but it remains damage limitation at its most blatant.
