Will Smith as "a charming

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Will Smith as "a charming rogue who is blackmailed by the government into doing covert larceny for the good of his country"? God...the old Cary Grant debonair-thief concept again? No offense to the producers (Kevin Misher, John Davis, Joe Singer), but the mentality beneath a project like this is what everyone with a smidgen of taste or a half-functioning brain hates about Hollywood, and is exactly the sort of vehicle that has made Smith into the most vapid African-American superstar around. Smith peaked in '93 when he did Six Degrees of Separation, and with the exception of Enemy of the State in '98 and Ali in '01 it's been one odiously slick, aimed-at-the-dummies vehicle after another. (Life is full of uncertainties, but if it's an expensive high-concept flick and Smith is starring, you know for sure you're going to start feeling a little bit sick to your stomach after watching it for 45 minutes.) It doesn't matter if Smith is a gazillionaire and his movies make money hand-over-fist -- he is an international emblem of high-concept fizz and hollow posturing. One hopes that the two screenwriters hired to write It Takes a Thief, David Elliot and Paul Lovett (Four Brothers) are at least going to be well compensated.