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Hancock

By Matthew Proctor | 14 Jul, 2008

Hancock is a feel good action movie. It is everything you might expect, which is reasonable, and nothing more. It has fun and excitement, it will make you laugh, everything is happily resolved, and it has plotholes you could park a truck in. Awesome.

Okay. Will Smith is a superhero. He can fly and bullets don’t hurt him and he’s really strong and shit. But he’s also kind of an arsehole. He saves the day, but he doesn’t care how many million dollars of damage he does doing so, and he doesn’t care if people think he’s a total knob for doing it. Oh, and he drinks. Pretty sweet premise.

Now, naturally, a kind-hearted PR executive (Jason Bateman) must help him mend his ways, and help him win the respect he deserves from the people of LA. Awesome. Basically this is an excuse for cheap laughs, which let’s be honest, we all love. Cheap laughs rule. My little brother and I share a rather specific sense of humour. One line had us laughing for friggin’ ages. I suspect we got funny looks. We did not care.

Then there is a kuh-RAY-zee plot twist, and oh no, “‘they’ always come after us.” What, ‘they’? Who are these abstract pronouns? Oh, you’re not going to explain, because it’s not an important part of the story? But everything will be resolved, and everyone will live happily ever after? And Will Smith will be loved by children everywhere? Okay. That’s fair enough.

So yeah. Jason Bateman delivers a decidedly average performance, which will disappoint Arrested Development fans. But oh well, he’s still funny. This movie was loads of fun, which it promised to be. It was also quite obviously not quality cinema, which it also promised to be. Take it or leave it. It’s probably worth your dollars, but maybe not your time.