DVD reviews: Wanted | Hancock

Published on Friday 28 November 2008 13:49

WANTED (18) £19.99 Director: Timur Bekmambetov Running time: 106 minutes **

Angelina Jolie returns to her rootin'-tootin' Tomb Raider action-girl guise in this nonsense of a sci-fi thriller, in which James McAvoy abandons all clarity of acting thought at the door and turns in one of his least memorable performances as a beefed-up, gun-toting assassin.

Mark Millar's comic book is brought to life with a bombardment of special effects that can't disguise a meat-headed approach to a modern action flick.

McAvoy plays a young, X-gen type until Jolie appears in a flash of motorised mayhem and saves his life, only to reveal that he is not the mundane nobody he thinks he is, but the last in a long line of highly feared killers who must accept his fate – mostly riding pillion to Jolie's death-defying approach to the Highway Code. McAvoy should have followed The Last King Of Scotland and Atonement with something light years from this. He's just lucky that his proven talents will overwrite this blip.

HANCOCK (12) 21.99

Director: Peter Berg

Running time: 92 minutes

***

When you're done saving the world, being president, the greatest sportsman who ever lived, the best dad a kid could wish for, what do you do? Well, if you're Will Smith, you can take your pick of roles in life and in Hollywood, and, in Hancock, Smith ekes charm and humour out of the idea that a man can be the best superhero in the world – if only he can be bothered.

It's a cute and very modern twist on the inner turmoil in the minds of heroes, which is usually portrayed as having a lot to do with puberty and parents and very little to do with the fact that maybe, given the gift, you might not want it. So Hancock has the power to save the world, but would rather bum around and get drunk. Jason Bateman is the PR man eager for the opportunity to turn a bad story good.

Smith is as sharp as ever, but still too hidebound by family entertainment values to really thrill.