Worst Reviews Ever: ‘King Richard’ Reviews Suddenly More About Will Smith Bitchslap Than the Movie Itself

In the latest edition of Worst Reviews Ever, we’re pulling together the best audience movie reviews on the internet for King Richard, starring Will Smith. From the funny to the ironic, the truthful to the downright silly, we’re diving into the deep, dark rabbit hole of online movie fandom.

One of the biggest pop culture moments of the year is undoubtedly the “slap heard round the world.” In case you have been living under a rock for the past few months, this year’s Oscars made headlines when Will Smith bitchslapped Chris Rock on live television. While the slap itself is most easily one of the most controversial moments in the history of the Academy Awards, it also happened to overshadow Smith’s first Best Actor Oscar only minutes later for King Richard. What resulted could only be described as a speech that felt like a cross between a mental breakdown and a flimsy apology at best.

Released in 2021, King Richard tells the story of Richard Williams, the father, and mentor of Venus and Serena Williams. Although one would think that the Williams sisters would play a pretty important role in the film, the movie focuses mostly on the titular character rather than the two women who made him famous. Leave it to Holywood to center a movie around a domineering father who obsesses over the careers of his children… But enough about Will Smith’s personal life.

King Richard is actually a pretty good movie, so it’s interesting that the Oscars slap has only encouraged users of the platform Letterboxd.com from giving their brutally honest reviews of the movie. Naturally, the user reviews of King Richard are suddenly more about the Will Smith bitchslap than the movie itself. If anything, the King Richard reviews prove that the internet is really good at hopping on the troll train at a moment’s notice.

Cover Photo: Warner Bros.