Is Will Smith heading for his “Last Action Hero” moment?
Smith, the biggest film star of the moment, headlines the new drama “Seven Pounds” which opens tomorrow.
The early reviews aren’t kind, but they also hint at a collective dissatisfaction with Smith — the actor and the man.
It reminds me of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s career circa 1993. Ah-nuld was riding about as high as any actor could at that point, and he was primed for more success as “Last Action Hero” opened.
“Hero” flopped, both with movie goers and critics. The Ah-nold balloon was punctured. Big time. And the culture at large seemed happy with that fact.
The New York Post’s Lou Lumenick is among the first to pile on Smith’s “Seven Pounds,” tackling the film and its star. Variety’s Anne Thompson joined the fun earlier this week.
MSNBC’s Alonso Duralde says the film is “the longest, most dour episode of ‘My Name is Earl’ imaginable.”
America is a great country, but we have a wicked talent for building up stars — and then eagerly tearing them down. Sometimes, we even let them get back up again (John Travolta … and maybe Britney Spears).
I interviewed Smith recently for a piece running in tomorrow’s Washington Times. He did come off as very opinionated, so perhaps he’s starting to read his own press clippings. And he can look no further than his pal Tom Cruise to see what happens when a movie star gets too disconnected from reality.
But for now, let’s judge Smith on his films. I suspect he’ll avoid Schwarzenegger’s fate if we do just that.
ALSO CHECK OUT:
Three cheers for racial progress
(Photo: Will Smith plays a broken IRS agent in “Seven Pounds,” opening Dec. 19)
Related posts:
on 
on 
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I dunno, any actor that can survive Wild Wild West and Bad Boys 2 and still be called the world’s biggest movie star has some real staying power. I’m not too excited about Seven Pounds but Smith’s movies are almost always worth watching. His track record of delivering watchable and entertaining movies is just too good for him to fall by the wayside.
I really wish I could see what is so special about Smith beyond the fact that he seems like a nice guy and that appears to carry over into the parts he plays. At the same time that also limits him though.
My impression of the man, in interviews and such is that he seems like he’s trying too hard to be ‘on’ all the time.
I hadn’t made the connection, but I can see the point of Smith’s most recent films casting him as the messiah outsider.
However, I don’t see it being a net negative, assuming the trend stops here. “Seven Pounds” will likely break the 100m mark. It will be a tearjerker that will invite word of mouth. It probably also cost fairly little to make, but even if it didn’t, the studio is willing to indulge their biggest star, just like it is willing to indulge it’s second biggest star, Adam Sandler. It seems like those two make a lot of films for Columbia.
Of course, “Reign Over Me” was never designed for the big box office, whereas “Seven Pounds” is, although at a smaller scale.
Offhand, I doubt any other studio has as dominant a one-two punch as Columbia with Smith and Sandler. Warner with Clooney? That’s not even a one-punch.
But, I digress.
Regarding Arnold v. Smith, I think the comparison isn’t entirely accurate because I don’t think the public perceives of Smith as predominant as Arnold back when T2 came out.
T2 was a groundbreaking film. CGI was used to spectacular effect, eliciting not just oohs for the eye candy, but genuine suspense. Even with the advances now, I don’t think there are many instances when one is awed, feeling suspense, when a fairly simple effect (now) of the T-1000 rising from hiding as…a floor! is used in T2.
And a lot of this had to do with James Cameron, who is of a type that Smith hasn’t found.
For all Smith’s success, it’s almost workmanlike, whereas Arnold was coming out with films that were breaking the public’s perception of what film could be. In total, I didn’t particularly like Total Recall all that much, but it was innovative. It oohed and ahhed the audience.
Smith’s films don’t do that to an extent.
Arnold was simply more than the biggest box office star at the time. He was enmeshed in our pop culture to an extent greater than many stars today, including Smith.
People like Will Smith, but people were in awe of the Terminator.
And the way films were released back then have a great deal to do with the disparity between Smith and Arnold. The past ten years or so have had films being released in exceptionally wide release, with films dominating for a week or two.
The present rule is of no particular movie dominating a summer, even if it hits $400 million (Does anyone think back on Summer 2002 and think that was the year of Spider-Man?) This year has been an exception with the The Dark Knight, but I’d say in the past 15 years, there have only been a few years/seasons that were dominated by one particular movie: Jurassic Park (1993) and Titanic (1997).
Arnold owned summer of 1991, even if Kevin Costner was Robin Hood.
So, in the end, I don’t think there is this great desire to see Smith fail simply because he hasn’t made anything as exceptional as T2 was at the time.
I don’t think anyone has ever walked out of a Smith movie entirely blown away like most were with T2.
He simply doesn’t have to live up to that much.
David A. — love your thoughtful comments. If you’d ever like to guest post on this site, please let me know.
It probably would have been a moderate hit if it hadn’t opened against Jurassic Park.
Compared to Brits and Aussies, we treat our stars with the utmost respect.