Hancock Parent Guide
Parent Movie Review
Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman) is a public relations consultant who wants to make a difference in the world. His vision is to reward an All Hearts symbol to companies who give away life-sustaining products to the needy. He eventually hopes to build a conglomerate of these charitable organizations that will impact society in positive ways. Unfortunately, he soon discovers that most businesses prefer to give charity that doesn’t bear on their bottom line.
Ray’s immediate focus changes, however, after he is remarkably spared from death by Los Angeles’ own drunken and disorderly superhero. Hancock (Will Smith), who is rarely sober, causes the city millions of dollars in collateral damage every time he steps in to avert a disaster or help the police apprehend a bad guy. With a long list of infractions added to his public destruction, Hancock is the city’s most notorious citizen despite his supernatural abilities.
Ray sees a chance to change the public’s perception by volunteering to be Hancock’s personal publicist. But corralling the out-of-control do-gooder and refining his approach to crime fighting proves to be a nightmare even after Hancock agrees to serve time for his offenses.
Confining this film’s content to a MPAA PG-13 rating appears to be a problem too. A barrage of profanities and scatological slang along with a sexual expletive and hand gesture pepper the script. Hancock’s dependence on the bottle plays out on the screen, along with the depiction of another drunken character. The superhero’s wanton disregard for personal property and the city’s infrastructure results in the nearly constant demolition of office towers, homes and vehicles. In addition, there are frequent car crashes, gunfire exchanges, and bodies thrown through windows and walls. Using his super strength, Hancock also manages to insert a man’s head into the buttocks of another inmate. Bloody chest wounds, the severing of a man’s hand and the stabbing of a hospital patient prove to be some of the movie’s more gruesome portrayals.
While in reality image consulting has its ups and downs, the movie portrays Hancock’s agent dealing with more than his fair share of turbulence caused by bad press. Fortunately Ray has the ability to see the good in others and his persistence begins to pay off—but not before his own wife (Charlize Theron) and son (Jae Head) are caught in the criminal crossfire.
However, the desire to keep their own kids safe from this exchange of flying profanities and superfluous superhero violence may be more important to audience parents, who’ll find reasons enough to leave Hancock hanging out to dry.
Starring Will Smith, Jason Bateman, Charlize Theron. Running time: 92 minutes. Theatrical release June 30, 2008. Updated May 1, 2009
Hancock
Rating & Content Info
Why is Hancock rated PG-13? Hancock is rated PG-13 by the MPAA for some intense sequences of sci-fi actions and violence, and language.
Opening with a bullet-riddled car chase down a Los Angeles freeway, Hancock is full of violent exchanges between police and criminals, car crashes, property damage and explosions. Characters are shot in the chest and stabbed in the back with bloody wounds shown. Others are beaten repeatedly. A man has both hands cut off. Hostages are shown with explosives strapped to their chests. Police officers are pinned down by gunfire. A character is stabbed with a kitchen implement and hit with a wooden rolling pin. Altercations in a prison result in one man’s head being inserted into another man’s buttocks. Patients in a hospital are shot, hit with an oxygen cylinder, and beaten. Characters are thrown through walls and out of windows. Although a superhero, Hancock also drinks excessively, makes crude advances at women and bullies other citizens. Some partial male buttock nudity is seen. Rude comments, profanities, scatological slang along with a sexual expletive and hand gestures are used in the script.
Page last updated May 1, 2009
Hancock Parents' Guide
Although action films frequently depict scenes of property damage and car crashes, rarely is the cost ever addressed. This film is one of the few that makes mention of the price of cleaning up. Why are consequences often overlooked in movies?
Who is the hero in this film? What risks does Ray take in order to reform Hancock? What other gambles does he take with his All Heart project? Is it easier to jump on the bandwagon rather than to be an initiator of change?
What is the importance of personal history? What might happen when a person has no sense of his or her heritage or identity?
Home Video
The most recent home video release of Hancock movie is November 24, 2008. Here are some details…
Hancock hits the home video market in both a rated and unrated version, as well as on DVD and Blu-ray. Look for these combinations:
The Hancock: Rated Theatrical Version is available in widescreen with five featurettes: Superhumans: The Making of Hancock, Seeing the Future, Building a Better Hero, Bumps and Bruises and Mere Mortals: Behind the Scenes with Dirty Pete.
The Hancock: Unrated Version offers ten extra minutes of footage and is also available in widescreen. It includes the five aforementioned featurettes: Superhumans: The Making of Hancock, Seeing the Future, Building a Better Hero, Bumps and Bruises and Mere Mortals: Behind the Scenes with Dirty Pete.
Hancock the 2-Disc Rated/Unrated Special Edition (with Digital Copy) provides both the rated and unrated versions of the film (in widescreen), along with a Digital Copy. This edition provides seven featurettes, adding Home Life and Suiting Up to the previous five (Superhumans: The Making of Hancock, Seeing the Future, Building a Better Hero, Bumps and Bruises and Mere Mortals: Behind the Scenes with Dirty Pete).
The Blue-ray version of Hancock comes as a 2-Disc Rated/Unrated Special Edition (with Digital Copy). This presentation contains the bonus extras found on the 2-disc DVD edition (Home Life, Suiting Up, Superhumans: The Making of Hancock, Seeing the Future, Building a Better Hero, Bumps and Bruises and Mere Mortals: Behind the Scenes with Dirty Pete) plus some exclusive Blu-ray features: BD-Live Enabled, Picture-In-Picture and an On-Set Visual Diary.
Related home video titles:
Angst about their identity seems to affect other superheroes as well. Peter Parker struggles to accept his new powers in Spider-Man. Bruce Wayne also wrestles with his role in Batman Begins. The expense of insurance claims and law suites also causes superheroes to fall from grace in the animated film The Incredibles. Will Smith plays another character who finds himself down and out in The Pursuit of Happyness.