"Hancock" Movie Review

It was Fourth of July weekend a few days ago and that can only mean one thing—Will Smith. Hancock (PG-13) is the latest film from the unofficial Fourth of July holiday box-office champ. In the action flick, Smith stars as a boozed-out superhero desperately out-of-touch with the public that he is trying to protect. Coming to his aid, is a publicist (Jason Bateman) who takes it upon himself (much to the chagrin of his wife—Charlize Theron) to improve Hancock's image. Peter Berg directs.

Andy: Hancock appeared to have a lot of promise based on the commercials and Will Smith’s past 4th of July success. Unfortunately, past success does not help Hancock at all, as it starts of as an interesting and mildly enjoyable movie and then turns into a bit of a mess. The idea of a comedy about a reluctant superhero is appealing, but the execution of the story was seriously lacking, and the movie ended up not working.

Ryan: It's not much a surprise that I'm a fan of superhero flicks. Even though I wasn't overly excited for Hancock I was definitely intrigued as it's a superhero movie that is not based on a comic book or graphic novel. That unquestionably peaked my interest. Unfortunately (and this has little to do with it being based on previously published material) Hancock is not the big action spectacle that it was groomed to be. It's a movie that has its moments but it ultimately fails to capture the magic of other (good) Will Smith vehicles.

Andy: I will say that Will Smith and Jason Bateman do their part to make this movie work. Smith, who is even somehow likable as a course speaking, arrogant drunk, delivers another solid performance. Many people were not prepared for the harshness of Hancock’s language (when I saw the movie a woman with a small child walked out because of it), but it does add significantly to Hancock’s character. He has to start out pretty rough in order for the audience to see his growth. His interactions with Bateman are the best scenes in the movie, but inexplicably we don’t get very many of those scenes in the second act of the movie.

Ryan: Hancock is a film with an interesting premise. Hancock is basically a drunken reluctant Superman—sans costume. We tend to think of our superheros as being unselfish and/or driven to fight injustice. Hancock captures the bad guys on his own terms in a pretty uninspiring and alienating fashion. For the first act of the movie, this take on refining a broken superhero's image works. Regrettably the movie takes a drastic turn half way through it. And I'm still trying to figure out why the filmmakers decided to shift the entire plot of the movie to another story arc. That narrative detour is by far the biggest weakness of the movie.

Andy: To be blunt, the movie completely falls apart after that narrative switch. It wasn’t on too sure ground for the first hour or so, but the second half of the movie is poor story telling at best, and incomprehensible at worst. This is unfortunate, as director Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights) has shown a lot of promise, but this is a pretty major setback. Hancock is going to make a lot of money, but it is certainly because of Will Smith’s gravitas and not because of the quality of the movie.

Ryan: Even though Hancock isn't on par with Will Smith's last effort, the sci-fi hit, I Am Legend, his latest endeavor once again proves that he is Hollywood's most (if not only) bankable movie star. This is his eighth consecutive film to open number one and to pass the 100 million dollar threshold at the box-office. That's quite remarkable but making it even more astonishing is that Smith has accomplished this streak in a multitude of genres including romantic-comedy, drama, sci-fi and kid's cartoons. Hancock is not going to be one of his most memorable roles but it will certainly add to his continuing box-office clout.

Hancock starts off interesting but stumbles toward its conclusion. Final grade: C.