Is Will Smith just another last action hero in Hancock? (Columbia)
Will Smith is a performer who's built up a lot of good will on the part of audiences. People like him, they really like him. Maybe it's all those years coming into their living rooms as the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Or maybe it was the promise offered up by the truly fine work he did in his debut Six Degrees of Separation . Or maybe it's the blockbuster appeal of his films Independence Day and Men in Black . Well whatever it is, Smith is going to have to bank on that audience good will if he's to survive unscathed from his latest outing Hancock (opening July 2 throughout San Diego).
Max
July 04, 2008 at 09:10 PM
Ick. I think I'll skip this one. The more I know about the movie from trailers that are more and more revealing, the less I want to see it.
I saw Dai Nipponjin and that was absolutely hilarious even if the pacing is way slow in the beginning.
Beth Accomando
July 05, 2008 at 03:28 PM
Most definitely skip this one.
I'm impressed you found Dai Nipponjin. It is a bit slow at first but it pays off in the end.
Thanks!
Guy from NYC
July 07, 2008 at 11:08 AM
It's a good thing you found a Japanese movie that is slow enough for you to enjoy. maybe you should try watching Hancock in slow motion? ;)
Seriously though, I find that in order to enjoy these types of movies (action/adventure) all one has to do is sit down and stop thinking. of course, most critics can't do that because they need to dissect every little part of the movie which is exactly what these movies are not about.
Beth Accomando from San Diego
July 07, 2008 at 02:24 PM
I enjoy plenty of action films and guess what? For good ones like this summer's Iron Man or even Wanted I don't have to stop thinking to enjoy them (just let go of reality a bit).
As for your suggestion to watch Hancock in slow motion -- please no! Hancock was painful enough at normal speed -- and seemed far slower than Dai Nipponjin and longer than all three Lord of the Rings films combined, just far less entertaining. So the idea of Hancock in slow motion would be like Chinese water torture.
Why is it that when critics dislike action films or popcorn movies, the knee jerk reaction is that critics just don't know how to enjoy a movie. There is such a thing as bad pop entertainment and Hancock is badly made. For dumb but thoroughly enjoyable action the best recent example is Live Free and Die Hard. For smarter action this summer, there's Hellboy II and The Dark Knight. So with choices like that I simply can't recommend seeing Hancock.
Thanks for your comment. I'm glad at least you didn't feel like you wasted your time and money seeing it.
Matthew C. Scallon
July 09, 2008 at 04:54 PM
As one of those tech geeks, I might be able to explain why the ending seemed to go on forever. At 4k resolution, there was twice as much bad filmmaking in the same amount of screen space. In the time-space continuum, something had to give :-).
@Guy from NYC, maybe you haven't read many of her reviews, because she's not one of these "I hate any movies which don't come with sub-titles" kind of critic. She likes action movies. She likes action movies more than I do. Hell, she goes to Comic-Con EVERY YEAR, and not just because she's a "member of the media."
P.S., @Beth, as you may have already gathered from the lack of local news coverage on the topic, I didn't win the lottery :-(. Still, if there was going to be a day that I did win, that was the day, and the production backstory for my film would have beaten Michael Moore's "Roger and Me" and Robert Townscend's "Hollyword Shuffle" any day of the week.
Beth Accomando from San Diego
July 09, 2008 at 05:05 PM
Matthew--
I love your assessment of "twice as much bad filmmaking" in 4K!
Thanks.
saif from jordan
September 10, 2008 at 07:55 AM
it is very nice movei
coolkhush from india
January 07, 2009 at 04:27 PM
Hancock is a good movie not that great but is a watch at least once and a good movie to have a collection of so as soon as the dvds wer released i had my copy have u got urs.......
