It was a re-run, but it got us all worked up to do a post on probably one of the most under-appreciated actors of his age group, Will Smith. (We’re going to say anyone born in the 60s qualifies.) Don’t scoff at the “under-appreciated” tag, either; Smith is usually associated with generic blockbusters that break the bank, but we rarely hear him mentioned in the category of Cruise, Crowe, Depp and Foxx.

The best part of the 60 Minutes interview? Smith went into Hollywood with an agenda (as well as debt – all that rap money he made when he was still in high school – apparently $2.1 million – was squandered in a year or so, and the IRS then took most of his Fresh Prince Money for the first three years): He noticed that the highest-grossing movies of all-time involved three things – aliens/creatures, CGI, and love stories. Hence Independence Day (enjoyed it), Men in Black (avoided it), I, Robot (not bad), etc. Gotta love a man with a plan.

Pardon the list – our favorite Will Smith movies:

Ali - Obviously.
Pursuit of Happyness – Found this to be a gripping move, but also incredibly sad. Remember watching it on a plane and waking the wife up to say, ‘have you seen this movie? You have to see this!’ It can be very, very depressing at times, so much so that we don’t watch re-runs when it’s on cable.
Independence Day – You know we love almost anything involving End of Days.
Bad Boys – Fun movie. Martin was still riding the wave of his TV show and not yet crazy, and Tea Leoni never looked better.
Enemy of the State - We’re a sucker for these types of movies.
Hitch - Thought it would be awful because we’ve never found Kevin James funny … but we enjoyed it, perhaps because Eva Mendes is so delectable.