Will Smith plays ''Hancock,'' a super-hero who is a drunken lout. (Courtesy photo)

By Bob Polunsky
Guest Columnist

“Hancock” caters to people overcome by hormones and don’t know how to react so they blow a fuse and get violent. The movie doesn’t make the best of such talented performers as Oscar winner Charlize Theron and the ever-popular Will Smith, but the worst thing about it is that it doesn’t even try. It just mixes senseless violence with cusswords and vulgarity as if the combination automatically makes the movie a comedy. It also goes beyond the limits of good taste, a surefire way to cause insecure teenagers to giggle uncontrollably. 

Years from now when they grow up and talk about it they probably won’t be as reverential as Deborah Kerr was when she said those words to John Kerr while she helped him lose his virginity in “Tea and Sympathy.” Those words shocked moviegoers in 1956 and critics of the film warned moviegoers about the dialogue’s connotations. Moviegoers rarely react that way about movies today when movies have even more suggestive dialogue and moviemakers obviously think anything goes anyway. Especially in bad movies, and “Hancock” certainly qualifies.

Hancock (Will Smith) is a drunken lout prone to showing off and shrugging off any possible danger. It’s apparent when he throws himself off a high building and onto a hard street while cars around him look like they are falling apart in unison. Such scenes are intended to make us gasp with wide-eyed wonder, but that’s hard to do since we don’t know enough about Hancock to care what happens to him.

He gets involved with more car wrecks and unnecessary violence, including a supposedly funny scene of his reckless attempt to put a damaged car on top of a big building with his “super powers.”

The violence takes a breather when romance enters the picture and gives us more reasons to doubt Hancock’s purpose in life. He may or may not have super powers, but he doesn’t use them constructively. He just shows off, especially when drunk – and he stays drunk most of the time.

When Ray and Mary Embrey (Jason Bateman and Charlize Theron) enter the picture, Hancock mellows momentarily while flashbacks suggest that he’s had an unhappy life. He decides to make up for it by romancing Ray’s wife, Mary, even though Ray was a friend who was trying to help Hancock find purpose in life.

The ending puts the characters in perspective but not enough to care about them, and the vulgarity and profanity don’t help. Will Smith deserves better. So do his fans.

Studio rating: R
Bob says: “No”
1 ½ Stars