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Hancock
EMAILPRINTColumbia Pictures (Sony)

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 37 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 258 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Action | Comedy | Drama | Fantasy
Written by:
Vince Gilligan
Vincent Ngo
Directed by: Peter Berg
Release Date:
Theatrical: July 2, 2008
DVD: November 25, 2008
Running Time: minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for some rude humor, action violence and language
Starring Will Smith, Charlize Theron, Jason Bateman, and Eddie Marsan
There are heroes… there are superheroes… and then there’s Hancock. With great power comes great responsibility – everyone knows that – everyone, that is, but Hancock. Edgy, conflicted, sarcastic, and misunderstood, Hancock’s well-intentioned heroics might get the job done and save countless lives, but always seem to leave jaw-dropping damage in their wake. The public has finally had enough – as grateful as they are to have their local hero, the good citizens of Los Angeles are wondering what they ever did to deserve this guy. Hancock isn’t the kind of man who cares what other people think – until the day that he saves the life of PR executive Ray Embrey, and the sardonic superhero begins to realize that he may have a vulnerable side after all. Facing that will be Hancock’s greatest challenge yet – and a task that may prove impossible as Ray’s wife, Mary, insists that he’s a lost cause. (Sony Pictures)
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Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
The New Yorker David Denby
Hancock suggests new visual directions and emotional tonalities for pop. It's by far the most enjoyable big movie of the summer.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
A rollicking tale of rehabilitation and redemption, rife with cool special effects, Hancock is smart and surprisingly raunchy.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson
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.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
One of the rare action films that needed to be longer. Then changes in mood wouldn't be so abrupt, and director Peter Berg and writers Vincent Ngo and Vince Gilligan would've had more time to reveal things we want to know.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Bateman doesn't make a false move, and a stellar Charlize Theron springs her own bolts from the blue as Ray's wife. As for Smith, he's on fire. There's nothing like a star shining on his highest beams. You follow him anywhere.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Hancock is a lot of fun, if perhaps a little top-heavy with stuff being destroyed. Smith makes the character more subtle than he has to be, more filled with self-doubt, more willing to learn.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Connie Ogle
The real hit of the movie is the hilarious Bateman. His low-key humor makes you wish Hancock could have saved Bateman's short-lived sitcom "Arrested Development." Now that would have been heroic.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Manohla Dargis
Hancock makes for one unexpectedly satisfying and kinky addition to Hollywood's superhero chronicles. Touching and odd, laden with genuine twists and grounded by three appealing lead performances.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
As popcorn movies go, this is fleet, funny, and even thoughtful: its central question, nicely underplayed by director Peter Berg, is why power and altruism never seem to intersect.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell
In a film marketplace where even the best superhero movies tend to do a lot of the same stuff, I really admire Will Smith and bad-boy director Peter Berg for trying something different.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
The first half is diverting and inventive. But the filmmakers use the second half as a box-office insurance policy. They fill it with the conventional super-heroics and heartbreak that they spend the first 45 minutes gleefully deconstructing.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
The script doesn't always find the most effective way to the heart of the conflicts and Berg struggles to balance the mix of tones and the conflicts of man and superman, but he never sacrifices the integrity of his characters or their relationships for an easy ending. That alone makes Hancock the most adult of the new wave of superhero dramas.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
The promise is dangled yet never developed. Rather, the narrative slips into a backstory that alternates between confusing and contradictory.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
Sometimes funny, sometimes clever, and occasionally involving, but it's never brilliant and its edge is compromised by the neutering that accompanies the teen-friendly PG-13 rating.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
Hancock is just intriguing enough that I kept wishing it were better. But Berg doesn't have the subtle touch that this material needs.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Stephen Farber
The visual effects are stellar, but the true star is Smith, who again demonstrates acting chops as well as effortless charisma in a vehicle that's only occasionally worthy of his superhuman skills.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Ella Taylor
Doesn't seem to quite know what it is or where it's headed. So it goes anywhere it can while treading thematic water.
Read Full Review >Empire Kim Newman
See-saws between straight superhero movie and parody, with layers of soap-opera fudge in between. A lot of solid scenes - but Hancock lacks the power of super-coherence.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
Hancock can revel in schmuckery, of course, because you and I and cute kids and peaceful oldies worldwide know in advance that there's no way on Hollywood's green earth Will Smith will ever play someone seriously, dangerously unsavory.
Read Full Review >Time Richard Corliss
It's strenuous, smartly-made and ordinary to an extraordinary degree.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
More intelligent than most summer blockbusters and features at its center a thought-out and committed performance by Will Smith. But in the end it's merely ALMOST good.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
The result is an inconsistent, incoherent anti-superhero action-adventure comedy.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar
Starts off promisingly, but gets bogged down when it abandons humor for gravity.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Wesley Morris
Once the vulgar comedy dissipates, we're left with poorly photographed, bullet-riddled summer-action mayhem. The only thing drunker than Hancock is the editing and camerawork.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
Might have been more appropriately titled "Hodgepodge." What starts out with a sense of quirky fun loses direction and devolves into a mishmash of story lines.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
What begins as a pretty good comedy devolves rapidly into a high-flown example of Hollywood messagemongering.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
It's a strange feeling to see the summer's most promising premise self-destruct into something bizarre and unsatisfying, but that is the Hancock experience.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
There's a great idea here, but it's buried within a muddled story that lurches between dark comedy and maudlin drama.
Read Full Review >Slate Dana Stevens
The climax, a multipart showdown in the corridors of a hospital, is unforgivably manipulative. What self-respecting director still cuts away to shots of a heartbeat monitor flat-lining? Hancock isn't the only underachiever on the premises--the talented Berg settles for far less than he should.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Robert Wilonsky
It doesn't take itself as seriously as it should, and undercuts a final act that should have and so could have packed a mighty emotional wallop.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
This movie fails so spectacularly - and on so many levels - that it's like watching a train plummet off a bridge.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
Not even Smith's charisma can mitigate the chaos that is Hancock.
Read Full Review >Newsweek David Ansen
The superhero genre screams for a makeover, or at least a smart deconstruction, but Hancock isn't that movie. It just ups the foolishness ante.
Read Full Review >Variety Todd McCarthy
The effects are snazzy, even if they pass by quite quickly, and there's enough going on to keep audiences watching, if not entirely happy. Smith, Theron and Bateman capably handle the main roles, but such is the skimpiness of the scenario that no further characters make any impact.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Stephen Hunter
The problem is that director Peter Berg, aided and abetted by Smith and Theron and third banana Jason Bateman, seem to have made it literally, not realizing its out-of-whack tonalities and grotesque plot twists were meant to be played for laughs.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
Any notions of demolishing black stereotypes -- and what else could have possessed Mr. Smith to do this? -- are dashed by the coarseness of it all, and by the narrative incoherence; a surprising plot twist turns a sloppy action-comedy into a totally different movie, and an even worse one.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 6.5 (out of 10) based on 258 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Michael A gave it a3:
Thank God i finally have a reason to punch Will Smith in the face, not to count the pointless story.
[Anonymous] gave it a6:
The movie feels like an unfinished idea. After an OK lowbrow comedy, it shifts into some weird sci-fi that never really fully forms, and ends just as it gets interesting. It's as if instead of letting writers finish, the execs just threw the unfinished product on screen, hoping to make big money anyways. It did business well, but the fact htht this movie could've been something much more makes it all the more frustrating.
Levente S gave it a9:
Despite a slightly flat performance from Charlize Theron in a keystone role as opponent-come love-interest, and a bit of a muddled plot, Hancock is more than rescued by Will Smith's charisma and charm, not to mention a solid script, well-rounded characters, and a soundtrack that surprised me more than anything else. not perfect, not even close, but definitely worth more than one viewing.
Carson E gave it an8:
While this movie is no where near as good as Iron Man or no where near as action packed as The Incredible Hulk it does bring a much needed comedic element that has been lacking in the superhero genre and has more than enough action in it to satisfy action movie fans and superhero movie fans alike.
Vermin D gave it a7:
Not as bad as I expected it to be, though all the way through I kept thinking anyone other than Will Smith would have been better in the title role. The story was a bit of a mish-mash, and seemed like it couldn’t decide whether to be a knock about comedy, interesting character piece or serious love story. In the end it appeared to settle for pompous moody diatribe with tacked on happy ending, but I still enjoyed it.
Lauren S gave it a5:
I tried to give the movie a chance; like i do with all movies if it lacks humor, or even just a back bone to the story. Hancock failed on that account and it also had no structure to the CGI, or even the plot in particular. Movies usually have their own structure, and their own meaning but seriously, the only thing i can say is Hancock is an average movie. I have absolutely no feelings for it. It's one of the "seen films" it's not good or bad. It's just there sitting on the DVD shelf. Positives: If it truly is bad, i'm glad i had no interest in it at all, it's it good, it's bad because you don't know if you like it or not. Average movie, not horrible but not even memorable.
John h gave it a6:
So-so. This movie is pretty weak. I watched this and Iron man over the weekend. I would say that this movie is one you can skip.
