Thursday, July 3, 2008

The Ol' John Hancock...Er Will Hancock...

I haven't seen Hancock. It was kind of off my list for the bad buzz it got. And while I'm not entirely immune to Will Smith's charms, I'm immune enough.

But I just noticed it was directed by Peter Berg (who played Dr. Kronk on "Chicago Hope" when that show didn't suck). He has yet to make a movie I didn't like.

The Kingdom was the latest, prior to that Friday Night Lights. Neither of those is necessarily the sort of movie I would like, and yet I did. The Rundown was prior to that, and that was way better than it had any right to be.

His first film is the much reviled Very Bad Things, and it may still be my favorite of his. People hate this movie. Ebert walked out on it, allegedly. But it takes the tired old "guys at bachelor party kill stripper" plot and injects Christian Slater as a new-agey self-actualized SOB who takes an accident and turns it into a series of gruesome murders and conspiracies.

All the while uttering lines like "I'm proud of us" over the grave of two murder victims. Or "Never go dark!"

Despite the weaseling (and murdering) the men do, Cameron Diaz comes off as the worst of them all, a monster bridezilla before the term "bridezilla" had even been coined.

This is funny but, you know, not for everyone. Still, it makes me smile every time they hack Kobe Tai and Russ McKenzie into little pieces, then argue about which pieces should go into which bags.

Still, probably nobody gets chopped up in "Hancock".

4 comments:

Grab an umbrella. Unleash hell. Your mileage may vary. Results not typical. If swelling continues past four hours, consult a physician.