Movies I would force Hitler to sit through III

Ok, I get it. Satire is one of the chief forms of cinema and it can make movies pretty funny. Satire worked well in Armando Ianucci's political comedy In the Loop, John Landis's Spies like Us, and Ben Stiller's outrageous spoof of Lala Land, Tropic Thunder. As I dig deeper into this film, which I am about to crush, I understand director Peter Berg's motives for wanting to satirize superheroes. They are a symbol of perfection and goodness in the world. They represent the safety and security that everyone on Earth should feel while they are alive. Satirizing something like this could be funny, not This is Spinal Tap funny, but sort of funny. Well, I didn't find Hancock funny, not one bit. I got lost four minutes into the movie and never turned back. I thought, "why should I give this movie a second chance? what has it done for me?". So, Hancock, you're about to get bashed.

Hancock (Will Smith) is a boozed up, foul mouth, gangster-ass superhero. He doesn't give a shit about the city he protects, and the people of LA don't really care about him either. The bottom line is, Hancock has cost the city of Los Angeles more money in damages then Wesley Snipes and Bernie Madoff owe the national government. Things start to turn around for Hancock when a small time PR exec (Jason Bateman) offers to paint Hancock as a new man.

I'm usually a Will Smith kind of guy. I appreciate his work ethic and I think he has made some great films. Hancock, for Smith of course, is like the scar you get after picking a crusty, smelly scab. I guess the Special Effects make up for the lack of meaningful dialogue or an intelligent plotline, but a movie can only last for so long when based solely on animated flying sequences or walls being blasted through.

As for plot, character development, and dialogue (the things that actually make a movie good), Hancock seriously lacked in this department. At no point in time did I feel sorry for Jason Bateman's business failures. I thought his ideas were stupid, and during the first boardroom scene, I would have shut him down too. The relationship between Hancock and Mary (Charlize Theron) is confusing as well. I did not understand how exactly the two survived off of each other and at no point later in the film was that question answered. One of the worst decisions of this film was to create a villain. The introduction of Red (Eddie Marsan) occurred too far into the film and I did not have enough time to fully hate him. In fact, I felt a little sorry for him, what with having both of his hands chopped off!

Having to neg this film is difficult because, normally, I like the actors that were in it. Hancock, though, was like their acting abilities had been temporarily disabled and they were just winging it. I saw the potential of each character in almost every scene, but no one ever lived up to it. With just a little more effort, I bet this could have been a pretty cool film. But people just got lazy, and it failed harder then Pirates of the Caribbean 2. You're going to be pretty bored with this one Hitler, HA!