Even if ‘Bad Boys’ is a hit, Will Smith’s comeback won’t be easy

A month ago, I was sitting on a seashore in Florida conversing to a new good friend about approaching summer time motion pictures.

When I pointed out “Bad Boys: Journey or Die,” which strike theaters this weekend, the New Jersey woman’s response was quick — and indignant.

“Will Smith is lifeless to me,” she explained. 

Ouch.

Two yrs soon after the infamous Oscars smack, when Smith stormed the phase of the Dolby Theater and slapped presenter Chris Rock for making a jab about Smith’s spouse Jada Pinkett Smith, it nonetheless stings for lots of ticket-purchasers.

Let by yourself Rock.

The actor’s televised assault of the comedian and unhinged shouts of “Get my wife’s title out of your f–king mouth!” shattered his public impression as a charismatic and humorous everyday living of the bash who could wring laughs even out of a devastating alien invasion.

The strike was enough to get him banned from the Oscars right until 2032.

Frankly, he’s lucky that he was not arrested. Any of us normals would have been fired on the place and hauled absent.

Smith obtained to make a Most effective Actor speech and retain the trophy.

Now, he is making an attempt a large Hollywood comeback with “Ride or Die,” the mediocre fourth entry in the buddy-cop sequence, which appears to open up to about $50 million this weekend.

That’s a wholesome variety, if about $10 million at the rear of the very last installment’s opening. 

But could its good results be considerably less indicative of Smith’s mass enchantment than that of the well-known, 20-year-aged model and his hilarious co-star Martin Lawrence? 

“Just can’t appear at Will the very same, but Martin is my man [and I] desire him practically nothing but success,” a different female wrote on TikTok. 

Can the stained star nonetheless have a significant film alone?

“Bad Boys” is Smith’s greatest movie considering that he gained an Oscar and missing his mind, but not the 1st. 

In late 2022, he starred in a prestige drama for Apple known as “Emancipation,” about a runaway slave all through all through the Civil War. Critics gave it combined assessments, and nobody watched it.

That flop may well be a blip. But it’s also a negative indication for the “Bad Boy.” 

At 55 many years previous, Smith’s motion-hero clock is ticking.

And meaty dramas these kinds of as the huge “King Richard,” the Serena and Venus Williams biopic for which he won Very best Actor, are essential to him sticking around. 

Certainly, there are more mature action stars in Hollywood, but Denzel Washington, Liam Neeson and Tom Cruise really do not deliver the youthful, sexy, comedic blend that Smith does.

That steamy – fairly than gritty – style gets extra uncomfortable the older the lead gets.

If you’re much too extensive in the tooth on a seashore in Miami, all of a unexpected you are “The Golden Ladies.” 

Not to mention that to succeed in Oscar-bait movies, the actor must have ladies on his facet.

They symbolize a sizable viewers for that tough genre, and their assessment are not able to be: “Will Smith is lifeless to me.”

That harsh belief could soften.

He was not canceled, MeToo’d or billed with a criminal offense.

But the shift will acquire a even though for the actor, who curiously has not been questioned any questions about the slap throughout his smiley press tour. 

Time heals all wounds is a cliché for a motive.

But, no make any difference what he does, the very best a long time of Will Smith’s career are driving him.