Hancock (Two-Disc Unrated Edition)

The Only One of its Kind
Hancock (Will Smith) is not your garden variety superhero. He's more like your garden variety bum. He spends most of his day sleeping on benches and drinking booze. When duty calls, he awakens from his drunken coma, bottle in hand to stop the wrong-doers. If there's a lesson to be learned here, it's not to fight crime drunk because it costs millions in property damage and public outrage. Luckily for Hancock, somebody wants to help the poor guy. Cue Ray (Jason Batemen) a publicist who vows to change the superhero's image in exchange for Hancock's saving his life.

The first half of "Hancock" is chock full of crude humor and the superhero doing his worst at being the best. It's thoroughly entertaining and will provide plenty of laughs. The second half of "Hancock" is about the superhero in the spotlight, but this time he is depicted as a "true" superhero and the public begins to recognize him as a positive figure. The second half is what makes or breaks the movie for...

It's Not Easy Being a Superhero
Peter Berg's "Hancock" puts a refreshing new spin on the superhero genre by keeping a majority of the conflict within. The title character fights his share of bad guys, but it's his own struggle for identity that takes center stage, a struggle that would be relatable were it not for his super-strength powers. As a man who can't remember his real name or even where he came from, Hancock may actually be worse off than Bruce Wayne; despite emotional scarring from a painful past, at least he's always known who he is. Hancock has been given powers without knowing why, and because of that, he has no idea how to use them. He's the superhero no one wants to be saved by, a lonely, miserable, self-destructive man who can't get along with anyone. As the film progresses, we wait for that climactic moment when this character is finally given the chance to redeem himself.

As interesting as this character is, "Hancock" is not everything it could have been. This is mostly due to a gigantic...

Unrated Blu-Ray disk a decent start
Hancock wasn't the superhero movie that changed the genre like the studio's claimed, but it was good, solid entertainment. The theatrical release of the movie was rated PG-13 in order to draw the largest crowd to the box office. What you are getting here is both the R version and the released PG-13 version. The only real difference is ten extra minutes of footage here and there and a good deal more foul language from the Hancock character. Now that we got the "Unrated" question out of the way lets get down to the movie.

Hancock is one of those antihero-turned-hero type movies where you see the title character be all antisocial and then eventually learns how to respect others and be respected. Will Smith is definitely a great actor for the role. He gives the character just enough smug attitude without hamming it up. Will had gone a long way from the cut up hero he was in movies like Independence Day and MIB. He also does a good job with the transition of the character going...

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