Will Smith set to rule July 4 weekend again with Hancock

Will... Will Smith. We're talking to you.

Listen up. Isn't being the world's No. 1 movie star enough? Do you have to stretch the persona by going morose and alcoholic on us, just to try to prove that you can ACT too?

Mr. July Fourth, the actor who has ruled the holiday weekend box office the last decade or so, will probably do it again with "Hancock," which opens today.

But we're not too sure it's worth it. The movie is pretty much a mixed bag.

The main thing about Smith is he's likable. He's the naughty boy who, usually with the help of awesome computer effects, gets away with mischief. "Hancock," on the other hand, asks us to turn out to see him as a homeless, alcoholic, grouchy, stubble-faced jerk.

Maybe he's going for an Oscar. After all, actors who play drunks have won Oscars - Ray Milland got a best-actor award for 1945's "The Lost Weekend," and Nicolas Cage got one for 1995's "Leaving Las Vegas." Oscar-contending films, though, are usually released at the end of the year, not in July.

Just to prove its popcorn value, "Hancock" also is about a superhero. Coming after "Iron Man" and "The Incredible Hulk" and before "The Dark Knight" and "Hellboy II," you'd think it would fit right into the summer of comic-book mayhem. This movie, though (wonder of wonders), is NOT based on a comic book. It was three years in debate before it went into production. We're told that in its earlier stages it was envisioned to be even more dark and foreboding than it is now.

It's about a flawed superhero, and by flawed the writers mean rock bottom. The jerk makes a pothole every time he lands on a city street, and when he takes off, he leaves city blocks scorched. Without a cape or a pair of tights to his name, he wrecks more than he saves. If he prevents a car from being hit by a train, he derails the train and destroys the car. When he tries to save a beached whale, he throws it into a sailboat, sinking it.

On top of that, he's rude, arrogant and generally bored with being a superhero. Los Angeles has had enough of Hancock. He reacts by swigging a gallon or so of bourbon and falling asleep on a park bench.

Intent on being character-driven but mixed with standard action, "Hancock" has the basic idea for an intriguing movie, but it does little with the premise.

Still, it stars Will Smith, and that may be enough, if you analyze past tallies. Perhaps the test of a real movie star is if he can sell tickets to bad movies. When "Wild, Wild West," the dismal big-screen version of the TV classic, became a hit in 1999, we began to get the idea that Smith could sell anything. Last year's "I Am Legend," with just Smith and a dog in deserted New York City, sold. "Hitch," a 2005 movie about a smarty guy with lame pick-up lines, sold. And I must be the only one in the universe who didn't think "The Pursuit of Happyness" was so heartwarming a couple years ago. (Starving and living in rest rooms, the father turns down menial jobs to fulfill his own selfish ambition to be a millionaire - dragging his kid around after him. Because he was lucky enough to actually become a millionaire, audiences seemed to find this a charming father-son story.)

"Hancock " may not be as hard to sell as some of those past questionable hits. There are lots of explosions and car wrecks, mostly designed to illustrate what a mess Hancock makes of rescues.

Jason Bateman, as an ambitious public relations man, has the likable role. He attempts to teach Hancock how to change his image and stop crashing into streets and destroying buildings. He buys him a "superhero" costume - a leather thing that Smith says is "pretty tight" in one of the film's few real laughs. He urges Hancock to tell the police that they've done a good job. Hancock counters, "If they'd done a good job, why should they need me?"

In the latest example of how fast "best actress" Oscar winners sink to nothingness after winning the highest honor in film, Charlize Theron has the role of Bateman's wife. We wonder, for half the movie, why she'd take such a small role, even though it does seem that Hancock keeps hitting on her.

Peter Berg, who usually directs quieter movies without computers, fails to balance all the ingredients into a cohesive whole. Is this supposed to be a comedy? If so, it nets only a few chuckles - and those for the premise rather than the way it plays out. It's better as an action entry, but we've seen most of these effects before.

If you're as likable as Will Smith, why not just relax and be likable?

Mal Vincent, (757) 446-2347, mal.vincent@pilotonline.com