Superheroes Big Willy Style: Austinist Reviews Hancock

Will Smith crashes into his old July 4th opening weekend slot with a bottle of whiskey in hand. He may be slightly inebriated, but he can still drive this one to a successful “Independence Day.” Har har.

Hancock spins the good ol' superhero tale on its head, with our flying wonder being somewhat of a drunken a-hole who tends to cause more damage and mayhem than good. The film opens with a shitfaced Hancock (the most bankable movie star in the biz, Will Smith) flying to battle some bad Asian gangstas to the delightful soundtrack of Ludacris' “move, bitch, get out the way.” While he catches the homies, he sorta effs up a couple of buildings, roads, and cop cars in the process, and generally, people hate the dude.

That is, until Jason Bateman steps in. Ray (Bateman) is a public relations rep who is rescued by Hancock and, as repayment, decides to make over the superhero's image. Along the way, we learn that Ray’s wife (Charlize Theron) has an interesting tie to Hancock, who can’t remember anything about his life prior to waking up in a hospital 80 years before.

While the CGI is sometimes a little distracting, and the origin story sometimes becomes a little too philosophical, the best bits are the interactions between Ray and Hancock. With his razor-sharp comedic timing, Bateman shows America why the Arrested Development film needs to get made. And Smith, who always plays super-likeable characters, goes out on a limb to play the jackass drunk…who, okay, dammit, he’s still likeable. There’s a particularly funny scene where Ray gets smashed and Hancock has to tuck him in. Cute, cute stuff.