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bassexpander
Joined: 13 Sep 2007
Location: Someplace you'd rather be.
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 Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 2:12 am Post subject: Review says Hancock is a trainwreck |
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http://edition.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Movies/07/01/review.hancock/index.html
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CNN) -- Train wrecks are intrinsically spectacular, and Will Smith's new movie offers a doozy. Two of them, in fact.
Hancock
Jason Bateman and Will Smith star in "Hancock."
In the first, Jason Bateman's genial public relations guy Ray is sitting in his car, snarled in traffic and oblivious to the locomotive bearing down on him until it's almost too late.
Fortunately for Ray, John Hancock (Smith) is on the case. Using his Superman-like powers, Hancock flips Ray's car up and over in a neat backward somersault, safely out of harm's way. At the same time he thrusts out his arm and stops the train in its tracks. While Ray is grateful, the guy in the car underneath his isn't so sure -- and the damage to the derailed train stretches back a half-mile or more.
That's the train wreck within the movie. The train wreck that is the movie is even more interesting.
We all know that Will Smith "owns" the July 4 weekend -- so much so, there aren't any other big openings this week (aside from the small-scale "Kit Kittredge: An American Girl," which began in limited release last week). Since "Independence Day" he's virtually become synonymous with Big Summer Fun. And he makes it look so easy, too.
"Hancock" tinkers with that self-confidence a little bit. Apparently immortal and impervious to pain, Hancock fulfills the superhero's brief -- he safeguards the citizenry of Los Angeles -- but he's sunk well below complacency into an alcoholic stew of resentment and contempt for his public. When a young fan stirs him from a drunken stupor to chase some bad guys in the movie's opening scene, Hancock sends him off with an insult: "What do you want, a cookie?"
Later, he picks up an obnoxious kid who has pushed his luck too far and flings him into the stratosphere, catching him 30 seconds later with obvious reluctance.
In short, this is not the agreeable Will Smith we know and love, and even in this summer of edgier, angrier action heroes (see also "Iron Man" and "The Incredible Hulk"), Hancock may be the first full-blown jerk to front a blockbuster.
But before you jump to conclusions, this is not the problem with the movie. Though the cynical, adult edge to the comedy may limit the film's audience (it is rated PG-13) it also qualifies as a welcome change. Hancock's reckless heroism -- and the wreckage he leaves in his wake -- inspires the film's funniest stuff (which is why you've probably seen it all in the trailers). Cussing, pulling on a bottle of booze as he chases down bad guys and dressing like a wino, Smith has fun playing against type, and in possibly his best big-screen performance yet, Jason Bateman makes an engaging comic foil.
Like "Incredibles" patriarch Mr. Incredible before him, Hancock has alienated the authorities with his DIY approach to problem-solving. They even issue a warrant for his arrest. Ray -- who owes the guy his life and has invited him into his home to meet the wife (Charlize Theron) -- encourages Hancock to surrender himself, serve some time, address his alcohol and anger-management issues, and wait for soaring crime statistics to pave his early release.
It's when this scenario plays out that Peter Berg's movie jumps the tracks. Writers Vincent Ngo and Vince Gilligan have concocted an outrageous, mind-boggling twist that comes so far out of left field you would need a crystal ball to see it coming.
No spoilers here, but it doesn't work, not in the short term and not in the big picture either. It's as if we've been whisked from one kind of movie -- a brisk, superficial but entertaining high-concept comedy -- and into the theater next door, where they're showing some sort of tragic "X-Men" knockoff. The last half-hour of this 92-minute movie is a fiasco.
Berg's shaky-cam technique doesn't help, nor does a weak, inadequate villain (played by Eddie Marsan). Still, it's rare -- and startling -- to see a big-budget movie fall apart so dramatically. Whether it was inspired by ego or economics, more than anything the turnaround feels like a colossal collective failure of nerve.
"Hancock" will likely post strong long weekend figures, but just watch those numbers plummet as the word gets out. A superhero can overcome many things, but not a movie that goes off the rails. |
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bassexpander
Joined: 13 Sep 2007
Location: Someplace you'd rather be.
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| Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 2:13 am Post subject: Re: Review says Hancock is a trainwreck |
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Sad to hear this.... was looking forward to it.
| bassexpander wrote: |
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Movies/07/01/review.hancock/index.html
| Quote: |
CNN) -- Train wrecks are intrinsically spectacular, and Will Smith's new movie offers a doozy. Two of them, in fact.
Hancock
Jason Bateman and Will Smith star in "Hancock."
In the first, Jason Bateman's genial public relations guy Ray is sitting in his car, snarled in traffic and oblivious to the locomotive bearing down on him until it's almost too late.
Fortunately for Ray, John Hancock (Smith) is on the case. Using his Superman-like powers, Hancock flips Ray's car up and over in a neat backward somersault, safely out of harm's way. At the same time he thrusts out his arm and stops the train in its tracks. While Ray is grateful, the guy in the car underneath his isn't so sure -- and the damage to the derailed train stretches back a half-mile or more.
That's the train wreck within the movie. The train wreck that is the movie is even more interesting.
We all know that Will Smith "owns" the July 4 weekend -- so much so, there aren't any other big openings this week (aside from the small-scale "Kit Kittredge: An American Girl," which began in limited release last week). Since "Independence Day" he's virtually become synonymous with Big Summer Fun. And he makes it look so easy, too.
"Hancock" tinkers with that self-confidence a little bit. Apparently immortal and impervious to pain, Hancock fulfills the superhero's brief -- he safeguards the citizenry of Los Angeles -- but he's sunk well below complacency into an alcoholic stew of resentment and contempt for his public. When a young fan stirs him from a drunken stupor to chase some bad guys in the movie's opening scene, Hancock sends him off with an insult: "What do you want, a cookie?"
Later, he picks up an obnoxious kid who has pushed his luck too far and flings him into the stratosphere, catching him 30 seconds later with obvious reluctance.
In short, this is not the agreeable Will Smith we know and love, and even in this summer of edgier, angrier action heroes (see also "Iron Man" and "The Incredible Hulk"), Hancock may be the first full-blown jerk to front a blockbuster.
But before you jump to conclusions, this is not the problem with the movie. Though the cynical, adult edge to the comedy may limit the film's audience (it is rated PG-13) it also qualifies as a welcome change. Hancock's reckless heroism -- and the wreckage he leaves in his wake -- inspires the film's funniest stuff (which is why you've probably seen it all in the trailers). Cussing, pulling on a bottle of booze as he chases down bad guys and dressing like a wino, Smith has fun playing against type, and in possibly his best big-screen performance yet, Jason Bateman makes an engaging comic foil.
Like "Incredibles" patriarch Mr. Incredible before him, Hancock has alienated the authorities with his DIY approach to problem-solving. They even issue a warrant for his arrest. Ray -- who owes the guy his life and has invited him into his home to meet the wife (Charlize Theron) -- encourages Hancock to surrender himself, serve some time, address his alcohol and anger-management issues, and wait for soaring crime statistics to pave his early release.
It's when this scenario plays out that Peter Berg's movie jumps the tracks. Writers Vincent Ngo and Vince Gilligan have concocted an outrageous, mind-boggling twist that comes so far out of left field you would need a crystal ball to see it coming.
No spoilers here, but it doesn't work, not in the short term and not in the big picture either. It's as if we've been whisked from one kind of movie -- a brisk, superficial but entertaining high-concept comedy -- and into the theater next door, where they're showing some sort of tragic "X-Men" knockoff. The last half-hour of this 92-minute movie is a fiasco.
Berg's shaky-cam technique doesn't help, nor does a weak, inadequate villain (played by Eddie Marsan). Still, it's rare -- and startling -- to see a big-budget movie fall apart so dramatically. Whether it was inspired by ego or economics, more than anything the turnaround feels like a colossal collective failure of nerve.
"Hancock" will likely post strong long weekend figures, but just watch those numbers plummet as the word gets out. A superhero can overcome many things, but not a movie that goes off the rails. |
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R-Seoul
Joined: 23 Aug 2006
Location: your place
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| Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 2:58 am Post subject: |
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| Ask yourself honestly, have you ever seen a Will Smith movie that wasn't a bit shit. I know I haven't. |
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OneWayTraffic
Joined: 14 Mar 2005
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| Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 5:39 am Post subject: |
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| R-Seoul wrote: |
| Ask yourself honestly, have you ever seen a Will Smith movie that wasn't a bit shit. I know I haven't. |
MIB was pure awsomeness. |
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Justin Kimberlake
Joined: 20 May 2008
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| Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 6:13 am Post subject: |
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The AV Club gave it a B+.
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From the moment Hancock first introduces Will Smith as a drunken, glowering, foul-mouthed superhero, it seems clear that he's eventually going to rehabilitate himself into the charming version of Will Smith, the one who became famous on the strength of wisecracks and a famously infectious grin. The movie telegraphs that change in the trailer and even in the first half-hour of action, as Smith's hostile hero�who frequently causes millions of dollars in damages while sloppily foiling crimes in Los Angeles�meets PR man Jason Bateman, who offers him a major public-image makeover. But the obvious never happens. Instead, Hancock takes off at right angles, essentially turning into M. Night Shyamalan's Unbreakable, as seen through the big action lens of modern superhero movies like Iron Man and the Spider-Man series.
Like Shyamalan's movies, Hancock leans clumsily on a twisted, complicated mythology that's revealed in awkward chunks just in time to become relevant to the plot. Unlike Shyamalan's films, it's a propulsive action movie that zips through its first half-hour on a wave of big setpieces, directed with herky-jerky handheld queasiness by Friday Night Lights' Peter Berg. The story attempts to balance pathos, drama, action, and comedy, with mixed results. When the soundtrack answers Smith's latest over-the-top act of super-violence with the theme from Sanford And Son, or the script mines running-gag yuks out of Smith's frustration over all the people who call him "asshole," Hancock seems so recklessly silly that it's hard to follow its sudden turn into tragedy.
Still, 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. Smith is too much a ubiquitous superstar to entirely disappear into his role, but his playing against type offers its own flavors of comedy, and Bateman, in his comfortably well-worn role as a glib peacemaker, fills the charisma void left by Smith's stony performance. Hancock is an odd film�part My Super Ex-Girlfriend, part Transformers-esque messy blockbuster, part weird indie comic�but while it isn't necessarily as poignant as it wants to be, it manages the humor and heroics side of the equation admirably enough. If nothing else, it's worth it just to see a ready-made Superman-sized superhero in action without all the baggage of decades of retellings and reworkings; even looking at familiar faces working through a familiar genre, it's nice to be surprised for once.
A.V. Club Rating: B+
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Sounds rather subversive to me. |
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catman
Joined: 18 Jul 2004
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pkang0202
Joined: 09 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 4:24 pm Post subject: |
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Not until August in Korea. |
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Chillin' Villain
Joined: 13 Mar 2003
Location: Goo Row
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| Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 5:13 pm Post subject: |
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| pkang0202 wrote: |
Not until August in Korea. |
I KNOW! And what's the point of that, especially in a country where piracy is so ingrained? It just seems to give downloaders and Yongsan merchants that much more time to watch the movie and not bother paying to see it in theaters. Looking forward to it, though.
Bummer to hear about Hancock- I had some hope for it. |
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5600
Joined: 07 Apr 2008
Location: At an undisclosed FEMA camp.
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| Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 4:46 am Post subject: |
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Wall-E is out on DVD, has been for about a week or longer. Stupid movie waste of 3,000won.
Hankock has a few laughs but gets boring as well. Worth about 1,500won.
Zohan has a few laughs as well but just a few. |
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