Will Smith gets back his Cherry

A long time ago in 1993, a young man named Will Smith starred in a movie titled Six Degrees of Separation. He was fantastic, as was the movie. It was a serious, thoughtful role which surprised many based on his past TV show The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. He starred alongside Donald Sutherland and Stockard Channing and gave a performance that said he could hold his own with the best of them.

Times were promising for the young actor. With a performance like that so early in his career, he was on the right track to be the next Denzel Washington or even, dare I say, Sidney Poitier.

But then came Michael Bay. And he said "no, no, no you're not a serious actor. You're a sassy black man who can make people laugh by saying lots of things with sassy black man attitude." So he made him a co-star in the movie Bad Boys. And Will put lots of bullets in people while saying things with lots of sassy black man attitude. And the train began to derail a little.

And then came Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich and they said "we think you're just scratching the surface with your sassy black man attitude." So they made him the star of Independence Day. And Will dated a stripper with a heart of gold and he punched an alien straight in the face and said something with a lot of sassy black man attitude and then started smoking a cigar. And the train began to derail a little more.

And then came Barry Sonnenfeld and he said "let's see if we can't take this sassy black man attitude to 11." So he made him the star of Men In Black. And there he played sassy black man to a straight white man and he punched lots of aliens while saying lots of stuff with lots of sassy black man attitude. And the train began to collapse upon itself.

Sure he was making tons of money, and sure he was entertaining. But he was one-dimensional and just showing us his fingernail as far as talent goes.

Fortunately, Michael Mann came along and he said "hey, I saw Six Degrees of Seperation and you were fantastic." And so he made him the star or stars in Ali. And he was really good. And suddenly the train wasn't looking so bad.

And now a few years later, he's getting back on track. Haven't seen The Pursuit of Happyness yet, but it seems more worthy of his chops than I, Robot.

We will see. But for now, I'm getting aboard. Nice to have you back Will.