Will Smith Movie:

		List Price: $28.95		Label: Sony Pictures Salesrank: 5094 Released: November 25, 2008
		Our Price: $8.00
		Used Price: $6.37
		MPAA Rating: Unrated Media: Blu-ray

Editorial Review:
Academy Award® nominee Will Smith (Best Actor, The Pursuit of Happyness, 2006) stars in this action-packed comedy as Hancock, a sarcastic, hard-living and misunderstood superhero who has fallen out of favor with the public. When Hancock grudgingly agrees to an extreme makeover from idealistic publicist Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman, Juno), his life and reputation rise from the ashes and all seems right again--until he meets a woman (2003 Academy Award® winner Charlize Theron, Best Actress, Monster) with similar powers to his and the key to his secret past.

Description of Hancock (Unrated Special Edition) [Blu-ray]:
Hancock turns the standard superhero movie inside-out: The title character (Will Smith) can fly, has superstrength, and is invulnerable, but he's also a sloppy, alcoholic jerk who causes millions of dollars in property damage whenever he bothers to fight crime. When he saves the life of a public-relations agent named Ray (Jason Bateman, Arrested Development), Ray decides to improve Hancock's image--starting by having Hancock surrender himself to the authorities and go to prison for his lawless behavior. The idea is that once he's in prison, the crime rate will go up, and people will start to realize Hancock might be of value after all. This is only the first act of Hancock--from there, the movie takes several clever turns that shouldn't be revealed. Hancock isn't a great movie (among other things, director Peter Berg overuses close-ups with a hand-held camera to a degree that may cause motion sickness), but it is an extremely entertaining one. The script, which holds together far better than most superhero movies, has a propulsive plot, good dialogue, some compassion for its characters, and even an actual idea or two. The spectacular action at least gestures towards obeying the laws of physics, which actually makes the special effects more vivid. The three leads (Smith, Bateman, and Charlize Theron as Ray's wife, Mary) deftly balance the movie's mixture of comedy, action, and drama. All in all, a smart subversive twist on a genre that all too often takes itself all too seriously. --Bret Fetzer

Stills from Hancock (click for larger image)

Hancock (Unrated Special Edition) [Blu-ray] Reviews:
Lousy vehicle, great driver
2009-11-07 - Have seen Will Smith since his first commercials for "The Fresh Prince..." and was immediately struck by the talent. He has done a lot of great work, and, with all of the genre has had his bad ones. This movie, however, was such a simple minded, disconnected mess, that the only thing worth watching was the HD and if someone other then Mr. Smith had been the driver in the "plot" the whole thing would have been an inglorious spoof of really bad movies. Let's hope he'll do something soon that showcases the talent and not just his boxoffice draw.

a good watch
2009-09-12 - If you like Will Smith like I do, well that just about says it. Great Movie

Good, but neutered movie.
2009-09-06 - I had the privilege of having my Mistress give me this 2-Disc edition the last holiday season which also had the pop-up packaging and the lithograph. And while it's not a great film it does offer a few moments.

One of those moments is available in the unrated edition why mere mortals just can't handle coitus (visualize bulletholes in the ceiling). In "My Super Ex-Girlfriend" it was nice to see the female perspective (besides, Uma Thurman is a goddess in her own right). Now with this one you get the male perspective (albeit a misogynistic one).

And yet, for how edgy this movie appeared to be, it still seemed like a lot of punches were pulled to make this marketable rather than an effective satire of the genre. Did we really need the hackneyed subplot of how the "hero" had to go through prison and rehab to restore his image? How many times has that plot device been used? Or the poorly integrated subplot regarding the bank robber, his convenient prison escape and his revenge? Certainly such time would've been better filled with more as to Hancock and his long-forgotten partner's origins (or, to the circumstances of their mortality, these "gods" aren't gods after all...where's Zuul when you need her?)

I was impressed by the special effects and how they clearly helped to shown how Hancock's actions do have repercussions. There is a lot wrecked on screen and he just doesn't care. It also helps when the actors were fully digitized and texture-mapped onto 3D-models. If this trend continues more brain-dead movies can be made as photorealistic as possible and the actors can simply phone in their performances. It didn't quite work with "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within" but at least they got the woodenness down in all its CGI glory. This movie is a step in that direction, at least.

And the performances are serviceable at best. Everyone got paid well and it shows. The image makeover executive is as bland and effeminate as possible. Just another walking cliché that telegraphs the ending of the film. And his butch wife? Well, isn't it a coincidence that his wife has a big secret? Well, that sounds like another cliché as well. And as the two superheroes battle with each other I couldn't help but be reminded of the by far superior X-Men films when, even in their not-so-great bits, are by far better than this. I was literally waiting for Storm to arrive and kick both their asses with a firm pimp-style backhand and place them in bondage for her own pleasure in their punishment.

Not that movie actors should be role models, of course. After all, Halle Berry got paid well for "Catwoman".

Peter Berg, whom I remember best for his work in "The Great White Hype" and "Very Bad Things" is serviceable at satire. That means that if he's on he hits near the target. But watch out when he's off. That includes the spectators behind him. And while there will be a few people who'll say that the PG-13 version of the film was neutered, take heart: It never had the stones to begin with to go all the way. Aside form the aforementioned sex scene there is really no substantial difference between the two.

And the fact why there's a theatrical and unrated edition is this: Money. It's worth spending extra for the extended director's cuts of James Cameron's films, for example. Here it's just a marketing ploy to make it appear that Berg's vision was altered for the sake of corporate cronyism when that was the plan all along. I get the same feeling of consumers being duped when they swoon over "Digital Copies" when ALL DVD's are all digital copies already! With the right FREE (!) tools anyone can place a version of their media on anything (I've been doing that before it was marketed in its "friendly" DVD space-hogging, neutered, expiring, paranoid DRM-encrypted and E-mail address/IP-logging version). This version's DC is set to expire on 2009/11/25.

Anyway, all the special effects and the sex scene can't cover up what a huge cynical affair Hancock truly is. It's not good satire and it does have it's moments. But Peter Berg at least did pull off one good joke, right? Certainly there is a lot of fun to be had but it's not quite fun if you already know the punchline.


Whoever didn't like this movie, obviously has bad taste!
2009-09-02 - You clearly don't know what a great movie is if you thought Hancock was bad. It has everything you can ask from a movie... action, romance, comedy, and drama. The characters had personality and weren't boring, and the storyline was heartfelt and interesting. It was very entertaining as movies should be, and it kept you engaged during the entire movie. I think they need to make a sequel because they got a great thing going on here and the concepts of this movie far out reach the human psyche... plus the ending was the bad ass! \m/

Even the great cast can't save this movie
2009-08-13 - Other than the occasional comic relief, there are no redeeming qualities to this movie. I'm glad I didn't see it in the theater and bought it used.