But when Will Smith started taking the Worldwide Box Office by storm with the likes of Hitch, The Pursuit of Happyness and I Am Legend - the perception that all African Americans were "just like Chris Tucker" disappeared.
Will
Smith somehow delivered to the white faced masses a confident,
handsome, charming and intelligent guy who you would happily follow
into battle.
Yep,
it seems the Fresh Prince Of Bel Air did for the African American
community in the space of five years what Al Sharpten couldn't do in
over twenty.
Seriously - who saw that coming? DJ Jazzy Jeff, one would assume...
But confidence can often blur into over-confidence, which seems to be the case with Smith's latest in Seven Pounds.
It
is a film so sure of itself, the marketing team dared not bother even
explain what the film was about, which could explain why it was the
first Box Office stumble for Smith since Ali several years ago.
Hell, the poster was just a giant shot of Smith's head - with the title not only on the same line but the same size as his name!
What we do know about Seven Pounds is this:
Will Smith reunites with the directors and producers of The Pursuit of Happyness
for the emotional drama in which Smith plays Ben Thomas (an IRS agent
with a fateful secret) who embarks on an extraordinary journey of
redemption by forever changing the lives of seven strangers.
Oh yeah, and we discover he commits suicide less than thirty seconds into proceedings...
The problem here is that while Seven Pounds
tries to be tricky (we are supposedly not meant to understand the whole
shebang until the final five minutes) yet it is about as transparent and
predictable as the jellyfish that serves as the films animal mascot.
That said, there is something undeniably gripping about Seven Pounds
and it is all thanks to the two most charismatic actors currently
peddling their wares on the silver screen : Will Smith and Rosario
Dawson.
We all know how Will Smith oozes the charm, but Dawson has really gone under the radar for quite a while.
For the five people that actually saw Clerks II, you will know exactly what sort of performance Dawson is capable of - but it's in Seven Pounds that she well and truly stamps her unbelievable screen presence.
Seven Pounds is ultimately a film which doesn't quite pull at the heart strings as much as Happyness
or as much as it would have actually liked to, as well as throwing up
more than a few controversial "water cooler" conversational questions
(such as: is this film's moral message "totally whack yo" and "does a
charming super brain have the capacity to do more good alive than
dead?").
A fairly solid effort, if not slightly preachy and misguided.
Let's just hope that Obama doesn't follow suit... DVD EXTRAS
A pretty solid set of extras here certainly raise the stocks for those contemplating ownership of Seven Pounds, as a opposed to simply renting it or downloading it.
There
is a pretty solid commentary with Director Gabriele Muccino, a few
featurettes - the best of which takes a look at The Box Jellyfish:
World's Deadliest Co-Star, as well as a bunch of deleted scenes.
Conclusion:
Movie 70% Extras: 65%
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