Every Will Smith Movie Ranked Worst To Best

Scoring his first Oscar nomination, Will Smith peeled back his movie star allure to give his first truly great performance as the late, great boxer Muhammad Ali. He fills the screen with his presence, and at every turn finds a layer to the champion that feels effortlessly discovered.

By digging into Ali's relationship with Islam, his aversion to the Vietnam War and his most famous rivalries, Smith brings Ali to life with almost surgical precision, being at once crowd-pleasing and heartbreaking.

It's worth noting that the rest of the film, which feels slightly uneven and overstuffed in parts, never reaches Smith's level, but that his performance alone makes this biopic one of his very best films, as well as a major turning point in his meteoric career.