Friday, July 11, 2008

Hancock (and One Missed Call)

Hancock (2008)



This is going to be short, because I can't say much about it without spoiling it and I don't want to do that. I was fortunate enough to go into the movie unspoiled and I wouldn't want to ruin that for anyone else.

I really liked this movie for a couple of reasons. First, speaking of not having it spoiled, I was surprised to learn that the trailers hadn't already shown me the whole movie. The trailers are only the first act and I loved getting to the point where I'd seen everything in them and knew that there was still another hour or so of movie left to explore.

Second, the film's got a ton of heart. Will Smith shows once again that we shouldn't underestimate him as an actor and I liked Jason Bateman's character a lot more than I thought I would. I like Bateman as an actor, but I don't trust PR guys, so I was afraid that his character would be overly slick if not downright sleazy. Not at all. Everyone you're supposed to like, you really like. You root hard for Hancock and that's what carries the movie. I absolutely loved his character.

Even though I really liked everything about the movie though, I didn't love the film itself. I was confused by that for a while until my brother-in-law/movie-pal Dave put his finger right on what was missing. It's a superhero movie and superheroes are only as good as their villains. Hancock has his enemies, but they're not very interesting ones. They're okay, and there's potential for them to be really awesome - especially if there's a sequel - but they're not as developed as Hancock and the rest of the main cast are. So, what's there... I loved. I just wish the movie could've given me a little bit more.

Four out of five whale tosses.

Bonus non-review: One Missed Call (2008)



I didn't finish the US version of One Missed Call. The special effects were crap, but even worse than that was the complete stupidity of all the main characters.

It's about this circle of college friends who know that a couple of their friends have died after receiving mysterious phone calls from future versions of themselves. The main character Beth (in the middle of that picture above) has even heard one of the messages and tries to convince the police to do something about it. One of the detectives on the case (Margaret Cho) doesn't believe her, but the other one, Detective Andrews (Edward Burns from 27 Dresses), does because his sister also just died under similar circumstances.

So, when Beth's friend Taylor (holding the phone in the picture) gets one of the phone calls, she and Beth immediately go to Detective Andrews and solicit his help, right? Of course not. They destroy the phone (and any evidence or clues it contains), hoping that that will rid them of the curse.

Eventually Andrews finds out anyway because he uncovers a lead on his own. But instead of going to check it out, he decides to swing by Beth's place first to let her know what he's learned. And of course she demands to go with him on his investigation. And of course he lets her.

And when the investigation leads them to a locked door on a private residence, Andrews tells Beth he can't just break in because "I'm a cop."

"I'm not," Beth smiles. And Andrews gives her a piece of lock-picking paper to try to open the door credit card-style.

Only Beth can't do it, so Andrews does it for her anyway.

And that's when I turned it off.

It's too bad too because I was kind of into the mystery about what was causing the phone calls and why the victims all had pieces of red hard candy in their mouths. But I just couldn't sit through any more.

If anyone's seen it and can explain the mystery to me, I'd be grateful.

One out of five red hardcandies.

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