No Rich Kid Left Behind

The Karate Kid teaches macho martial arts triumphs over scholarship

By Armond White

Twelve-year-old Jaden Smith already won the lottery when his parents Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith produced his vanity project, The Karate Kid (aka Jaden’s College Fund). Master Smith plays Dre—stereotypical hip-hop name—who unstereotypically relocates from Detroit to China with his widowed mother. Read more

Kenyon Record-Breaker

Throughout his high school career, Will Smith considered himself primarily a defensive player. He started at shortstop for four straight years at Collegiate. But when he arrived at Kenyon College, he made an important discovery about getting playing time.

“All I really wanted to do was play every day,” Smith said. “I realized that in college if you can hit, you can play.”

He ended up doing plenty of both. By the time he graduated earlier this year, he owned the all-time Kenyon batting-average record with a .410 mark and on-base percentage (OBP) at a .506 rate. Read more

SEVEN POUNDS

Will Smith must be cinema illiterate. Maybe that’s why he frowns throughout Seven Pounds. A glib, charming movie star—but resourceless actor—Smith must think scrunching-up his face and looking worried for two hours shows serious concentration and emotional gravity. Apparently, he is unaware of the ways that movies and movie stars communicate depth and sincerity. Seven Pounds circles around the moribund mystery of Smith posing as IRS agent Ben Thomas who stalks six desperate, handicapped people (all photographed in shades of green and brown like David Fincher creatures). With every grimace, Smith gets further away from why his movies are popular. Pressing profundity as in The Pursuit of Happyness, Smith opposes the history of movie-going benevolence. Read more