Smith Month - Mini Review - Collateral Beauty

In cinema history there have been many horrors, killer clowns, serial killers with clown masks, reliving the same day over and over again, sociopaths, ghosts, zombies, things that go bump in the night and literally anything by Adam Sandler these days but none are more scary than Will Smith trying to win an Oscar

We conclude Smith Month with the most recent of Will Smith’s Oscarbaiting flicks, Collateral Beauty. Can’t we do Bright instead? No? Oh joy. Despite a star-studded cast, this movie was panned by critics with only a 14% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and whilst moderately successful thanks to it’s low budget, it made less than $100m and marks one of the lowest openings of Will Smith’s career. That Oscar just seems further and further away.

#58 - Smith Month - After Earth

In this instalment of Smith Month

I’m revisiting an old friend of the show, M Night Shyamalan

It’s been a while since I reviewed the last one and it’s still most anger-inducing product I’ve ever watched. But this one is slightly different. Will Smith wrote the plot of this movie, which M Night and Garry Whitta adapted into a screenplay. Jaden may have been successful in the Karate Kid but it certainly didn’t seem like he was getting a lot of other acting roles, this came out 3 years after the Karate Kid, and something had happened, Jaden had gone through puberty so his voice and performance is significantly changed from Karate Kid

It’s fairly obvious this movie was Will Smith’s attempt to bolster his son into stardom, and if that was the case then EPIC FAIL! This movie was panned on release, 11% on Rotten Tomatoes, and was also a box office failure, earning $250m on a $150m budget + $100m marketing. So, what went wrong? Was it Shyamalan’s direction, the writing or a mixture of the two? Let’s take a look at After Earth.]

Smith Month - Mini Review: The Pursuit of Happyness

I’ve decided to save my sanity and limit the Will Smith Oscar baiting movies to this one and Collateral Beauty. But I’ve chosen this one to introduce another member of the Smith family we’ll be looking at a couple more time. May I introduce Mr Jaden Smith… You know the guy who tweets this sh*t

No Jaden, Baby Geniuses is cr*ppy movie series, not a representation of Real Life

At a mere 8 years old (probably younger during production) and with only a cameo in Men in Black II under his belt, young Jaden would have a starring role in this, the Pursuit of Happyness

Released in 2006, the movie had a decent reception with 67% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and an average 8/10 on IMDb. The movie was profitable, earning over $300m on its $55m budget. But does it hold up? Here are my thoughts.

#57 - Smith Month - Shark Tale

I’ve not done a single Guilty Pleasure review in ages, and that’s not about to change now, we continue Smith Month with an animated future, infamous as one of the worst of the Dreamworks Catalogue, Shark Tale.

Released in 2004 and making a sizeable profit of $367m on it’s $75m budget, the movie had a mixed critical reception at the time and it’s only got worse as time went on. I normally wouldn’t cover a movie Mr Enter had already torn to shreds, but this is a Will Smith movie and hey? When was the last time I reviewed an awful kids thing? What's that? I did in my last 2 rage reviews… why break up a trilogy? This is Shark Tale

Smith Month - Mini Review: Men in Black 3

It was only about 8 years late, but we finally got a second Men in Black sequel, does it improve on areas that were lacking in the last movie? Well, with a 68% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and making enough money to surpass the previous film, it certainly seems things are back on track, but are they? Let’s take a look.

Smith Month - Mini Review: Men in Black II

Let’s continue with the Men in Black series as we continue Smith Month

Men in Black II came out in 2002 and was met with a decent Box Office performance but a poor critical reception, which likely factored into the 3^rd movie not coming out until 10 years later. Why was the critical reception so poor, well here’s my take on it.

Smith Month: Mini Review - Men in Black

It’s March, you know what that means, time for an obligatory theme month!

  

Ah, Will Smith, a guy who somehow ends up in some dire awful movies, but maintains a certain charm that keeps him employable, even moving over to the first Netflix blockbuster, Bright (which is not a great movie but I won't be covering here) but like I said, he’s been in a lot of bad movies, and I have a select few I plan to cover. Let’s start with one that isn’t sh*t, Men in Black.

Released in 1997 to financial and critical success, including 3 Academy Award Nominations, this movie would go on to the first of a 3-movie franchise, the rest of which we’ll cover next week.