Hancock

HANCOCK (2008) - Nov. 29, 2008
Though Peter Berg isn't going to make my list of favourite directors any time soon, his work here is competent -- which is far more than I can say for his last film, the Kingdom. He still uses the shaky-cam far more than I'd like, but his direction here is practically Kubrickian compared to what he did in that film. At least I could always tell what was going on during the action scenes. Aside from Berg's surprisingly competent direction, the film itself was quite good; it started out as an intriguing character study about a very flawed superhero, and unfortunately became a lot more conventional after a certain point. Will Smith gave one of his better performances as the titular Hancock, and the film, despite its disappointing third act, was definitely a better-than-average summer blockbuster. ***