King Richard

King Richard

The story of how Richard Williams served as a coach to his daughters Venus and Serena, who will soon become two of the most legendary tennis players in history.

  • Released: 2021-11-18
  • Runtime: 138 minutes
  • Genre: Drama, History
  • Stars: Will Smith, Demi Singleton, Saniyya Sidney, Aunjanue Ellis, Jon Bernthal, Tony Goldwyn, Susie Abromeit, Dylan McDermott, Judith Chapman, Katrina Begin, Erin Cummings, Andy Bean, Kevin Dunn, Craig Tate, Calvin Clausell Jr., Mikayla LaShae Bartholomew, Daniele Lawson, Layla Crawford, Erika Ringor, Noah Bean, Josiah Cross, Vaughn W. Hebron, Jimmy Walker Jr., Brad Greenquist, Johnno Wilson, Robert Nuscher, Christopher Wallinger, Chase Del Rey, Connie Ventress, Vivienne Bersin, Andy Hoff, Carrie Gibson, Doug Simpson, Brandon Morales, Wil J. Jackson, Erica Shaffer, Matt Kirkwood, Chet Grissom, Alden Sherrill, Eman Esfandi, Jessica Wacnik, Jonathan Bray, Robert Walker Jeffery, Rich Sommer, Kaitlyn Christian, Geoff Nathanson, Marcela Zacarias, Jake Jensen, Chris Pentzell, Sophia Sanders, Mia Jovic, Iva Jovic, Michael Andrew Baker, Tom Holmes, Kamea Medora, Tom Degnan, Virginia Schneider, Jeff Cohn, Adam Cropper, Danya LaBelle, Rod Sweitzer, George Ketsios, Valerie Davidson, Christian Yeung, Teri Cohn, Hannah Barefoot, Mel Fair, Holly Haggerty, Mary Pascoe, Albert Ton, Ebboney Wilson, Hailey Winslow, Chris Wolfe, Gunner Wright, Tory N. Thompson, Sean Berube, Sean Fabian Billings, Sophia Bui, Kika Cicmanec, John Dinan, Diana Dray, Mathew Trent Hunnicutt, Jeni Jones, Trent Longo, Johnny Mansbach, Katie McCabe, Aryn Nelson, Tristan Nokes, Dan Sachoff, Gabi Stewart
  • Director: Reinaldo Marcus Green
 Comments
  • DLochner - 4 April 2024
    A great Smith in a generic american dream movie
    Will Smith's best acting performance to date. The film itself is classically pleasantly staged. Not too strenuous but not particularly outstanding either. Fans of retro clothes from the 90s will definitely enjoy the costumes. The story about a controlling father who decides before his children are born that they should become tennis professionals. The film is overlong and takes quite a while until it gets to its really intense moment. Despite interesting questions about social injustice, the film unfortunately remains just another biopic that portrays the American dream in a familiar way. But with a great Will Smith.
  • sherwoodbandit-1977 - 19 December 2023
    It's Good to Be King...
    All slappery aside, I love Will Smith! I've been watching and enjoying his film work nearly my entire life. I, Robot & I Am Legend are two of my personal favorites. The man has charisma and makes good script choices, which has sustained him for four decades on the silver screen. Even once he started moving into "serious" actor territory, he wasn't afraid to occasionally return to his comedic roots...something I wish Tom Hanks would do more often. There's no doubt King Richard was meant to be the culmination of an already prolific career, and it is mostly successful in that regard. The film is a typical "rags to riches," sports biopic with many good performances and heartfelt moments. It does suffer from being a bit formulaic, though I'm not sure if that was a result of me just not being a big tennis fan. I knew all the names mentioned and understood the stakes, it has just never been a sport I cared about, so that probably prevented me from going all in emotionally. Admittedly, it also took me longer to watch this because it was such an Academy Award darling, and I find those films to have an over bloated sense of themselves these days. Too often Hollywood fixates on making movies to win awards rather than just making good movies, and while I don't feel King Richard suffered from that, it did keep me from approaching it sooner.

    Like most movies based on actual events, I did a lot of Googling about it, and was thrilled to find that Aunjanue Ellis had received a nomination. She was wonderful and absolutely deserved the accolades she received. I also love to see Jon Bernthal whenever he pops up. He is always good. All in all, Will Smith deserved the Oscar he received for his performance. And while it is unfortunate it was overshadowed by him allowing the succubus to brainwash him into acting out, I have no doubt that he will still go down into history as one of the greatest film actors of all time.
  • thmscosgrove - 17 August 2023
    Inspirational movie
    I saw this movie on regular TV. It made me regret not going to see it in a movie theatre. The film is simple, nothing showy or flashy, but, in the simple style there is a powerful and inspirational message. Smith is great as the main character. In fact the entire cast is excellent. The actors who play Venus and Serena are both brilliant. The flow from scene to scene is effortless and always engaging. The film never lags and is always compelling to watch. Overall, it's a really inspirational movie that makes you want to get up and be more active. It's a shame the way things went at the Oscars because this proves how good an actor Will Smith can be with the right material. Great work.
  • pinkrosepanda - 24 November 2022
    A very cool fatherhood story
    I am not that really much at the sports but I like this movie. Sleep in my Mother's Day it shows a lot about dreams and fatherhood. I like how the father encouraged his daughters even though I hate the bad part such when the child services scene and the scene with the girl with the trucks but I like the rest of the movie. Plus I like the scene of what his wife says to him now that's a powerful scene. I also like seeing with the big game it's so cool how the fans cheered for her as she was coming out after the game cool it's a good movie you should watch it too this is why I give this movie A nine.
  • cybartholomew - 12 August 2022
    I was quite unimpressed...
    King Richard (2021) is a very well-made movie, that is just a fact. However, it is not one that I would choose to watch again. I was seriously shocked by Will Smith's performance! Yes, he did well, but it was nothing in comparison to what we know he is capable of. I had very high expectations for this movie based on Smith alone, and I believe I was mistaken for that. Although most- including I- can acknowledge that Will Smith is a highly talented actor, in my opinion this was not an Oscar-worthy performance. And perhaps this can be credited to the direction.

    I will not get into all of my personal notes on the flaws, but I will end this review on the note that I was fairly disappointed.
  • groundzero-273-397110 - 15 July 2022
    Thought it was accurate, it was not.
    I had never even heard about these sisters that made tennis history, or their father. I'm not into tennis either. I just wanted to see this movie that gave Will Smith an Oscar. I also like to watch movies that you can learn something from, like historic events etc. It was after I had already seen this movie that I learned some more facts about the history of this family, and this "King" Richard.

    Richard is trying to teach his daughters the importance of respect, humility and not to brag. But he is not any of that? He is a hypocrite. Like the meeting he had, with the coach and the other guys offering their help, he farts and walks away. Humility? Respect? And when Venus is playing at the end of the movie, he is bragging about Venus. Did they just miss this while making the movie, or was this the "length" they said they could go to with how Richard really was as a person? Maybe Will Smith is not that good at acting, so they could not make Richard any worse in this movie? And I never really understood why the neighbour called the police, saying that Richard did not treat his daughters right. Because the only thing I saw in the movie up to that point was Richard having tennis practice with Serena and Venus, and not being cruel at all. But I understand now, that it was probably different in real life...

    I would have liked to see more of the sisters and their story, there was really not much about Serena, and also more about Richard's other family that he left behind. I mean the movie was about 2h 30m long, so they could easily have put it in somewhere! The movie was too long considering the lack of information that we did not get to see/hear about. Most of the acting was good. Not Oscar good, but good. I don't really get how Will Smith got an Oscar for this, but it happened.

    Because of all the things I learned, AFTER I had already seen this movie, my rating for the movie dropped, big time.

    My final rating lands at 6/10, because I did enjoy the movie while watching it and at the time, thinking it was accurate.