Will Smith Ranked

Welcome to the latest edition of the "Ranked" series, where I rank a franchise or the filmography of an actor/director from worst to best and hand out related accolades. This week, I'm profiling the work of one of America's sweethearts: Will Smith.  

Will Smith's Filmography Ranked:
23.Shark Tale (F)
22.The Legend of Bagger Vance (D)
21.Seven Pounds (D+)
20.After Earth (C)
19.Hitch (C+)
18.Men in Black II (C+)
17.Aladdin (B-)
16.Wild Wild West (B)
15.Gemini Man (B)
14.The Pursuit of Happyness (B)
13.Hancock (B)
12.Suicide Squad (B)
11.Bright (B+)
10.I, Robot (B+)
9.Focus (B+)
8.Independence Day (B+)
7.Bad Boys (B+)
6.Bad Boys for Life (B+)
5.Bad Boys II (B+)
4.Men in Black 3 (A-)
3.Concussion (A-)
2.I Am Legend (A)
1.Men in Black (A)

Top Dog: Men in Black (1997)
The original Men in Black should be right up there with Jurassic Park, The Matrix and Terminator 2: Judgement Day in the pantheon of 90's blockbusters. It's great mix of comedy and sci-fi action, inspired oddball lead pairing of the charismatic Smith and curmudgeon Tommy Lee Jones and clever premise made it a textbook display of the unparalleled wonders of high quality lighthearted entertainment.

Lowlight: Shark Tale (2004)
Of all the misguided, annoying and just flat out insufferable animated films I've ever seen, Shark Tale sits alone atop the trash heap. The only thing that's impressive about it is how the people at Dreamworks were able to assemble a star-studded voice cast that includes Smith, Robert De Niro, Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Renee Zellweger and Martin Scorsese for what is essentially a disastrous  gangster movie starring sea creatures that's aimed at children for some reason. This shit is so cripplingly dumb, annoying and devoid of laughs or heart that it shouldn't been able to attract an awful community theater troupe, let alone an ensemble that as of today has a combined 6 Oscar wins and 25 nominations between them. Guess that's what the magic of big paychecks and a brand that was really popping after the massive success of Shrek can get you in Hollywood.    

Most Underrated: Focus (2015)
Following the dreary mediocrity of After Earth, Focus was the perfect vehicle for Smith to get his groove back. Driven by the intoxicating pairing of Smith and Margot Robbie, and a number of dazzlingly elaborate setpieces that take full advantage of their wonderous settings (New Orleans, Buenos Aries), this breezy, twist-heavy tale about a pair of con artists who quickly develop a complicated personal and working relationship following a chance encounter at an upscale restaurant keeps the audience engaged and guessing about what's real and what's part of the con until the very end.

Most Overrated: Hitch (2005)
Outside of Smith's abundant natural charisma in the titular role of dating advice guru Alex Hitchens, Hitch boasts a level of anonymity that would make The Phantom of the Opera jealous. The jokes are good enough to deliver some chuckles yet not inspired enough to land with any sort of real impact, the attempts to pull the heartstrings are neither corny enough to elicit a cringe or warm enough to be moving and perhaps worst of all, the characters are so collectively blah that it's hard to care whether or not they end up finding love by the end of the movie. Apathy is such a weird feeling to have about a romantic comedy that part of me would've almost preferred if it veered into obnoxiously unfunny/boring territory like Andy Tennant's other offerings from this era (Sweet Home Alabama, Fool's Gold, The Bounty Hunter), but alas here we are with the rare entry in this genre that falls firmly into the no man's land category of my rating spectrum.      

Most Iconic Turd: Wild Wild West (1999)
Wild Wild West is the rare kind of misfire that is so relentlessly bonkers that it becomes mesmerizing. The attempts at intentional humor are so oddly tasteless they develop kind of a surreal quality, Kenneth Branaugh's turn as a wheelchair-bound ex-Confederate officer with an affinity for engineering that's exceptionally advanced for 1869 is the type of unapologetic overacting that the medium needs more of and the fact that the devious plan Branaugh's character cooks up involves kidnapping the world's best scientists to build him a giant mechanical spider so he can intimidate Ulysses S. Grant into re-dividing the territories of the United States is so fucking absurd that it's a borderline stroke of creative genius. Now the Library of Congress needs to step up and do the right thing and enshrine this gloriously demented trainwreck into the National Film Archive as soon as it's appropriate to do so.      

An Entire Section Dedicated to Why His Portrayal of Genie in Aladdin was so great:
Here's a take that will likely make some Disney purists sick to their stomachs: Will Smith's portrayal of Genie in the live action version of Aladdin is just as good as Robin Williams' in the animated one. Smith's quick wit, joyous energy and inherent magnetism allows him to make the character his own while retaining the seemingly effortless scene-stealing quality that made Williams' portrayal so uniquely special.

Least Charismatic Live Action Role: Bagger Vance, The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000)
The whole "it factor" ideology that separates bona fide movie stars from the rest of the acting community has been the focal point of Smith's identity as a screen performer since he debuted on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. His sheer magnetism is the type of powerful gravitational force that is just about impossible to ignore whenever he's on screen. Stripping that rare gift away is an exceptionally hard task, but The Legend of Bagger Vance managed to pull it off. Turns out all you need to do to suffocate Smith's endless likability is have him play a mystical, arguably offensive character that appears out of thin air to dispense advice to a drunk, disgraced World War I veteran (Matt Damon) who was a prolific golfer and all around swell guy with a heavily-desired lass before he left for the battlefield. As he slowly fixes the ills of Damon's personal and professional life, Smith becomes more and more of a charisma vacuum with each passing nauseatingly sentimental monologue of alleged wisdom. Thankfully, he's never managed to replicate this level of stunning emptiness on screen since and if he can make it out of a melodramatic stinker like Seven Pounds or dull epic like After Earth without sinking to those level of anti-charisma, I'm pretty confident he can continue to do so in the future.