Don't Even Watch This On a Bet

Rating: 1/10 (21 January 2010)

Some bad movies are fun to watch, such as Ed Wood's quixotically demented works, while other bad movies are vile, odious things, being not only crimes against art, but are also crimes against the human spirit. 'Hancock' is a crime against art, the human spirit, intelligence, and decency, to name just a few. There is no amusement whatsoever to be gained for anyone from watching this film. The tragedy is compounded in that 2 A-list stars and a cult-comedy icon somehow were compelled to do this film.
This is a loud, boring and insipid film that does not know whether it intends to be a comedy, action movie, or action comedy. This is not to say that it is actually funny in any places; it is not, but one can discern that comedy was intended in various places. The script, if it can be called such, plays out as though an 8-year old recycled the worst works of dead scifi writer L. Ron Hubbard after being overdosed on Children's Tylenol. There is no plausibility, and no internal consistency in this fictional world, and there are creepy, gross ideas, suggestive of incest.
Perhaps the most odious and disgusting thing about 'Hancock' is its overt racism. Here we have an impossibly strong, invulnerable, flying black man, the most powerful man in the world, who wastes his time drinking on the street and behaving like an idiot, until a white liberal takes an interest in him, shows him how to act polite and dress nice. Guess what: the white liberal's 1st step in showing Our Hero the path or righteousness is to send Our Hero to do a stretch in jail. And better yet: this black superhero happens to loose his powers (temporarily) if he kisses a certain white woman.
Here is an example of the kind of gross, cheap, juvenile, racist trash being peddled: Our Hero, being miffed at a couple of the other inmates in the jail, literally shoves one man's head up another man's butt. Yes, this actually happens in the movie, the audience is treated to the sight of one man's head clear up another man's butt. All the while, the theme music from 'Sanford and Son' plays, just to make it perfectly clear that we should be laughing at this funny stuff being done by this whacky black person.
Some people might be tempted to see this film because there are few other films about black superheroes, but every other film about black superheroes is much, much better. The 'Blade' films, for instance. Better yet, see the new film with Morgan Freeman playing real-life black superhero Nelson Mandela, that one is very highly recommended.