Review: ‘Hancock’

Ram Man:

We’ve had Superman, The Dark Knight, Spiderman, Ironman, and now we have Hancock. Will Smith, Hollywood’s Mr. Summer Blockbuster, has brought us the latest in superhero flicks. Only Hancock is not so super!

The opening scene says it all. Hancock (Smith) passed out drunk on a bench with empty Jim Beam bottles scattered around. A kid, who looks like he jumped off the cover of MAD magazine, tries to wake him so that he can help the police catch some criminals. Hancock tells the kids to go away and the 8 yr old responds “***hole!”. Hancock is the flawed Hobo-Hero armed with a liter of bourbon, sunglasses and a mouth like a sailor. He does attempt to do the right thing, but in a careless fashion. His latest stint in heroic behavior cost the city of LA 9 million dollars in damages as Hancock caught three gun man in a freeway chase. Hancock saves Ray Embry (Jason Bateman) a tree-hugging public relations professional who decides to take Hancock and change his public image. People aren’t happy to see Hancock show up, in fact, they critique his rescues. Ray decides to change this by send our “hero” to jail to make the city of LA miss him and beg him to comeback. Hancock spends about a week in jail and demonstraits his signature move of inserting one bad guys head into the other bad guys butt!! Soon the crime rate rises 40% and the police chief is begging our hero to return. After a few AA classes and some anger management therapy he is a changed man. Unfortunately that where the movie changes also. We go from a funny spin on a superhero film to a sappy romantic flick when Hancock finds he’s not the only hero in this movie. Charlize Theron plays Mary Embry, Ray’s wife and provides a little eye candy and a twist to the story.

Normally I’m the first one in line to catch the latest thing from Will Smith. I enjoyed Hancock for about 2/3 of the film.The end falls flat and there are a lot of loose ends left dangling for an eminent sequel coming down the pipe. Don’t let the trailers fool you, keep the kids away from this one (send them to WALL-E) unless you want them to come home a drop a few f-bombs and take a shot of whiskey! 2008 is the summer of the superhero and the SUPERhero will be back at the theater next week…Hellboy 2. So see Hancock (at a matinee..save a few bucks) if you must, but the geeks have warned you.

BONUS ALERT*** Don’t run out when the credits role, there is a funny out-take between Hancock & Mike Epps (Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins) mixed in the credits!

3 1/2 out of 5

Scott:

‘Hancock’ has been in the works since 1996, but back then it was titled ‘Tonight, He Comes’, and was rated “R”. The movie has been passed around more times than Paris Hilton and everyone has dipped their paws into the script which is obvious after viewing the entire movie.

The first twenty five minutes were funny and entertaining and you think it sets the pace for the entire film to be this way, but not so fast, it takes a turn into cheese city(thats also where My Super Ex Girlfriend lives), then goes the way of a drama..then you finish off with a heartwarming ending. WHAT WAS THIS MOVIE? The script should have been left with an R rating, kept the same name and left the love interest part of the movie out. The trailer you see only shows you the first 25 minutes of the movie which is what you think you are going to see..its not. They pulled a ‘Bridge to Terabithia’ on us and you leave the theater confused/feeling cheated. Will Smith is a strong part of the movie, but thats about it unless you count how sexy Charlize Theron is, and the corkiness of Jason Bateman(thats a surprise!). All in all the movie was sort of entertaining, but i cant let this movie go unpunished.

I give it 2 1/2 out of 5, but hey thats better than the 34% its sitting at on Rotten Tomatoes.

Michelle:

Hancock went from being a charismatic superhero movie to a trippy version of Clash of the Titans….with Will Smith and Charlize Theron taking on the parts of Zeus and Hera. On a sidenote, Clash of the Titans (one of the best cheesiest movies ever) is in the process of an update slated for 2010 release with The Incredible Hulk’s Louis Leterrier on tap to direct. Ok, back to Hancock. What were the movie gods thinking when they let Hancock veer off in this direction? It was such a letdown after director Peter Berg (The Kingdom) let his movie become some b.s., doomed love story. The film needed more of Smith being the superhero after his makeover. This doesn’t bode well for the upcoming, Berg-at-the-helm, remake of Dune from Paramount. On a positive note, Hancock did have Berg regular Jason Bateman as Smith’s PR agent. In the end, WIll Smith would’ve had to been a real superhero to save this movie.

2 1/2 out of 5

Travis:

Yeah, OK … its a little late in the game to be posting a review of ‘Hancock’ now that most who really planned to see it have already, but I just recently managed to get a chance to see the new Will Smith movie that many predicted might not live up to its potential. Seeing ‘Hancock’ was, for the most part, a pleasant surprise. Actor-turned-director Peter Berg didn’t match the acclaimed success of his previous directing venture (The Kingdom) but still deserves credit for putting together an interesting new look at the superhero story.

Hancock (Will Smith) is for lack of better words, an “a**hole” … but, don’t call him that to his face. Seriously lacking people skills and obliviously suffering from alcohol and anger management issues, Hancock is hated by the city despite his many efforts to carelessly fight crime, resulting in millions of dollars of civic damage in the process. When he’s called out by the district attorney, a kind-hearted PR representative named Ray (Jason Bateman) decides he wants to help Hancock rebuild his image into the kind of superhero the city wants and loves. Unfortunately, Ray’s wife Mary (Charlize Theron) doesn’t like the idea and would prefer Hancock stay as far away from them as possible.

One of the cool things about ‘Hancock” that I really enjoyed was that there really wasn’t any “true” villain to speak, aside from Hancock himself. He’s a superhero who’s battling himself and his own struggle for finding himself and his purpose. In ‘Spider-Man’ we remember Uncle Ben telling Peter that “with great power comes great responsibility,” but in ‘Hancock’ you could say that with great power can come great loneliness as well. Hancock resists Ray’s efforts at first, but despite his reservations puts his trust in him at Ray’s request. Hancock can see that Ray is a good man and wants nothing more than what’s best for the world. After a short stint in prison to please his harshest critics, Hancock is called upon by the city to help fight the rising crime levels. In the process, Hancock uncovers a secret between himself and Mary that explains Hancock’s missing memory

‘Hancock’ isn’t perfect … far from it. The opening scene of Hanock flying drunk is actually really bad and I am yet to fully understand what he is and where he came from, because they never bothered to indulge the audience with that somewhat crucial piece of information. All we get is a cruel teasing as to his origins. The CGI team also obviously had some left-over money in the budget, because in Hancock’s life-changing battle with [BLANK – Spoiler Censored] they chose to incorporate a big “scary” storm above the city that swoops in just before the fight … I suppose to make the whole scene more ominous, but it didn’t really have any purpose. The ending is a bit on the melodramatic side, but as a whole ‘Hancock’ was a fresh and satisfying venture into another branch of the rapidly growing genre of superhero-action movies.

(3.5 out of 5)

Zac:

Will Smith’s latest is a definitely entertaining but ultimately flawed film from Peter Berg that could have used a bit more breathing room and depth to the picture.
On the surface, Hancock (Will Smith) is a disgruntled, drunk, and collateral damage magnet of a super hero that no one likes. The talk shows of LA are calling for him to go away and never come back, sick and tired of him tearing apart their town and wasting their tax dollars on his messes. Enter Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman), a struggling PR guy that can’t get companies to give stuff away for free in exchange being part of a campaign to make the world a better place. Ray is saved by Hancock, almost being plowed by a train, and he comes to the defense of Hancock who is immediately berated by the surrounding public for his reckless behavior and doesn’t give a shit attitude. Ray invites Hancock over for dinner and pitches him to let him engineer a reimagining of Hancock in the public eye; which Hancock reluctantly agrees too. While at dinner Ray’s wife Mary catches Hancock’s eye as his attitude completely turns off Mary in supporting Ray’s campaign to help Hancock. With a disdaining voice in Ray’s ear from his wife, he moves forward with the PR plan which begins with Hancock serving a prison sentence for all the damage he has incurred. Hancock is hesitant, but Ray ensures that the call will come as LA experiences life without Hancock.
To spoil more of the plot would be a disservice so I will turn to the acting which is top notch all around. Will Smith as great as usual with this grumpy and mean superhero to play with. He also manages to give the man depth by giving us hints that there is more to him than just booze and destruction, and that he is sad, lost, and lonely with being the only one of his kind left. Smith is obviously believable as a super hero and also sells us on liking this guy you aren’t really supposed to probably like. The awkwardness of the transition Ray has in mind for him is also handled particularly well to great comic effect.
Jason Bateman continues a great string of work as he plays the extremely likable and funny Ray. The blind optimism and positive attitude he carries is great for the character and he plays the overwhelmed bits well. Bateman’s humor never misses a beat and the banter between Hancock and him, with Ray never pulling any punches always telling him straight, works really well throughout the film. Smith and Bateman sell us on an unconventional friendship between the two that never feels fake or forced.
Charlize Theron’s Mary is a bit veiled and awkward with agendas working below the surface. She never is comfortable and constantly weary of Hancock and exposing her son and family to him. Theron does a good job with what she has to work with, and shines at the end, but she definitely has the thinnest character in the film. Jae Head also does a great job as Ray and Mary’s son and introduces a fun dynamic when Hancock visits the house hold.
The thing that holds this film back is the structure and depth of the material. The film is rushed, I mean it just ignores any background or depth till the end and then they leave way to much unexplained. Maybe they were banking on a sequel to fill out the mythology of Hancock, which sounds really interesting, but it leaves us pretty much left to assume what his history really is. The film also glosses over the bad guy and eludes to a history but doesn’t, it’s just very hazy at the end as they try and cram a bunch of info in and keep the runtime at 90 minutes. Also the film feels truncated due to the rush to keep things going and while it’s nice to not have the film drag, we still feel like there was more to know, and wanted to know. I know there was a bit of tug of war with this one and it also had to be trimmed to get down from an R rating, so it will be interesting to see what happens with this once we get to see it on Blu-Ray and whether Peter Berg had a different version he preferred.
One final little note, the CGI and action in the film are pretty sub-par by today’s standards. I wasn’t really impressed by it and got far more enjoyment out of the story, rather then the wiz bang stuff. Maybe that is why I’m disappointed why we didn’t get more of the mythology and back story of some of these characters.
In the end, Hancock is an entertaining and fast paced film that will please the summer movie goer. Unfortunately it feels like they cut short what could have been a really interesting character study if they really dived into the psyche of a tormented superhero. You could have kept the laughs and action and still taken a look into what made Hancock the way he was and make his emergence into a proper super hero more compelling. If you are a fan of Smith it’s definitely worth checking out as Hancock is a fun character, but if you are looking for a super hero flick, two better ones are already out (Hulk and Iron Man) and two more come out in the following weeks (Dark Knight and Hellboy) that early word is far superior to this. Though, the film is definitely worth at least a rental on a boring weekend down the road.

(3.5 out of 5)

[Rating: 3/5]