It's a sucky life, and just when you think it can't suck anymore, it does.

Rating: 5/10 (18 February 2008)

I get the feeling that this was produced just because Will Smith has the clout to open up pretty much anything in Hollywood. I can see why he would be attracted to the story; it gives him a great chance to promote all the values that are right in life - Work hard, have integrity, never give up etc, and you'll make it in the end. That's a very positive message and it might even be true, plus there's the fact that it looks all the better coming from someone who's already made it, themselves. The trouble is, it forgets all those everyday people watching who are neither poor nor rich, have no direction to go on the ladder and are just stuck in a rut. What does it say to those folk? From my own experience I'd have to report that the answer really is: "Not much".
Don't get me wrong. It's nice to see someone who pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and never gave up - even when they were truly at a low - it's nice to see a determined individual like that do well for themselves. Really it is. When the journey shown in getting to that goal is so relentlessly depressing and airless though, it drains a large part of the good intentions and morals from the story. If the most inspiring moment of the whole tale comes from reading the text of the coda on a black background at the end - without actually being shown evidence of this deserved success - then your film has problems. Mirroring what you're seeing in front of you, you spend all that time hoping for a good viewing experience, only to feel tripped up, over and over again.