Home Movie Vault Disc Vault Coming Soon Join Our Mailing List Articles About Us Contest Soundtrack Books eStore
HANCOCK
(2-DISC UNRATED SPECIAL EDITION)

 ABOUT THE MOVIE

Genre: Action/Comedy
Starring: Will Smith, Charlize Theron, Jason Bateman, Eddie Marsan, Jae Head, David Mattey, Thomas Lennon, Johnny Galecki, Hayley Marie Norman
Director: Peter Berg
Rating: PG (Action Violence)
Year Made: 2008

 

 


 SPECIAL FEATURES

- Theatrical and Unrated Versions of the Film
- Unrated Version Includes Footages Not Seen in Theaters
- Bumps and Bruises
- Home Life
- Seeing the Future
- Superhumans: The Making of Hancock
- Suiting Up
- Mere Mortals: Behind-the-Scenes with "Dirty Pete"
- Digital Copy

 


 TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Languages: English/Thai
Subtitles: English/Thai/Chinese/
Korean
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1 Widescreen
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
Running Time: 1 hr 42 mins
Region Code: 3
Distributor: Origin Entertainment
Official Website:
www.sonypictures.com

 

 

SYNOPSIS:   

Academy Award® nominee Will Smith (Best Actor, The Pursuit of Happyness, 2006) stars in this action-packed comedy as Hancock, a sarcastic, hard-living and misunderstood superhero who has fallen out of favor with the public. When Hancock grudgingly agrees to an extreme makeover from idealistic publicist Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman, Juno), his life and reputation rise from the ashes and all seems right again--until he meets a woman (2003 Academy Award® winner Charlize Theron, Best Actress, Monster) with similar powers to his and the key to his secret past.

MOVIE REVIEW

Whatever the fresh prince of Bel-Air touches nowadays, it turns into gold. From "Bad Boys" to "Men In Black" to serious drama such as "The Pursuit of Happyness" and back to popcorn indulgences "I Am Legend", Smith is on a winning track.

But the man has never steps into the shoes of a comic book hero before until now. Strictly speaking, "Hancock" is not based on a Marvel or DC property so Smith is playing a totally fresh character with extraordinary powers, the likes of Superman without the detestable Kryptonite. He is "Hancock", a Superhero with a drinking problem, foul-mouth, destroys public properties, in short an asshole.

When Hancock saved the life of a PR man named Ray (Jason Bateman), he voluntarily suggests he be the one to salvage Hancock’s image. He brought Hancock back to his home, introduce him to his lovely wife Mary (Charlie Theron) and son and well, I leave the second half to your viewing pleasure.

The first half of the movie is rib-tickling and a shameless showcase of what Sony Imageworks can accomplish. It’s a witty satire on the Superhero genre. Will Smith once again prove he can be an excellent leading man given his wide range of expressions and charisma to carry a movie. Director Peter Berg who directed the "The Kingdom" and "The Rundown" shows audience a different side of a Superhero, the serious consequences of being one in a real world.

But unfortunately the script chicken out at the last minute and make a 180 degrees u-turn into a tragic Greek love story before ending with a huge bang in a hospital. "Hancock" fulfills its mission as a summer blockbuster but as a thinking man action hero movie (insert: The Dark Knight), Hancock still has a long way to go.

Disc One of the DVD contains both the theatrical and unrated version of "Hancock". The former runs at 92 minutes while the unrated clocks at 102 minutes - A mere 10 minutes difference. One obvious add-on includes a scene of Hancock getting intimate with a woman, additional dialogue pertaining to Charlie Theron’s character and the final hospital sequence being longer. No alternate ending or opening here and the unrated doesn’t add much mileage to the original theatrical version.

If you are going for "Hancock 2-Disc Unrated Special" DVD, just go straight to the unrated version, you have nothing to lose anyway.

SPECIAL FEATURES :

The commentary track is surprisingly missing here, what we have are various short features including:

Superhumans: The Making of Hancock – This 12 minutes featurette has the cast and crew including Akiva Goldsman, Michael Mann, Will Smith and Charlize Theron heaping praises and patting each other’s back.

Seeing the Future - 7 sequences lasting a total of about 15 minutes are shown comparing the actual shooting with the Pre-vis.

Building A Better Hero – Touches on John Dykstra, the industry veteran visual effects supervisor who created the digital version of Hancock with the help of his crew.

Bumps And Bruises – Not exactly Jackie Chan stuff but Will Smith proves he can handle being rigged and pulled by hydraulics in this 10 minutes stunt featurette.

Home Life – Though it doesn’t look so, the house where Jason Bateman’s character lives is built on the Universal Backlot. This informative feature takes us behind-the-scenes of furnishing the interior and exterior of it.

Suiting Up – This 8 minutes feature hosted by the costume designer delves on the various costumes designed for the lead characters in Hancock.

Mere Mortals: Behind the scenes with "Dirty Pete" – A short 3 minutes feature that showcases the hyperactive Peter Berg behind the camera.

The DVD is round up with trailers from Step Brothers, Pineapple Express, The House Bunny, Lakeview Terrace and Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist.

Disc Two also contains a digital copy of the theatrical version of the film meaning you can legally download it to your PDA, iPhone or laptop and watch it on the go though I still don’t see the benefits of squinting at the small screen on the train or bus.

AUDIO/VISUAL:

My fellow reviewer lament that Hancock is too noisy for comfort during his stint for the theatrical review. But the Dolby Digital 5.1 here is excellent and dynamic especially during the action sequences be it the car crash in the beginning, the bank robbery or the hospital attack. Peter Berg wanted Hancock to look gritty, rough which explains the quality of the visual differs from scene to scene. Not the perfect DVD to showcase the visual clarity but nevertheless competent enough to make you sit up for 102 minutes.

MOVIE RATING:



DVD RATING :

Review by Linus Tee

 
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE...



. Hancock (Movie Review)

Other titles from Origin Entertainment:

. You Don't Mess With The Zohan


. Prom Night

. Casino Royale

. Redbelt


. Felon

. Tortured

. Penelope

. Hellboy Animated: Blood & Iron

. Hellboy Animated: Sword of Storms

. Away From Her

. The Take

. Saawariya

. Black Book

. The Shepherd

. Conspiracy

. Cleaner

. Hero Wanted

. Shattered

. Breath

. Cashback

. Your Name Is Justine


. Death Sentence

. The Jane Austen Book Club

. Across The Universe

. The Triplets of Belleville

. The Ten Commandments

. CJ7

. Love Lies Bleeding

. Living Death

. La Vie En Rose

. Urban Justice

. Perfect Stranger

. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

. Reign Over Me

. Surf's Up

. 5ivegirls

. Vacancy

. Paprika

. Walking Tall: Lone Justice

. Dead Mary

. Spider-Man 3

. Priceless

. Trust the Man

. The Contractor

. Blood And Chocolate

. The Wicker Man

. Wind Chill

. Are We Done Yet?

. Android Apocalypse

. Elizabeth I


. The Proposition

. 3 Needles

. Ghost Rider

. The Pursuit of Happyness

. The Illusionist

. Catch & Release



 


This review is made possible with the kind support from Origin Entertainment

 



DISCLAIMER: Images, Textual, Copyrights and trademarks for the film and related entertainment properties mentioned
herein are held by their respective owners and are solely for the promotional purposes of said properties.
All other logo and design Copyright©2004- , movieXclusive.com™
All Rights Reserved.