Hancock

I went to see Will Smith's new movie Hancock earlier today. Despite the negative reviews, I liked it.

The movie does start off as a lot of fun. Hancock is a washed up and perpetually drunk superhero with an attitude problem, who spends his off time sleeping on park benches. His occasional forays into the field of crime fighting usually end up causing more problems than they solve. In the initial chase scene, he flies after some bad guys in an SUV. While trying to catch them, Hancock manages to fly into an overhead highway sign, knocking it down onto several pursuing police cars. He finally catches them, picks up their car, and leaves them stuck on the spire of the Capital Records building. Along the way he manages to seriously damage several other skyscrapers, leading one city official to complain that the so-called hero's latest foray into crime fighting ended up doing $9 million in damage.

Later he ends up saving Jason Bateman (formerly of Arrested Development) from getting hit by a train. Of course, in the process, Hancock manages to wreck several other cars and cause a major derailment.

The good news is that Bateman turns out to be a PR guy in search of a client, who then sets out to rehabilitate Hancock's image. And what better way to do it than by having the superhero surrender for one of the many arrest warrants out for him and go to jail.

This also sets up one of the movie's funniest scenes: Hancock arrives in prison and is immediately confronted by several burly inmates, most of whom are in there because of him. Hancock threatens to shove one guy's head up another's ass if they don't move. They don't, and he does. But what really makes the scene is the reaction of the other inmates, who are suddenly reduced to screaming in horror at the spectacle of violence that unfolds before them.

The crime rate in LA inevitably begins to rise, and soon the chief of police is forced to call on Hancock to end a particularly nasty hostage standoff at a bank.

And up to this point the movie works really well. It's light with plenty of laughs.

It's shortly after the bank sequence that the movie begins to take a darker and more serious turn. Without revealing any spoilers, I'll just say that we do learn a little about Hancock's origins and his weaknesses. Personally I thought it was adequately explained, though just barely. Any more dwelling on it, and the plot probably would have started to drag.

And therein lies the movie's strongest suit: It moves quickly and never really drags. On the other hand, it also barely runs 85 minutes from the opening scene to the start of the closing credits. That almost qualifies as a ripoff given today's ticket prices. But it also means that the producers should have had time to come up with a few more action scenes showing why the people of Los Angeles so thoroughly dislike Hancock.

If you do decide to see the movie, don't rush out of the theater the moment it ends. There is one more short scene about a minute into the credits.

Klaatu Barada Nikto, Dude!

Among the various trailers before the movie was one for a new Keanu Reeves film due out in December: A remake of 1951's classic The Day the Earth Stood Still. Left unanswered, however, is the question of WHY?!?!? Was there something wrong with the original black & white version? Aren't some things best just left alone? Did mankind learn nothing from its failed flirtation with New Coke?

The problem with a remake, especially when it's of a true classic, is that more often than not it ends up ruining the reputation of the original. And even if some moron Hollywood executive did ultimately decide that--for some ungodly reason--a remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still was somehow a good idea, did they have to get Keanu Reeves for the part of Klaatu? And who are they going to stick in the Gort costume? The guy who played Ted?

Actually, it wasn't clear from the preview whether there's even going to be a Gort robot in this one. There's a shot of a huge sphere rising from the ocean, but it's unclear if that's the spaceship or some sort of destructive device. That's followed by quick scenes of various things disintegrating into dust, including a stadium.