[Los Angeles, October 8. Image via Splash.]

• Sandra Bullock is allegedly helping Ryan Reynolds get through a rough patch in his marriage to Scarlett Johansson. Hopefully her advice doesn't include "watch All About Steve together." [ShowbizSpy]

• "Sandra told Ryan the most important thing is that he and Scarlett need to make time for one another, even though they both have busy schedules," says a source, "She told him, ‘There is no substitute for togetherness.' Sandra pointed out that she and Jesse take quick vacations together - just hopping on the back of his bike and hitting the road.Ryan listens to Sandra because he has tremendous respect for her as a person and an actress." [ShowbizSpy]
• DJ AM's girlfriend, Haley Wood, gave a moving speech at his memorial service last week: "I will never be the same without him. A part of me has passed away with him. Even the warmest of days will never compare to the warmth I felt when I touched him. He was my soulmate, and now he is my soul. He was my amazing grace." [People]
• Your Daily Mail Headline Of The Day: "Sienna Miller Goes Public With Another Man...But At Least This One's Not Married." [DailyMail]
• "I am single and a workaholic and very lonely. But I'm good. Me and my vibrator are very happy."-Lady GaGa [TheSun]
• "I was surprised and pleased by how extremely knowledgeable about fashion and articulate Lindsay Lohan was. She's very young and can be portrayed in ways that aren't all together flattering, and she was a true statesperson and really weighed in on the designers and what they were doing exceptionally well. And it was really a thrill to have her."-Tim Gunn on Lindsay Lohan's guest spot on Project Runway. [IOL]
• Former Real Housewife of Orange County Lynne Curtin has been accused of stealing $5000 worth of furniture from a home she moved out of last week. [TMZ]
• Kelsey Grammer is throwing a Studio 54-themed 40th birthday party for his wife, Camille. A source claims the theme was "inspired by Camille's days as the principal dancer on 'Club MTV.'" [PageSix]
• "'There's nothing funny about someone who's completely secure. Vulnerabilities and cracks in the armor are what's funny. And what's really funny is someone who's attempting to hold a shield up to those things and thinking that they're pulling it off.''-Jason Bateman [NYTimes]
• A source claims that Paula Abdul hopes to "destroy" American Idol with a TV version of her one-woman show: "Paula believes she's got the draw of a Cher or Bette Midler and she's determined to rub the noses of the ‘Idol' bosses in her success. She's funneling her anger and resentment into making this project a hit. She wants to strike back." [ShowbizSpy]
• "I honestly don't know. What he said is he's trying to get what's best for him and best for me. He said it had nothing to do with talent. And I'm just going to go on that. That was his only explanation. He's looking at the whole mix of the show and maybe he feels that what I bring would be better served on a sitcom. They hired two new gals [Jenny Slate and Nasim Pedrad] that I think are going to be exquisite."- Michaela Watkins on Lorne Michaels firing her from Saturday Night Live [EW]
• Rosie Perez and Jennifer Lopez are reportedly battling for the rights to bring Judge Sonia Sotomayor's life story to the big screen. [DailyExpress]
• O.J. Simpson will remain in prison: a judge has denied his request to be let out of jail while he appeals his convictions for armed robbery and kidnapping. [DailyExpress]
• Want to hear John Krasinski read a bedtime story? You're in luck: he's recorded a reading of "Aladdin" for Speakaboos. [E!]
• Khloe Kardashian is reportedly dating L.A. Lakers star Lamar Odom. [E!]
• "I would never want the responsibility of being the prettiest girl onscreen. Growing up with a mother like mine gives you a skewed idea of what a mother should look like. My mother's jeans are smaller than mine!"- Rumer Willis [ShowbizSpy]
• Kanye West was caught on tape screaming "Don't follow me!" at a paparazzi, who proceeded to apologize to Kanye...and then followed him anyway. WHY WON'T YOU LET HIM BE GREAT, PAPARAZZI?!?!? [ONTD]
• "God, I really wish I could go loose on this one. He's like Napoleon and he wants to create this insane, infamous mad-man reputation. He wants to be like Hitler on his sets, and he is. So he's a nightmare to work for but when you get him away from set, and he's not in director mode, I kind of really enjoy his personality because he's so awkward, so hopelessly awkward." -Megan Fox on Michael Bay [JustJared]

• Curious about the bromance between Tom Cruise and David Beckham? A new book will explain it all to you, including how Beckham decided to name his kid Cruz. [Gatecrasher]

• Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are in Australia, where Tom's been cruising on a billionaire's yacht and Kate took Suri shopping at Target. Yes, Target. [News.com.au]
• Alex Rodriguez and Kate Hudson: Still going strong. [Page Six]
• Emma Watson's dress flew up in London on the Harry Potter red carpet… Her undies were showing and photographers snapped away. [NY Daily News]
• In this interview, a promoter from an Arkansas convention center talks about being duped by Sacha Baron Cohen for a scene in Brüno. "They were clever," she says. "They first contacted us via an intermediary company called Ring Rulers. In this area cage fighting is popular. They told me that they would be doing videotaping for a reality show… At the last minute they started changing the set up. They originally contracted to use our chairs. Then, barely an hour before opening the doors, they brought in their own. These were all literally roped together with wire so you couldn't untie them. As I was leaving at 5pm on the Friday six guys in suits - obviously from Hollywood - marched into my office with a bundle of legal paperwork wanting me to sign a waiver… Beer here is normally four bucks. That night it was a dollar a cup. The production company had paid the difference." There's more. [Telegraph]
• How do we feel about Lindsay Lohan and Christina Aguilera being in the new season of Project Runway? [Mirror]
• Sniff: Ozzy Osbourne's Pomeranian, Little Bit, was killed by a coyote on the grounds of the Osbourne home in Los Angeles. [The Sun]
• Tim Gunn, Debbie Harry and Bill Hader of SNL: All denied entrance to a Fourth of July roof party. [Page Six]
• Here's a breakdown of how the city of Los Angeles spent $1.4 million on the memorial for Michael Jackson. [AP]
• Fans and media have been taking over the streets near the Jackson family home and the Encino Neighborhood Council has released a statement about how residents and businesses need to "take back their streets." [People]
• "Was Jacko in the box? …Some have speculated his body was never in the coffin, and people close to the family say, without elaborating, that the pop idol has already been buried." [NY Post]
• Not sure why, but the media is talking to Heath Ledger's dad in the wake of Michael Jackson's death. "On the day Michael died I spoke to my daughters and former wife Sally, and we all had such a down day," Kim Ledger says. "In the first couple of weeks it's crazy, and you're just trying to come to grips with the enormity of it. It's not for me to advise the Jackson family how to get through this, but what I will say is the saddest times are now, one-and-a-half years later. The media interest has died down, so I'm no longer surrounded by Heath and all I want to do is pick up the phone, but I can't." [MSNBC via Australia's Women's Day]
• Paris Jackson's eulogy made Spike Lee cry. [People]
• Here's a letter Ronald Reagan wrote to Michael Jackson in 1984, after the incendiary Pepsi commercial. [US News & World Report]
• Michael Jackson helped develop merchandise for his This Is It tour, and it will be on sale as soon as this week, at places like Hot Topic, Target, JCPenney and Spencer's. [LA Times]
• Michael Jackson will be buried wearing one white, crystal encrusted glove. [TMZ]
• "Michael Jackson 's family won't bury him without his brain." All I have to add is :( [Mirror]
• Gwyneth Paltrow and George Michael are among the celebrities who were allegedly targeted as part of a newspaper telephone hacking scandal. Someone from tabloid rag News Of The World hacked into their phone lines, as well as Nigella Lawson, Patsy Kensit, Jude Law and Sadie Frost. [The Star]
• Is Kate Gosselin A-list? She has been invited by Maria Shriver to attend the Annual Women's Conference, where she'll rub elbows with Katie Couric, Kelly Preston, Cindy McCain, Elizabeth Edwards and Madeleine Albright. [E!]
• At the Conference for Women, Kelly Preston will speak publicly about the loss of her son, Jett Travolta. [ET, People]
• Oh dear: The Jane Kaczmarek/Bradley Whitford divorce might get messy: She wants full custody of the kids. [TMZ]
• Starting Monday, Drew Barrymore will be shooting her new film — Going The Distance, about a long-distance relationship — at the New York headquarters of the Associated Press. "Real-life newsgathering will continue around her as usual by the AP's editorial staff in the sprawling facility." [AP]
• You know what looks really cool? Drew Barrymore's new flick, Whip It, starring Ellen Page as a roller derby phenom. Pic at the link! [USA Today]
• "Actress Kate Beckinsale accepted 20,000 pounds ($32,000) in libel damages at the High Court on Thursday over a story in Britain's Daily Express newspaper that she was set to miss out on her dream role as Barbarella." [Reuters]
• After 15 years, Nicole Kidman has ditched her publicist. What does it mean? [Deadline Hollywood]
• I'm afraid I must draw your attention to a first-person essay entitled "I Fucked Screech." Quoth the lady in question, "The pillow talk consisted of 45 minutes of [Dustin] Diamond telling me about Adult Swim cartoons." [Videogum, Heeb]
• Jessica Lange may get an Emmy nomination next week for Grey Gardens, but she is also an acclaimed photographer. In this interview, she talks about both. [The Daily Beast]
• Would Rosie Perez play Sonia Sotomayor if asked? "Oh my God, I'd be so honored," Rosie gushes. "There needs to be a fearlessness in approaching that role. That's who she is. Balancing the human being versus the judge is the biggest challenge that would face me personally. But I also think that to play her, you have to dive in and discover her true spirit. Otherwise, don't even fucking go there. Don't even fucking try it. It would be the chance of a lifetime. I'd be right for the role because I'm fearless. I'm afraid of everything and afraid of nothing at the same time." [Gatecrasher]
• Brooke Shields hasn't been in movies for 10 years, but she just signed on to a "live-action family comedy" called Furry Vengeance in which a real estate developer (Brendan Fraser) "gets more than he bargained for from a band of raccoons when he pushes too hard into more pristine territory." Also involved: Dick Van Dyke, Ken Jeong and Samantha Bee. [The Hollywood Reporter]
• Hope Davis will play Hillary Clinton in an HBO Films/BBC Films movie called The Special Relationship. Dennis Quaid will play President Clinton. [The Hollywood Reporter]
• Pamela Anderson is rumored to be making a cameo in the upcoming Baywatch movie, which will be a "tongue-in-cheek" comedy. Sounds… dirty. [Gatecrasher]
• Edward Furlong: Getting divorced. [People]
• David Alan Grier's wife, Christine Kim: Filed for divorce. [TMZ]
• "Heather Mills has spoken of how much she is enjoying her freedom, insisting she has been 'having a great time' since divorcing Sir Paul McCartney." [Daily Express]
• Paris Hilton is on trial in Miami, being accused of not doing enough to promoto her 2006 sorority flick Pledge This. [Breitbart]
• "MARSHA/JAN LESBIAN AFFAIR A 'JOKE'" [Page Six]
• Blind item! "Which television star called off her wedding the night before the nuptials? She changed her mind after having a sexy fling with the best man." [NY Daily News]
• "I think I am just by the sheer fact of my existence. I know that I personally would have loved to have me around when I was a gay teenager. Because when I was a gay teenager there weren't that many openly gay celebrities. And I would have loved to have been like, ‘Wow look at that dude. He's gay. He's REALLY gay. And he's successful and he's not apologizing for that and he seems really happy.' So I hope that though they may not agree with everything I say that I inspire gay youth to be themselves and to say what they think and to be proud of who they are." — Perez Hilton on why he is good for gay America. [EW]
• "I was never at a place where rehab would have been appropriate… Booze was what would make me want to stay out all night and do some blow or smoke a joint or whatever, so shutting that off was key. It's like ketchup and French fries - I don't want one without the other. So that's the moment: Do you want to continue being great at being in your 20s, or do you want to step up and graduate into adulthood?" — Jason Bateman, on getting sober. [MSNBC]
• "I consider her more than a dear friend. I consider her my wife, my sister, my daughter." — Perez Hilton on Lady GaGa. [EW]
• "I got a phone call telling me about it, and then I'm running around like a chicken with its head cut off, yelling, 'Get me a dictionary! It's so typical of something that would happen to me. So mortifying. I'll probably get it fixed, but in the meantime, I'll just say I was putting my own twist on it." — Hayden Panettiere, on her misspelled tattoo. [USA Today]
• "I had to do a scene in a bra and shorts for the first time in two years. On the day of the shoot, I ate a pork burrito, chips and Coke. Afterward, I thought, 'I probably shouldn't have done that.' But whatever." — Blake Lively. [MSNBC Scoop via Glamour UK]
• "Dude, the humor came from the fact that they did a casting call on Craigslist that basically said, 'Come have mock sex with Josh Lucas for $50 and get a film credit.' Literally that's what it was. And like 25 different women showed up." — Josh Lucas, on his gritty new film, Death In Love. [BlackBook]
• "I'm very disciplined for work but I have to be even more disciplined to enjoy holidays. I hide in the bathroom with my BlackBerry. My family always check to see where my BlackBerry is and take it away from me. They get angry with me and my friends do, too – they don't let me take it to dinner. It can be an addiction." — Penelope Cruz. [Daily Express via Psychologies Magazine]
• "I've never been invited to a dinner party - they don't invite vegetarians. When you are eating with friends someone will say, when you're starting to eat, 'So you don't eat fish?' I've been having that same conversation for 40 years! The food [at my restaurant] is amazing! Ninety per cent of the people who go there are meat eaters. They just think the food's great and there's not a bean sprout in sight. I could eat beans on toast every day for the rest of my life, no complaints at all. I'm a buffet kind of person. I'd much rather go in for a buffet, load up my plate, sit down, eat and split, or have a piece of pizza on a doorstep or something. I can't stand fuss." — Chrissie Hynde. [Mirror]
• "I'll be 34 in October. I can't keep getting away with [nudity]. There was so much of it in The Reader because the story required it, but people have seen enough of my bum and my boobs. I have to put them back." — Kate Winslet. [MSNBC Scoop via Harper's Bazaar]

• Brooke Shields is contradicting her own reps, who said she wasn't involved in the Kiefer Sutherland headbutting incident. Now she says she "was bumped into by Jack McCollough and Kiefer Sutherland became concerned."

• In a statement issued through her lawyer she added, "Kiefer has always been a gentleman in her company. Both Jack and Kiefer are friends of Ms. Shields and she regrets this unfortunate situation." [TMZ]
• Kiefer Sutherland's rep says he's "troubled by the untruthful and self-serving information circulating regarding Kiefer..." and is confident that the D.A. will throw out the assault charge against him. [TMZ]
• Kiefer Sutherland's rep added, "out of respect for this law enforcement process," Kiefer "will not be making any comment." [People]
• Shanna Moakler and Keith Lewis, co-directors of Miss California USA, announced at a press conference that they have appointed the pageant's first runner up, Tami Farrell, the organization's "ambassador," negating Carrie Prejean's role as Miss California. Lewis explained, "If Miss California is unavailable, or if it would be unwise to put her in a specific appearance, we now have an ambassador to represent us." He added, "We've been hijacked at the moment; we've been unable to do the work at hand." [ABC News]
• Miss California USA officials also passed out a booklet at the press conference called, "Miss USA 2009 State Entry Contract: Sections violated by Carrie Prejean." In addition to Prejean's violations, it says the role of the new "Beauty of California Ambassador" is to take the reigns when the "Miss California USA or Miss California Teen USA titleholder is unavailable." [TMZ]
• Farrah Fawcett says she would have appreciated privacy during her 2.5 year battle with anal cancer, but the paparazzi have continued following her. "It's much easier to go through something and deal with it without being under a microscope," she says. She's particularly mad about a December 2006 National Enquirer story called "Farrah Begs: 'Let Me Die." She says, "God, I would never say something like that. To think that people who did look up to me and felt positive because I was going through it too and yet I was strong … it just negated all that." [People]
• When Farrah Fawcett found out her cancer had returned in May 2007 she didn't tell her family and friends at first because she wanted to prove her theory that someone at UCLA was leaking her medical information to the tabloids. "I set it up with the doctor," said Farrah. "I said, 'OK, you know and I know.' . . . I knew that if it came out, it was coming from UCLA." The leaker, Lawanda Jackson, was paid $4,600 by the National Enquirer. She pleaded guilty in December to the charges, but died in March of cancer, before the sentencing. [The L.A. Times]
• 20-year-old Dania Marin has filed for a restraining order against Ryan O'Neal because she says he's been harassing her with lewd phone calls. "He asked me if I wanted to masturbate with him. Offered me a car back if I would engage with him," she claims. "He freaked me out. I filed the retraining order because I was afraid that he knew where I lived or would come to my house. He's old enough to be my grandfather." [The Daily Express]
• Michael Jackson's London concerts may not happen because the company that was putting together a series of concerts featuring Michael, Janet Jackson, and the rest of the family, have sent a cease and desist letter to the organizers of MJ's solo concerts. They say Jackson signed a contract saying he wouldn't make another concert deal for 18 months. [TMZ]
• In a new interview, Nadya Suleman says she "exaggerated" when she said recently that she was having half of her uterus removed so she couldn't have more kids. She says she's having a "myomectomy," a procedure to remove fibriods from her uterus. She says it will actually boost her fertility, but she doesn't plan on having any more. [Radar]
• Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet say they will donate to a fund set up to pay the nursing home fees for Millvina Dean, the last living Titanic survivor. The British woman has been selling off Titanic memorabilia recently because she can't afford the fees for her nursing home, where she has lived for three years. [USA Today]
• David Hasselhoff's ex, Pamela Bach, has asked the judge in their divorce to order Hasselhoff to maintain life insurance, which would pay her support if David dies. Hasselhoff says that wasn't part of their divorce deal. [TMZ]
• Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart are trying to adopt a girl. "Harrison's begun the process of adopting Liam too," says a source. "He's been a father figure to the boy almost since day one." [Star]
• Though George Clooney says he'd be happy to take a lie detector test to prove that Rande Gerber is not guilty of sexual harassment, the two former waitresses suing Gerber have refused to take the test. [TMZ]
• When asked about his kissing scene with co-star Jennifer Aniston in The Baster, Jason Bateman said, "It felt ... It was a good scene, I'll say that. It was a good scene." [People]
• Matthew Reeve, Christopher Reeve's son, is running the New York City Marathon to raise money for his father's foundation, which helps people with spinal cord injuries. [AP]
• Kim Kardashian says her step-father, Bruce Jenner, "has gotten a lot of media criticism in the past for getting an ill-advised partial facelift and a nose job," 25 years ago. She wrote on her blog, "Unfortunately, the result wasn't what Bruce had hoped for ... Since he's turning 60 in October, Bruce felt it was time to correct the mistakes made by the previous doctor so he went to a new doctor for a second facelift. The results are amazing! Bruce looks better than ever and he is extremely happy with the result." [People]
• "I have acne scars. I'm self-conscious about that, so sometimes I wear too much makeup to cover them up. I got acne at the start of my career. It was a stressful time. I have insecurities like anyone." - Katy Perry. [Perez Hilton]
• Ginnifer Goodwin says, "I perpetuate rumors that I've dated people that I've never actually dated ... Dorothy Parker once said something along the lines of, ‘I don't care what's written about me so long as it isn't true.' It's safe making." [W]
• When reporters harassed Fergie about when she and husband Josh Duhamel are going to have kids, she said, "Now, it's all about the Black Eyed Peas ... We'll see. At the end of this run that we're doing right now, whatever feels natural and right. I always follow my gut. So, whatever it's going to tell me is going to be right." [People]
• Jamie Foxx will host the BET Awards on June 28. [UPI]
• One week after his brother died of cancer at 37, David Cook has resumed his tour. Halfway through the song "Lie" he stopped and told the audience, "It's gonna be tough for me. I'm sorry. Do you mind if I sing a different song?" [E!]
• Morrissey has cancelled a concert in London due to an undisclosed illness. [The Mirror]
• George Hamilton says of his sexual relationship with his step-mother that began when he was 12, "It really didn't seem that strange to me. I think I'd developed enough sexual energy by then to find the whole thing… well, interesting. When I look back on it, I don't think my life was changed as a result. I certainly don't think it was abuse. If anything, I think it made sex less important. I'd lost my virginity quite early on, and this freed me up. I wasn't so preoccupied with sex anymore." [The Telegraph]
• When asked if she is concerned that she is popular in the rest of the world but not the U.S., Kylie Minogue said, "It doesn't frustrate me. It's frustrating being asked about it and the assumption that it's something really missing in my career and in my life. [Yahoo]
• For those of you fluent in U.K. gossip, Jordan and Peter Andre have split up after five years of marriage. [The Sun]
• Michael Emerson says of playing Ben Linus on Lost, "It's more physical than I ever dreamt. I mean, I thought I had reached an age where I wouldn't be doing combat anymore. I was going to be one of those old codgers. The heavy lifting I would be doing dramatically would be cigarette holders and martinis. Of course, none of that's worked out and now here I am rolling around in the jungle, fighting and shooting. I feel naked on the show if I'm not covered with bruises and dried blood." [The Huffington Post]
• Before he serves a yearlong prison sentence for possession of illegal firearms, T.I. blogged on the Huffington Post, "Through this painful process of going to court and being convicted, I realized that I had to make a change." He writes, "I hope that through my mistakes, young people can begin to learn, as I did, that we have to put our guns down and start to give our guns back. It pains me inside to hear about so many of our people dying because of gun violence." E!]
• In one of Eminem's new songs he raps about Mariah Carey, saying, "Mariah whatever happened to us? Why did we ever have to break-up? ... Nick Cannon, you prick, I wish you luck with the fuckin whore." Nick Cannon has responded, posting on his blog, "Man to man, let's meet up and deal with this like adults ... Miss Marshall, I'm going to make you wish you never spoke my name and regret the ungodly things you said about my wife." Cannon continues, "Your legacy has now been tainted from this day forth! You will now be known as the rapper who lost to corny-ass Nick Cannon!" [People]

[New York, April 27. Image via Bauer-Griffin]

[New York, March 26. Image via INFDaily.]

[Los Angeles, July 22. Image via Bauer-Griffin]

[Los Angeles, July 2. Image via x17]

Wall Street Journal:

"Hancock" has been packaged and heavily promoted as a summer blockbuster — a big, spectacular production starring the ever-likable Will Smith. It is indeed summer, and Mr. Smith plays the title role, but that's as far as any truth in advertising goes. The movie seems negligible; its running time is a mere 92 minutes. And it succeeds only at the hitherto-impossible task of making Mr. Smith disagreeable (though never boring; whatever he does, he's a movie star). He plays a gangsta superhero — a foulmouthed, misanthropic, booze-slugging slob who happens to have superpowers. It's a tricky notion done badly, though surely an oddity that will find a large audience. Any notions of demolishing black stereotypes — and what else could have possessed Mr. Smith to do this? — are dashed by the coarseness of it all, and by the narrative incoherence; a surprising plot twist turns a sloppy action-comedy into a totally different movie, and an even worse one.

Wired:

To match the film's tonal shift after the thrilling twist, cinematographer Tobias Schliessler trades in the sun-bleached Los Angeles cityscape that marks Hancock's early adventures for gorgeously distorted close-ups rendered in a rain-soaked color palette. These closing scenes work as the audience — and Hancock — finally learn the secret to the superhero's orneriness.

Unlike bland Everymen from Bruce "Hulk" Banner and Peter "Spidey" Parker to Clark "Superman" Kent, Smith's reluctant superhero shares an invaluable superpower with Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man. Both may have screwed-up personalities, but at least they know how to crack a joke.

TIME:

I just realized something. None of this matters. A critique of Hancock is an essay in irrelevance. It's Independence Day Week, and six times since 1996, that's meant a Will Smith movie — a mega-giga-gigantic hit. Independence Day; Men in Black; Wild Wild West; Men in Black II; I, Robot: He shows up, people line up. Thomas Jefferson used to own this holiday, but now the former Fresh Prince does. So why should critics even bother to review a new Will Smith movie? You'll go see it anyway.

Entertainment Weekly:

Hancock can revel in schmuckery, of course, because you and I and cute kids and peaceful oldies worldwide know in advance that there's no way on Hollywood's green earth Will Smith will ever play someone seriously, dangerously unsavory. Charm is the star's armor on either side of the alien-human divide, whether he's a Fresh Prince, a Bad Boy, a Man in Black, the last man alive in New York City, or Muhammad Ali. And so, in the beginning, the movie — part comedy, part action-thriller, and a whole lot of earnest, addled mush about purpose, fate, and angels — lets Smith (who is also one of the producers) have fun goofing on all that has already served him so well as a performer: Here's a hero in need of remedial charm school.

The New Republic:

Yet a dozen years after Independence Day, Smith has once again staked a claim to Independence Day, with the superhero subversion Hancock. And, like any good self-fulfilling prophecy, it will likely reign supreme at the box office because everyone has already assumed it would: Summer's other blockbusters have all deferentially ceded the field, so Hancock will go head-to-head against only a few limited releases and a kids-oriented film, Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, which just happens to star Smith's seven-year-old daughter, Willow, whom we can safely assume has been promised a lifetime of spinach if she doesn't take a dive for Daddy.

Which is a shame because, Smith's indisputable talents notwithstanding, Hancock is an utter mess.

The New York Times:

The extent of that complexity doesn’t emerge until the big reveal, which involves Ms. Theron’s character and is so surprising that I heard several grown men loudly gasp. (“No way!”) I was more struck by Ms. Theron, an actress who, I think, is capable of greater depth than most of her performances require, even those that try to rub the glamour off her. She helps Mr. Smith enrich the story’s emotional texture, which is no small thing, since the movie itself starts to falter just when it begins to deepen. That’s too bad because while “Hancock” is far from perfect — it feels overly rushed, particularly toward its chaotic end — it has a raggedness that speaks honestly to the fundamental human fragility that makes the greatest heroes super.

CNN:

It's when this scenario plays out that Peter Berg's movie jumps the tracks. Writers Vincent Ngo and Vince Gilligan have concocted an outrageous, mind-boggling twist that comes so far out of left field you would need a crystal ball to see it coming.

No spoilers here, but it doesn't work, not in the short term and not in the big picture either. It's as if we've been whisked from one kind of movie — a brisk, superficial but entertaining high-concept comedy — and into the theater next door, where they're showing some sort of tragic "X-Men" knockoff. The last half-hour of this 92-minute movie is a fiasco.

Berg's shaky-cam technique doesn't help, nor does a weak, inadequate villain (played by Eddie Marsan). Still, it's rare — and startling — to see a big-budget movie fall apart so dramatically. Whether it was inspired by ego or economics, more than anything the turnaround feels like a colossal collective failure of nerve.

NPR:

It's a strange feeling to see the summer's most promising premise self-destruct into something bizarre and unsatisfying, but that is the Hancock experience.

It has to be emphasized that though the film's trailers carefully hide it, Hancock has a blisteringly profane tongue. How diatribes that would make a stevedore blush got a PG-13 rating is a question for another day.

The A.V. Club:

Still, it's a daring, even mildly challenging mixture for a superhero film, and while the pieces don't entirely add up, the puzzle is at least original. Smith is too much a ubiquitous superstar to entirely disappear into his role, but his playing against type offers its own flavors of comedy, and Bateman, in his comfortably well-worn role as a glib peacemaker, fills the charisma void left by Smith's stony performance. Hancock is an odd film—part My Super Ex-Girlfriend, part Transformers-esque messy blockbuster, part weird indie comic—but while it isn't necessarily as poignant as it wants to be, it manages the humor and heroics side of the equation admirably enough. If nothing else, it's worth it just to see a ready-made Superman-sized superhero in action without all the baggage of decades of retellings and reworkings; even looking at familiar faces working through a familiar genre, it's nice to be surprised for once.

Dallas Morning News:

Mr. Smith's charm helps sell the transformation of the character and the movie; part of the joke lies in seeing a megawatt star embrace his inner grouch with fantastical blunders, and part of the anticipation lies in seeing Hancock become, well, Will Smith, king of the summer box office. Some of the CG effects come off as chintzy, which may have as much to do with our general effects burnout than with deficiencies of this particular movie. (As David Denby recently noted in The New Yorker, we've reached a point where effects-driven movies come off as both too much and not enough.)

Your ultimate judgment of Hancock will likely hinge on whether or not you buy the film's dramatic identity shift. I found it rather sudden and perfunctory. I was also a little relieved to discover there's more here than initially meets the eye, that there's a movie to go along with the concept.

NY Post:

To say that Mary has a past would be the understatement of the summer. Let's just say her character makes no sense.

Nor are Mary's relationships with Ray or Hancock remotely plausible, even in a fantasy context.

Leaving behind the laughs for schmaltz, "Hancock" chickens out

at the last minute, lurching toward a cop-out happy ending that gives every indication of having been reshot at the behest of test audiences. Well, at least you won't be bored.

'Hancock' opens today, nationwide.

[Berlin, June 18. Image via Splash.]

[Los Angeles, May 6; image via Bauer-Griffin.]

The Good:

The Bad:

The Ugly:

[Los Angeles, CA; February 24. Image via AP.]