EVERYTHING MUST GO: INCLUDING THIS FILM

Congratulations to Will Ferrell for carrying through on a serious role. Mark that one off the bucket list! Problem is, the result was a sad, depressing dud of a movie. Nicky Halsey is kind of a jerk. It becomes apparent once we discover he is an alcoholic which is why he lost his job, after numerous attempts to stop, and now he comes home to find he is loosing his wife as everything he owns is put out on the yard in a hint-hint fashion. He's just not very likable and even though he does make some changes toward the end of the movie, it's just not enough. This film was painful for me to watch, even if he did a good job with his part.

ARTHUR: DRUNKS NOT AS FUNNY AS THEY USED TO BE

Alcoholism just doesn't pack the same amusing punch. This remake by the same name doesn't mean the same thing as it did in the original. Hobson is now a woman (Helen Mirren) and Arthur is a young party boy (Russell Brand) who has  "savant-ish gift for defying death with fun." His overbearing mother pushes for his marriage to Jennifer Garner, another overbearing woman with dollar signs in her eyes. Brand has some funny one-liners and scenes (boxing with Evander Holyfield, bidding in an auction against himself) but then he tries to fall in "real" love with Greta Gerwig (???) who has the opposite of funny one-liners and whose performance falls worse than flat. The funny just isn't consistent and then at the end it gets all serious and dramatic. No one wants to see Arthur in rehab. This was not a brilliant remake AT ALL. I like Brand but he isn't enough to carry the movie. Mirren is lovely, but not enough to save the movie. Garner is nice but doesn't belong in this movie. Gerwig... she was in this movie??? Sorry, I forgot.

HANCOCK

HANCOCK... A REAL PRICK

Ray: People should love you. They really should, okay? And I want to deliver that for you. It's the least that I can do. You're a superhero. Kids should be running up to you, asking for your autograph, people should be cheering you on the streets...

Hancock: [yelling to crowd of neighbors watching]

What the hell you pricks looking at?

I watched this film, took notes and everything, yet forgot about it for a whole month. That's how forgettable this movie is. What is unforgivable is the stereotypical ethnic and homophobic slurs, even if he pretty much slurs everyone and everything. He is the anti-superhero. With Batman, Bruce Wayne came first and Batman his second identity; same with Iron Man. However this not-so-super-superhero had to take the journey to transform into a man. The movie wants us to see how sad and lonely he is and that the bad attitude masks that pain. It plain doesn't work. THEN, when you thought you had the main plot figured out and the movie should end, there comes a major plot twist (enter the wasted Charlize Theron) that is so unbelievable it could only happen on a soap opera. Terrible, terrible, terrible... the one and only thing I liked about Hancock was Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman). He is one of our more underrated actors but his sense of comedic timing and authentic approach made the rest of the film slightly bearable.
NOT a pick: If you are a huge Jason Bateman fan, be my guest; otherwise not a good film.