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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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Hancock
Columbia Pictures (Sony)
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FILM:
MPAA RATING: PG-13 for some rude humor, action violence and language
Starring
Will Smith,
Charlize Theron,
Jason Bateman,
and
Eddie Marsan
There are heroes… there are superheroes… and then there’s Hancock. With great power comes great responsibility – everyone knows that – everyone, that is, but Hancock. Edgy, conflicted, sarcastic, and misunderstood, Hancock’s well-intentioned heroics might get the job done and save countless lives, but always seem to leave jaw-dropping damage in their wake. The public has finally had enough – as grateful as they are to have their local hero, the good citizens of Los Angeles are wondering what they ever did to deserve this guy. Hancock isn’t the kind of man who cares what other people think – until the day that he saves the life of PR executive Ray Embrey, and the sardonic superhero begins to realize that he may have a vulnerable side after all. Facing that will be Hancock’s greatest challenge yet – and a task that may prove impossible as Ray’s wife, Mary, insists that he’s a lost cause. (Sony Pictures)
| GENRE(S): |
Action
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Comedy
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Drama
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Fantasy
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| WRITTEN BY: |
Vince Gilligan
Vincent Ngo
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| DIRECTED BY: |
Peter Berg
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| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: November 25, 2008
Theatrical: July 2, 2008
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| RUNNING TIME: |
minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
90
The New Yorker
David Denby
Hancock suggests new visual directions and emotional tonalities for pop. It's by far the most enjoyable big movie of the summer.
88
Philadelphia Inquirer
Steven Rea
A rollicking tale of rehabilitation and redemption, rife with cool special effects, Hancock is smart and surprisingly raunchy.
83
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Tasha Robinson
It's a daring, even mildly challenging mixture for a superhero film, and while the pieces don't entirely add up, the puzzle is at least original.
75
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
One of the rare action films that needed to be longer. Then changes in mood wouldn't be so abrupt, and director Peter Berg and writers Vincent Ngo and Vince Gilligan would've had more time to reveal things we want to know.
75
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
Bateman doesn't make a false move, and a stellar Charlize Theron springs her own bolts from the blue as Ray's wife. As for Smith, he's on fire. There's nothing like a star shining on his highest beams. You follow him anywhere.
75
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
Hancock is a lot of fun, if perhaps a little top-heavy with stuff being destroyed. Smith makes the character more subtle than he has to be, more filled with self-doubt, more willing to learn.
75
Miami Herald
Connie Ogle
The real hit of the movie is the hilarious Bateman. His low-key humor makes you wish Hancock could have saved Bateman's short-lived sitcom "Arrested Development." Now that would have been heroic.
70
The New York Times
Manohla Dargis
Hancock makes for one unexpectedly satisfying and kinky addition to Hollywood's superhero chronicles. Touching and odd, laden with genuine twists and grounded by three appealing lead performances.
70
Chicago Reader
J.R. Jones
As popcorn movies go, this is fleet, funny, and even thoughtful: its central question, nicely underplayed by director Peter Berg, is why power and altruism never seem to intersect.
67
Portland Oregonian
M. E. Russell
In a film marketplace where even the best superhero movies tend to do a lot of the same stuff, I really admire Will Smith and bad-boy director Peter Berg for trying something different.
67
Baltimore Sun
Michael Sragow
The first half is diverting and inventive. But the filmmakers use the second half as a box-office insurance policy. They fill it with the conventional super-heroics and heartbreak that they spend the first 45 minutes gleefully deconstructing.
67
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Sean Axmaker
The script doesn't always find the most effective way to the heart of the conflicts and Berg struggles to balance the mix of tones and the conflicts of man and superman, but he never sacrifices the integrity of his characters or their relationships for an easy ending. That alone makes Hancock the most adult of the new wave of superhero dramas.
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Rick Groen
The promise is dangled yet never developed. Rather, the narrative slips into a backstory that alternates between confusing and contradictory.
63
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
Sometimes funny, sometimes clever, and occasionally involving, but it's never brilliant and its edge is compromised by the neutering that accompanies the teen-friendly PG-13 rating.
60
Salon.com
Stephanie Zacharek
Hancock is just intriguing enough that I kept wishing it were better. But Berg doesn't have the subtle touch that this material needs.
60
The Hollywood Reporter
Stephen Farber
The visual effects are stellar, but the true star is Smith, who again demonstrates acting chops as well as effortless charisma in a vehicle that's only occasionally worthy of his superhuman skills.
60
LA Weekly
Ella Taylor
Doesn't seem to quite know what it is or where it's headed. So it goes anywhere it can while treading thematic water.
60
Empire
Kim Newman
See-saws between straight superhero movie and parody, with layers of soap-opera fudge in between. A lot of solid scenes - but Hancock lacks the power of super-coherence.
58
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Hancock can revel in schmuckery, of course, because you and I and cute kids and peaceful oldies worldwide know in advance that there's no way on Hollywood's green earth Will Smith will ever play someone seriously, dangerously unsavory.
50
Time
Richard Corliss
It's strenuous, smartly-made and ordinary to an extraordinary degree.
50
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
More intelligent than most summer blockbusters and features at its center a thought-out and committed performance by Will Smith. But in the end it's merely ALMOST good.
50
TV Guide
Ken Fox
The result is an inconsistent, incoherent anti-superhero action-adventure comedy.
50
Film Threat
Pete Vonder Haar
Starts off promisingly, but gets bogged down when it abandons humor for gravity.
50
Boston Globe
Wesley Morris
Once the vulgar comedy dissipates, we're left with poorly photographed, bullet-riddled summer-action mayhem. The only thing drunker than Hancock is the editing and camerawork.
50
USA Today
Claudia Puig
Might have been more appropriately titled "Hodgepodge." What starts out with a sense of quirky fun loses direction and devolves into a mishmash of story lines.
42
Christian Science Monitor
Peter Rainer
What begins as a pretty good comedy devolves rapidly into a high-flown example of Hollywood messagemongering.
40
Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan
It's a strange feeling to see the summer's most promising premise self-destruct into something bizarre and unsatisfying, but that is the Hancock experience.
40
New York Daily News
Elizabeth Weitzman
There's a great idea here, but it's buried within a muddled story that lurches between dark comedy and maudlin drama.
40
Slate
Dana Stevens
The climax, a multipart showdown in the corridors of a hospital, is unforgivably manipulative. What self-respecting director still cuts away to shots of a heartbeat monitor flat-lining? Hancock isn't the only underachiever on the premises--the talented Berg settles for far less than he should.
40
Village Voice
Robert Wilonsky
It doesn't take itself as seriously as it should, and undercuts a final act that should have and so could have packed a mighty emotional wallop.
38
New York Post
Lou Lumenick
This movie fails so spectacularly - and on so many levels - that it's like watching a train plummet off a bridge.
38
Chicago Tribune
Michael Phillips
Not even Smith's charisma can mitigate the chaos that is Hancock.
30
Newsweek
David Ansen
The superhero genre screams for a makeover, or at least a smart deconstruction, but Hancock isn't that movie. It just ups the foolishness ante.
30
Variety
Todd McCarthy
The effects are snazzy, even if they pass by quite quickly, and there's enough going on to keep audiences watching, if not entirely happy. Smith, Theron and Bateman capably handle the main roles, but such is the skimpiness of the scenario that no further characters make any impact.
30
Washington Post
Stephen Hunter
The problem is that director Peter Berg, aided and abetted by Smith and Theron and third banana Jason Bateman, seem to have made it literally, not realizing its out-of-whack tonalities and grotesque plot twists were meant to be played for laughs.
30
Austin Chronicle
Marc Savlov
A godforsaken (possibly literally) mess.
0
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
Any notions of demolishing black stereotypes -- and what else could have possessed Mr. Smith to do this? -- are dashed by the coarseness of it all, and by the narrative incoherence; a surprising plot twist turns a sloppy action-comedy into a totally different movie, and an even worse one.
 The average user rating for this movie is 6.5 (out of 10) based on 254 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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