Tangled Magazine

Hancock (2008)

Starring: Will Smith, Charlize Theron, Jason Bateman
Director: Peter Berg
Rating: AUS: M 15+ / US: PG-13
Release Dates: AUS: July 3, 2008 / US: July 2, 2008
Stars: **** out of 5

Whatever Will Smith does, it turns into box office gold. This one should be no exception, his new action film, Hancock.

Hancock (Smith) is the anti-superhero. He spends his day getting along with excessive amounts of alcohol and saving civilians but does a catastrophic job. Tossing a whale back hitting an occupied yacht doesn’t make him favourable to the whole city of Los Angeles despises him. He doesn’t know how to do things right. Yet another catastrophic rescue at a train station, he saves a man from colliding with an oncoming train and ends up upside down in his car on top of other cars. Turns out the man Hancock saved is Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman), a publicist who looks past Hancock’s downfalls and wants to help him be the superhero he should be.

Ray takes Hancock home to meet his family, his wife Mary (Charlize Theron) and his son Aaron (Jae Head). Mary is not amused to see Hancock in her home because all the negativity surrounding him that she sees in the news, nevertheless she can’t stop gazing at him every chance she gets, insinuating that there may be something more to them than you know.

The performances from the three big names are all exceptional. Smith the action star is continually spectacular to all audiences, Theron has such presence and beauty on screen and Bateman is entertaining as always in each role he takes on

Director Peter Berg (The Rundown, The Kingdom) has delivered us another action thrill ride with Hancock. It has kick ass action, spirit and a little comical too.