The Movie Nut

Occasionally a pretty good movie comes along with so many asterisks attached that one can fill a page with a parade of marching ants and yet still enjoy the flick. Thus is the nature of

"Hancock," a decent film* * * * * * * with a few problems and lapses in logic.

John Hancock is a New Age superhero, an anti-social drunk with Superman's treasure trove of powers. He can fly "faster than a speeding bullet," doesn't age, can stop locomotives with nary a scratch and can rocket himself to the moon and back. And oh, he's the last of his kind- a brooding, solitary, unstoppable army of one.

But what a nasty attitude. As a comedic adventure flick, "Hancock" gets my vote for two reasons. It breaks from the recent trend of regurgitating Grandpa's superhero soup- Batman again, Superman again, Spider-Man again, The Hulk again, X-Men reprised. Even though some of these recent efforts have been rewarding, isn't it nice to climb out of the Batmobile once in a while and find a new playing field, a fresh face, a new concept?

The other reason is Will Smith. Have him don a Mickey Mouse costume and ask him to play "Hamlet" (the musical) and I think he could probably pull it off. He's done a splendid job of perfecting that actor's beliefsuspension thing: Put him on a park bench with a bottle of whiskey, a bad 'tude and a reluctant superhero scowl, and, okay, I'll play along.

Because "Hancock" is about a reluctant superhero- a pitiful guy who happens to save lives and stop crooks whenever the mood suits him. In doing so, however, he's often sloppy and aloof, crashing into skyscrapers and wrecking expensive things. He's rude and disrespectful, and people generally don't like him.

By happenstance one day, Hancock saves Ray (Jason Bateman), a hapless PR guy who takes the superhero home and promises to clean up his image-

even though Ray's wife, Mary (Charlize Theron), doesn't quite oncerts coming appreciate Hancock's presence.

The first half of the film is pretty close to flawless slapstick superhero heaven (and the only portion of the film we see in the trailers, by the way). It's not until we start digging into Hancock's darker, mysterious past (he has amnesia, for one thing) that the film begins to suffer a few- shall we say- lapses in rationale.

There's a big ol' hunk of Swiss cheese logic thrown into the stew- as when Hancock meets another of his similarly powered species, we're led down a somewhat vague and rocky road of disbelief. Apparently, whenever two such immortals meet, the proximity saps their strength until they gradually become mere mortals. The only way to maintain their super strength is by maintaining a healthy distance from each other. Why? Well, let's just leave an * there.

Okay, so I can comprehend a somewhat philosophic postulation of choosing love over immortality, but it seems a rather strange Achilles heel for a species, superhuman or not.

Then again, being bitten by a radioactive spider isn't reaching?

Despite the film's rather interesting choice of roads less traveled, however, I went with the concept. Even when the film turned dark and brooding- and momentarily gratuitously bloody- I accepted the vision.

And my wife (the ultimate counterbalance to my inability to distinguish flaws in films like "Re-Animator" and "Dark City") really enjoyed "Hancock." With the possible exception of "Iron Man," about another nouveauxrichly textured 21st century superhero, she pretty much despises the genre. So her thumbsup on "Hancock" gives me the moral fortitude to declare this one, asterisks and all, a pretty nifty film for superhero-seeking audiences everywhere.