Happy-Go-Lucky

Flash of Genius

Eagle Eye

Ghost Town

The Duchess

Hounddog

Burn After Reading

Hamlet 2

The House Bunny

Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Elegy

Bottle Shock

Hancock (an unshaven Will Smith) is a wool-capped, whiskey-guzzling superhero who could easily be mistaken for a Los Angeles wino. When we first meet him, the hung-over misanthrope is roused from his drunken nap on a bus bench to fly to the aid of the LAPD and subdue a carful of freeway shooters. But before he ultimately spindles the bad guys' getaway car atop the Capitol Records building, the temperamental crime-fighter ricochets them through several skyscrapers, tears up stretches of the Hollywood Freeway and destroys a convoy of police vehicles, to a tab of $9 million. Even little kids call this super antihero an asshole. So when Hancock rescues Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman) from an oncoming locomotive (and needlessly destroys the entire train in the process), the do-gooder corporate PR flack wants to return the favor by polishing Hancock's tarnished image. He welcomes Hancock into his suburban home and, under the eye of Ray's suspicious wife (Charlize Theron) and adoring son (Jae Head), gives him a much-needed makeover and attitude adjustment.

This antisocial action comedy -- written by Vincent Ngo (Beat the Devil) and Vince Gilligan (The X-Files) and directed by actor-turned-director Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights, The Kingdom) -- aggregates the powers of a legion of comic book heroes. Hancock can fly like Superman and bench a semi à la The Hulk. And like Spider-Man, he's often misunderstood. Hancock's one truly original trait is his utterly foul disposition, which doesn't make for such an appealing protagonist, but does allow for some naughty revenge thrills, as when he launches a neighborhood bully (Halloween's Daeg Faerch) into the stratosphere or shoves an antagonistic prisoner's head up another inmate's ass. (If you like literal follow-through on trash-talking taunts, then this movie's for you.) But these moments are fleeting. And the dystonic, dark and violent climax would be better suited for a brutal psychological thriller than a glossy action comedy.

Bateman -- one of the most nuanced comic actors in the movies -- does the movie's heavy lifting as Hancock's lone likeable character. But he seems to be texting it in here, channeling the patented pathological calm and parenting patois of his Arrested Development character Michael Bluth. Oddly, Charlize Theron (Bateman's Arrested Development co-star) looks like a completely different actress from scene to scene. Her eye makeup defines her mood. But Hancock's overall success hinges on Smith's likability; while he's appealing as both a matinee idol and in dramatic underdog roles, his charisma does not ooze through to make the curmudgeonly Hancock even remotely likeable, even after he turns "good." In the end, Hancock harnesses all the charm of Mel Gibson on a bender.

by Rob. Walton

Credit: Frank Masi SMPSP