| Audience: | High School |
| MPAA Rating: | Rated PG-13 for some intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, and language. |
| Profanity: | Very strong language for a PG-13 with constant use of a vulgar epithet by adults and children, character gives the finger |
| Nudity/Sex: | Non-explicit sexual situation involving a married couple |
| Alcohol/Drugs: | Character abuses alcohol, another character gets tipsy |
| Violence/Scariness: | Action/superhero peril and violence, hands chopped off, crude sight gag of one man's head being inserted into another man's rear end, |
| Diversity Issues: | Diverse characters, brief homophobic comment |
| Movie Release Date: | July 2, 2008 |
The problem is, this is not a 4th of July movie. It is not a bad movie. It is not a good movie either. It is a flawed but interesting movie but its biggest problem is that on the 4th of July the kind of Will Smith movie people want to see is a brainless summer blockbuster with some cool explosions, some quippy dialogue, and the kind of bad guy you can cheerfully enjoy seeing fall off a building. This is not that movie, and people who expect that movie are doomed to disappointment. Go see Iron Man again. Or put those expectations aside, start from scratch, and go this this messy but intriguingly ambitious film. Inside the $150 million-budgeted would-be blockbuster there are two or three quirky little indie films trying to get out.
Will Smith's Hancock may be faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to soar like the eagle, his favorite animal, but he is no Superman. He dresses like a homeless guy, drinks like a wino, and talks like a sulky teenager. He will save lives, catch crooks, and hurl beached whales back into the ocean but he won't be happy, nice, gracious, patriotic or careful about collateral damage. Everyone needs him but no one likes him. He doesn't like anyone and he doesn't like himself.
When idealistic PR guy (if that is not an oxymoron) Ray (Jason Bateman) gets stuck on the train tracks, Hancock rescues him and (literally) drops him off at home. Ray invites Hancock in for dinner and offers to give him some help with his image. He advises the petulant superhero to accept responsibility for his actions and remind everyone they cannot get along without him by spending some time in jail and getting some help with anger management. Pretty soon Hancock is shaving, wearing a streamlined leather superhero suit, and handing out compliments to the cops. And he looks pretty good. After all, he's Will Smith.
But then the story takes a darker turn that makes it at the same time more provocative, more interesting, less safe, and much, much messier. Smith, Bateman, and Charlize Theron as Ray's wife do their best to ride the bucking bronco of this movie's seismic shifts set up by director Peter Berg and writers Vy Vincent Ngo & Vince Gilligan but by the end, which bears the unmistakable marks of a panicky recut to make it more upbeat. Too little, too late.
And so a promising idea about a superhero with an existential crisis several times greater than the "great power means great responsibility" growing-up metaphors of Spider-Man and other Marvel and DC denizens wobbles through wildly misjudged moments with way too much emphasis on the metaphoric and literal aspects of the terminating point of the lower intestine and then turns a sharp corner and has something of an existential crisis of its own, leaving the audience itself asking why we are here -- meaning in the theater.
Parents should know this film includes very strong language for a PG-13 with constant use of a vulgar epithet by adults and children, action/superhero peril and violence, hands chopped off, crude sight gag of one man's head being inserted into another man's rear end, homophobic comment, character gives the finger, character abuses alcohol and another becomes tipsy, non-explicit sexual situation, some sad and tense confrontations
Family discussion: How are superheroes like gods or angels and how are they different? How can corporations be socially responsible while maintaining their obligations to their employees and shareholders? Why was it important for Hancock to tell the group about himself?
If you like this, try: My Super Ex-Girlfriend
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Hi! :D
This Really doesnt have anything to do with the movie but i have a question,
Why did you stop writing reviews on yahoo? i was just wondering because its alot easier for me to go there.
Thanks! :D
Thanks for tracking me down, Derik! I switched because Beliefnet gives me a chance to do so much more -- to write about DVDs, do interviews and features and commentary, and reach a broader audience as well. And my readers can write comments like yours and I can respond. Now that you've found me, I hope you will bookmark the site and come back often.
I will and thanks! :D
-Derik
After seeing several summer movies -- including Dark Knight, Iron Man, Hulk, Wall-E, Kung Fu Panda, Kit Kittredge, Prince Caspian, Tell No One -- I have to say that I enjoyed Hancock more than any other.
I laughed, I cried. I cared about the characters. The movie had heart. The leads had chemistry.
All of which is more than I can say for the others, during which I felt mostly bombarded by noise and constant action, and manipulated into feeling something for cardboard characters.
A side note: I think this is the first time I've seen Charlize Theron play opposite a male actor capable of being her equal. Will Smith matches her in stature, strength, intensity, and maturity. I'd like to see them play opposite one another again.
Thanks for a wonderful comment, AnaLeigh63. I have a strong feeling that we may see a more coherent "director's cut" of this film with more emphasis on the relationship between the Theron and Smith characters. They had wonderful chemistry and I, too, would love to see them in another film.
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