Hancock

July 4, 2008

Rated: PG-13 Runtime: 120 min Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Will Smith is back with another summer block buster.   This one is called Hancock.   Although not based upon a comic, it is about a superhero.

But John Hancock, Smith’s character, is not your ordinary superhero. Oh, he has all of the usual tricks including the ability to fly, super strength, and skin that bullets cannot penetrate.  But he is also a drunk, and a bit of a mean spirited drunk at that.   In fact, he can actually be quite a jerk.

He is a “good guy” in that he protects the innocent and puts away criminals, but there’s quite a lot of collateral damage, and he frankly doesn’t care.  In fact, it’s a really bad idea to get up in his grill about it.   This is all quite refreshing after watching a couple of dozen comic book films this summer.   First off, a drunk superhero fighting crime with one hand and holding his bottle of liquor with the other is hysterical.   But it is also refreshing to see the fallout from wrecking dozens of cars, tearing up buildings and such actually have repercussions.

You just know if a superhero really existed he would need one heck of a lawyer.   And that’s what Hancock faces.   He’s being sued hundred of times for millions, there are warrants out for his arrest and his attitude makes him far from a favorite of the people.  That and the fact that he tears the road up anytime he lands in your neighborhood.   Enter Ray Embrey, played by Jason Bateman.  Ray is a PR man determined to makeover Hancock’s image.

So let’s boil it down, what do we really have here?   A really neat take on the superhero movie with a heck of a lot of humor at the front.   But Will Smith also plays it very serious as Hancock wrestles with being the only one of his kind and the whole self discovery aspect of the movie.   Although this makes for a good story and avoids being totally campy, frankly we were always waiting for Hancock to fall off the wagon again as the drunk scenes are so good.

Bottom line, we give Hancock a rather generous 4 stars.   The first 30 minutes or so are 5 star worthy, the last 30 minutes are more like 3 star, so 4 star seems fair.     Overall, it leaves us hoping for Hancock 2: Off the Wagon.

Posted by Billy Bob | Filed Under 4 Stars, Adam Del Rio, Charlize Theron, Jameson Dixon Jr, Jason Bateman, PG-13, Theatrical, Will Smith 

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