Hancock

By Robbie Collin

LIKE most heroes, John Hancock has a secret reserve of super-strength.

Unlike most heroes, his is brewed by Tennants and stashed under a park bench. Because Hancock (Will Smith) is a workshy alcoholic who happens to have superpowers.

Faster than a speeding bullet on Giro day and willing to leap tall buildings for a single pound, this man is not your typical blockbuster poster boy.

He swears at kids, pinches the a***s of women and generally acts like a t*t—until some crisis forces him to drag his whisky-soaked carcass out of a bush.

After he saves PR guru Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman) from a car crash, Embrey vows to clean up the hero’s public image. He makes him serve an outstanding jail sentence, sorts out his attitude problem and buys him a Spandex suit.

And his gradual transformation is very amusing indeed. This first part—which thankfully takes up most of the movie—is pretty much blockbuster perfection. A funnier, more enjoyable most-of-a-film I don’t think we’ll see this year.

Smith is on Christ-like form, delivering gags with timing so sharp he should be sponsored by Tag Heuer. Bateman and Charlize Theron, as Ray’s wife Mary, shine in supporting roles.

And there’s scene after scene after scene of pacy, skilful storytelling, which proves director Peter Berg has mastered the No1 rule of blockbuster film-making: don’t tell, show.

It’s up there with Men In Black for effortless brilliance. But at the 60-minute mark, the story (unloved superhero gets his PR sorted) comes to a neat conclusion and panic sets in as the cast and crew suddenly realise there are still more than 30 minutes to fill.

So out comes the filler and nnyeehrrr SMACK, we’ve crash-landed in two-star territory.There’s NOTHING after the film’s natural climax—a dramatic bank heist—that lives up to what’s gone before it.

Apparently Hancock had another ending but early test audiences hated it so a different one was shot at the last minute. That explains why the existing ending feels tacked on. It is.

But if two-thirds of a film as good as Men In Black is on offer, I’ll take it.