hmmm.. should have been a TV series.

Rating: 5/10 (29 August 2008)

Look, I like Will Smith's acting, he has managed to lift his last two outings, this and I am Legend out off the flop they could have been. His performance here is Fresh Prince meets Six Degrees of Separation, nothing more. Clunky photography and direction makes his lazy performance jarring at times but how can you not like Will Smith?
Charlize Theron is completely wasted here, her character has no depth, which is a shame because her role is ultimately so crucial to the plot. A photograph of her is more interesting than what the scripts requires her to serve up.
Jason Bateman, actually gives the best performance. His character is immediately engaging and and brings the the audience into the story through his all too human fallibilities. That said, his work is simply ignored in the second half of the film where he is relegated to an extra who hangs around to execute a fairly predictable plot device.
The second half of the film... it is very much like the writers came up with a good idea but realizing this could not sustain a feature length film attempted to come up with another idea that simply is not as good, or at least not as well executed. Characters and themes important to the first half, Jason Bateman's and the boy and the theme of salvation are scrapped in the second half where under done characters, Charlize's and the villains deal with theme's of revenge and love. Either one could have made a decent movie with the cast but spliced together it simply does not work.
I think this would make a great TV series along the lines of 'The Greatest American Hero" this format would have given plenty of opportunity to explore all themes and characters and play out the comedy.