Every Will Smith Movie, Ranked Worst to Best
Updated December 1, 2022 to add Emancipation.
First rising to fame in the 1980s as the non-DJ half of the hip hop duo DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince, Will Smith moved into acting in 1990 as the star of the hit NBC sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (soon to be rebooted as a Peacock drama series). He would make his big-screen debut a few years later in a few indie movies before quickly moving to above-the-title stardom with 1995's Bad Boys. He has been a major presence in film ever since, with roles in over 30 films, a pair of Oscar nominations, and a cumulative box office gross of over $4 billion.
His newest film, King Richard, is headed to theaters and HBO Max on November 19th and is expected to be an Oscar contender in multiple categories. How does it compare to his past work? In the gallery on this page, we rank every one of Will Smith's films in order from worst to best by their Metascores, which represent the consensus opinions of top film critics. Note that we have excluded titles where Smith's role was limited to a brief cameo appearance (such as in Winter's Tale, Jersey Girl, and Anchorman 2).
Widely considered the movie that established Smith as a viable big-screen star (though not, as some believe, Smith's first movie), this 1993 dramedy is a Fred Schepisi-directed adaptation of John Guare's Pulitzer-nominated stage play which in turn was based on the true story of con man David Hampton, who convinced a number of wealthy New Yorkers that he was the son of Sidney Poitier. (He wasn't; instead, he was their friendly neighborhood robber.) Smith plays the charlatan (here renamed Paul) opposite Stockard Channing (returning from the original stage production) and Donald Sutherland, and critics think the one-time rapper holds his own against his more established stars in one of the better stage-to-screen adaptations of the past three decades.
In case you were wondering, Kevin Bacon wasn't in the film. But Bacon was in Sleepers, which starred Jeffrey Donovan, who was in Hitch with Will Smith.
“Six Degrees is magical when addressing the preposterous. Like any good storyteller, Paul is deft at knitting eyes with wool. Smith proves himself an extremely charismatic presence, convincing in his sincerity and cunning in conveying his ability as a human sponge.” —Leonard Klady, Variety
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