Will Smith kinda-sorta addresses the slap heard around the world in his newest film, Bad Boys: Ride or Die, Variety reported.
WARNING: Possible spoilers for Bad Boys: Ride or Die
The Bad Boys, Miami narcotics detectives Mike Lowery (Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence), spend most of the movie running — either away or toward something or someone.
The action stars with their attempt to clear their beloved Capt. Howard's (Joe Pantoliano) name. He was accused of aiding and abetting cartels. In their attempt, both Mike and Marcus get framed as well.
Are you ride or die?
And like the previous Bad Boys films, it came down to a final showdown between the boys and the crooked cops and the drug lords who ordered Howard's assassination in 2020's Bad Boys for Life. It sets up the kind of high-octane confrontation we've come to expect from a Bad Boys film.
But there's the thing with certain things happening at just the worst possible moment: Mike starts having a panic attack. It's something that's happened in the course of the film due to his fear of losing the people closes to him.
However, there's a solution. There's a very unscientific name for it: percussive maintenance. In other words, Marcus slaps him. Repeatedly, the way you do with malfunction devices. It works on Mike, though, as it effectively reboots him to his “bad boy” self and they do what they always do: shoot their way out of a bad situation and reclaim their good names.
In any other situation and with any other person, this would have just been a plot device. However, it's not just any situation and it's not just any person: it's Will Smith. So anyone watching the scene would inevitably be reminded of the the infamous 2022 Oscars incident when Smith slapped Chris Rock on stage.
Will Smith: The Bad Boy and The Slap
Using that moment as a comedic moment is definitely a big swing — yes, pun most certainly intended.
However, the question needs to be asked: was this the right move? Is leaning into one of your star's arguably most life-altering moment a good idea? Will this be the one thing that gets Smith back to (most) everyone's good graces?
This was most likely in his mind when he grabbed the mic to introduce the film at a packed TCL Chinese Theater on May 30.
The screening was running 45 minutes late due to the red carpet event outside.
“We're not going to take up a lot of time because we late, and that's why Black movies struggle,” he began as the crowd laughed.
Variety noted that most Hollywood premieres run at least 30 minutes late.
But there was nothing ordinary about the event. Smith, Lawrence, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and co-directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah arrived at the screening on top of a double-decker bus as Smith rapped for the waiting fans.
It was similar to what they did for the 2020 premiere, only that time the stars were in a Porsche and there was a live-streamed concert.
The thing with reputation is…
This was two years before the event that essentially sidelined Smith for two years. At that time, he had one of the most rock solid reputations in Hollywood. According to his Q Score, a metric that measures the sentiment when it comes to public figures and brands, he was consistently at the top five or 10 positively ranked actors.
Two years later, that's not the case so there's a lot at stake when it comes to this event and this film. Smith acknowledged that by shouting out his crew: “Marty Mar” Lawrence, who has been his co-Bad Boy for 30 years, “still as handsome and almond-y as he always was” and the Sony team, who produced the movie.
He called out Sony CEO Tony Vinciquerra and Sony Pictures Entertainment chair Tom Rothman for being “truly, truly ride or die with us.”
“You don't hear actors say this a lot of time about heads of studios, but Tom Rothman is a real, live, ride or die. Tom Rothman was messing with me when nobody was messing with me. That is my dude,” Smith said.
The Quiet Part Out Loud
Yep, he said what he said. During the movie's press tour, no one said it out loud. Not even Smith. Instead, he focused on talking about Michael Bay who was the original Bad Boys director, who was in attendance and had a cameo in the film. It was Bay who got him and Lawrence together the first movie.
“Everything in the first three leads up to this,” the actor said before the screening started.
But what does the movie slap do for Smith?
According a Variety chief film critic Owen Gleiberman, it was “a kind of pop exorcism.”
“It's ‘punishing' Smith, making cruel fun of his transgression, and just maybe, in the process, allowing him to crawl out from under the image of it,” he wrote.
According to the audience in attendance for the screenings, it worked since they laughed at the scene, knowing the layered story behind it. However, The Daily Beast's Nick Schager wasn't impressed.
He found it “tasteless” and that the “wink-wink gag proves to be a self-aggrandizing inversion of Smith's Academy Award meltdown” that was a transparent image rehab move.
Is this enough?
Smith has publicly apologized for his assault on Rock. He wrote a statement the day after the incident, and months later in a video. He has also resigned from the Academy and has been banned from attending its events for the next 10 years. Rock has gotten his pound of flesh in a way when he spoke about Smith and the slap in his 2023 Netflix comedy special Selective Outrage.
But Bad Boys 4 is the first major public test of whether Smith still has what it takes to reclaim his title as blockbuster king. However, to promote that film, he and Lawrence did interviews with major press outlets. And as in the way of most promotions these days, social media influencers were also hired to promote the film through special screening invitations that included photo ops.
There was also a press junket. Journalists weren't told not to ask about what happened at the 2022 Oscars, but were advised not to bring up old topics and were told to focus their questions on the film. So not exactly a test, then.
Before the L.A. premiere, a X (formerly Twitter) post went viral that listed the actor's box office stats, highlighting how he's the only actor whose eight back-to-back movies earned more than $100 million at the US box office. What's equally impressive is that these eight films were also back-to-back number one when they opened.
The comments on the post were largely positive towards Smith. But will this translate to a wider audience?
Industry estimates say the film could earns $30 million to $50 million from the 3,850 cinemas where it will play this weekend. The $30 million figure comes from Sony while the larger $45 million to $50 million comes from independent and rival tracking services. Just to compare, 2020's Bad Boys for Life overperformed at $62 million.
I guess the answer to the question will depend on just how many of Smith's fans will prove themselves as “ride or die” this weekend. The viewing public nowadays are savvier and don't necessarily rely on critics' reviews.
Redemption by the numbers
Either way, the movie's Tomatometer is at 66% out of more than 100 reviews, but has a 98% audience score. Bad Boys for Life has 76% Tomatometer and a 96% audience score. Bad Boys II, released in 2003, has an abysmal 24% Tomatometer and a 78% audience score. The original 1995 film currently has 44% Tomatometer and a 78% audience rating.
Moving on to the money side, the 2020 film has a worldwide gross of $426.5 million, Bad Boys II earned $273.3 million on a $130 million budget while the original made $141.4 million on a $19 million budget.
Before The Slap, Smith was one of the most inoffensive celebrities to exist. He carried himself with equal parts swagger and charm. His Bad Boys character has been one the public closely related to his perceived image — again, that's before the slap.
It may seem unfair that his career will now be divided into two eras: BTS and ATS.
What do you think? Has Will Smith stayed away enough, done enough to earn his way back into people's hearts and wallets? Will Bad Boys: Ride or Die be good enough to kickstart his ATS era?
Follow Us
Subscribe
