Didn't suck.
That's a good way to describe Hancock, the new Will Smith movie with the schizophrenic marketing campaign. Many of you may rememeber that, up until around six weeks ago, Hancock was being marketed as a big comedy with some action in it about an incompetent, alcoholic superhero. After the success of Iron Man, you started seeing commercials where Will Smith is flying around without crashing into stuff while valiantly and effectively fighting crime. Stuff still blew up around him but it wasn't his fault. So, which is it?
The answer is a hearty, "Nice Try," to whomever was in charge of the marketing since May. This is, for the most part, a comedy. It gets a little dramatic as time goes on but it never fully loses its light touch. I would normally suggest that everyone try to track down the people who made you think you were seeing some hardcore action flick and kick them in the balls but, since that's probably illegal, I will instead urge everyone to contact local, state and federal lawmakers and urge them to legalzie ball-kicking,
The movie opens with Will Smith's Hancock passed out drunk on a city bench. Hancock is woken up from his alcoholic stupor so that he can capture some evil guys who are leading the police on a gun battle/car chase along the highway for no discernible reason. After nearly crashing a jet, breaking through a highway sign and causing a half dozen cop cars to crash, Hancock manages to rip off the roof of the SUV that the machine gun wielding tough guys are driving. After they stupidly refuse to surrender even though they know who Hancock is, Hancock proceeds to fly them around the city and causes even more millions of dollars in damage by dragging them against buildings and leaving them on top of L.A's glorious Capitol Records Building, a place you should all visit (Los Angeles tourism bureau, please make the check out to Michael Clear). It turns out that people don't particularly care for Hancock and would like to throw him in jail for the rampant property destruction that always occurs when he tries to help someone. However, there isn't much that anyone can do about it. He has super powers but without any of those handy weaknesses like kryptonite or the color yellow so there isn't a way to apprehend him or a prison to hold him.
Enter the Embreys. Hancock saves Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman) from an oncoming train. Ray invites Hancock back to his home for dinner and that's where we meet his wife, Mary (Charlize Theron) and son, Aaron (Jae Head, whose name I will remember ten years from now when his VH1 special Jae Head: Hollywood Trainwreck is showing). Turns out that Ray is a marketing whiz who wants to repay Hancock by rehabilitating his image and making people love him. In the meantime, Mary is mysteriously hostile toward and suspicious of Hancock. Why? WOULDN'T YOU LIKE TO KNOW! I do congratulate those in charge of the marketing campaigns for managing to keep a major surprise out of their advertising. I'm sure there were 8 billion sites and forums that spoiled this but I have gotten extremely good at avoiding those over the years.
This brings us back to the very first sentence. It didn't suck. Had some funny stuff and a cool scene with tornadoes. It also had some stupid stuff where Hancock's enemies try to plot revenge against an indestructible man. You'll probably like it when you see it and, much like Hancock on a bender, you won't remember much of it after it's over.
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