Yes, the Fresh Prince has taken most of his time in-between promoting Hancock defending himself from rabid media types hurling these accusations at him.

We at hecklerspray feel very sorry for Will, so we’re starting a ‘Help Will Smith Fund’ where we will collect aluminium cans and sell them at local scrap yards to raise funds to help young Willy defend himself…

What’s that? He earned how much?! Oh. Well sod him then.

Yes, poor old Will will have to console himself with the fact that he’s only managed to be the highest earning Hollywood type of the last year, bringing home around $80 million clams (around 40 million British clams) for Jada Pinkett and the rest of the family. It will be hard, we’re sure, but there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Light made out of money, most likely. In a tunnel forged from gold-laced platinum.

We’re not ones to be jealous, nor are we ones to judge – much – but in this case we’re jealous and we may just have to judge ol’ big Willie. It is interesting to see that his alleged affiliations with Scientology haven’t harmed his career in any way – the box office performance of Hancock is testament to that. Even ignoring the huge success of the man and his movies, the performance of Hancock has even gone so far as to be record-breaking – Smitty has managed eight movies in a row grossing more than $100,000,000. That’s one hundred million dollars. More than. Eight times. In a row.

Crikey.

So really – what does Will Smith have to do to fail? What cock up does he have to make before people decide they don’t like him any more? He’s tried bankruptcy, berating an old woman’s driving ability, a failed marriage, cussing Eminem, Men In Black II and possibly being one of those crazy Scientology types, and nothing has made the ever-hating public dislike him. In any way. Ever.

Maybe his constant appearances at the top of rich lists will change all this? Maybe not. Hecklerspray has bore witness to many popular celebrities over the years that have achieved something of a massive fall from grace, normally due to them earning vast amounts of money. Case in point – will anyone openly admit to liking Mike Myers (also in the top five rich list) any more? Thought not. Go back to the early/mid nineties and he was much-loved. This scientific theory doesn’t seem to apply to Will Smith though, and frankly it’s hurting our giant mind.

Maybe it’ll have to be something drastic, like threatening his mum and sister (allegedly), or… errm… getting pregnant underage…

Wow – this horse really is easy to flog when it’s dead!

Things start promisingly with Will bucking trend as the foul-mouthed, alcoholic, reluctant superhero Hancock. Jumping straight into an action sequence, the opening is a funny, action-packed start of what seems to be an original take on the currently strong superhero genre.

Although it is obviously naive to think that the million dollar man Smith would star in a film as a character with few redeeming features, so the obvious turn around comes with the help of PR guru Ray who, after being saved by Hancock, insists on helping him turn his image around into a loveable crime fighter. Although the path is never smooth, Hancock’s attitude turns out not to be the only problem as Mary (Charlize Theron) puts a spanner in the works.

Even with the entrance of Ray, Hancock still remains an enjoyable film, focusing more on the comedy than the action until around the mid point when dramatic weight sinks in and it turns into a drama and then finally finishes on what is a strange cliche superhero action sequence.

Will Smith, though, manages to come out unscathed, carrying the film on his muscular shoulders. It’s clear in the earlier scenes of Hancock and his destructive personality that Smith is really enjoying himself and it shines through into his performance.

Jason Bateman plays the straight man role which is a disappointment, as anyone who has ever watched Arrested Development would know that the man is a thoroughbred of comedy acting. Nevertheless he manages to inject some humour into the role and becomes the most consistent element of the movie.

As the film gets into its second half it starts to become more of a drama, with Hancock reflecting about who he is and his place in the world. Affecting as the drama is, it’s a disappointment that the comedy subsides, stopping the film from becoming a funny summer romp that the advertising promised it to be.

The final sequence goes someway to cement this fact; with a lack of central villain, some characters are thrown into the mix just for an uninspiring final action scene to finish the film off in typical comic book movie style.

Hancock serves as a decent but flawed entry into a busy summer of big blockbusters and superhero movies, and ends up as neither a successful satire of the genre nor a strong entry into it. There’s a lot to like, but it’s a shame to see such an original concept run out of steam after just 45 minutes. You could do worse for a night out at the cinema but Hancock unfortunately flies into mediocrity.

[story by David A. Scarborough]

Exhibit A: Hancock is number one in the US weekend box office. And, considering that Hancock's a movie which contains a scene about one man physically pushing another man's head into a third man's rectum, that's actually quite impressive.

Hancock's weekend box office success just furthers his incredible run of movies that are wildly popular despite not being especially great - I Am Legend, The Pursuit Of Happyness, Hitch, I, Robot, Men in Black II, Bad Boys II. A couple more of these babies under his belt and he might even beat the record currently held by Adam Sandler.

This summer is clearly the summer of being clobbered over the head with superhero movies until we're all lying semi-conscious in a pool of our own blood pleading with Hollywood to stop. Iron Man, Batman, The Incredible Hulk – even noted superhuman crimefighters Abba have a movie out this summer. And now even Will Smith's got in on the act with Hancock.

And you have to admit that Hancock getting to be number one at the weekend box office is more down to Will Smith's charisma as an actor than anything else. It's mildly staggering to think that a dark comedy about a world-hating superhero of no fixed abode could be so successful, but imagine if it was a dark comedy about a world-hating superhero of no fixed abode starring Nicolas Cage. It wouldn't stand a bloody chance, would it? Here's this week's US weekend box office top five…

1 - Hancock (After denying that the acts of handing out free Scientology personality test vouchers to the Hancock crew and opening a school where Scientologist teachers teach a Scientologist curriculum make him a Scientologist, Will Smith faces another rough ride when his next movie Will Smith Stares Into A Camera And Repeats The Phrase 'I Am A Scientologist' For Two Hours is released later in the year) $66,000,000

2 - Wall-E (Wall-E's continued box office success now makes him the second most excitement-provoking robot of all time, after that time our entire family walked in on us humping our Roomba) $33,417,000

3 - Wanted (For a film about physics-defying ultra-assassins, Wanted's got a bit of a crap name, hasn't it? According to IMDb it's actually the 19th film to be named Wanted, and none of the other 18 sound particularly thrilling. Let's hope that nobody in the future confuses this Wanted with the 13-minute German Wanted or the 1983 Bollywood Wanted. It's easily done, you know) $20,607,000

4 - Get Smart (Get Smart has now utterly outclassed The Love Guru in the lame summer comedy movie stakes, with the latter still only halfway to making its money back. If only Mike Myers had made a spy spoof first) $11,125,000

5 - Kung Fu Panda (A computer animated movie about funny animals starring famous actors? What a great idea – why didn't anyone think of this first?) $7,500,000

Read more:

Weekend Box Office – Box Office Mojo

Since none of the latter actually exist, can we take this to mean that Will Smith is now in with the Scientology crowd? It would certainly seem that way, thanks to reports that Will Smith's wrap gifts to the crew of his new movie Hancock consisted of free passes for Scientology personality tests. 

If it's true, great – that makes Will Smith the new John Travolta, and we await his Look Who's Talking Now with baited breath. 

Who wouldn't want to be a Scientologist? It's brilliant – you get to hang around with Tom Cruise all the time, you can force your girlfriend to be silent when she gives birth, you're constantly reminded that mental illness can be cured by jogging – or something – and if you get really lucky you can knock your wife up with L Ron Hubbard's sperm.

Compare that to what you get with, say Catholicism – a dribble of wine, a scrap of bread and a billion loudmouth dirty accidental children – and you can see why Scientology is such a draw. But don't take our word for it, since Will Smith seems fairly hell-bent on converting everyone to Scientology himself anyway.

You don't have to be a celebrity expert to see that Will Smith and Tom Cruise have been hanging out a lot lately. But why? What caused this sudden closeness? Was it friendly competition between Will Smith and Tom Cruise to see who's best at doing unnervingly loud laughs? Are they both members of the same Los Angeles pro-am high-fiving club? Or is it because they're both Scientologists determined to enslave the world in whatever it is exactly they believe in?

It's a possibility. Remember that Will Smith's wife Jada Pinkett Smith was one of the first people to see Suri Cruise? Remember that she's a Scientologist? Remember that Will and Jada homeschool their kids using Scientology textbooks? Remember that Will Smith was bigging up Scientology on TV not so long ago? 

All the signs seem to point to Will Smith becoming a Scientologist – especially since it's been reported that his wrap gift to the crew of his new movie Hancock were tokens for a free personality test at a Scientology centre. According to the New York Daily News:

Big stars traditionally distribute "wrap presents" to crew members after completing a film. His recent gift after wrapping next summer's comedy "Hancock" was a card good for a personality test at your local Scientology center. Fun! Never mind that such tests are given free by the church anyway. The quiz is designed to convert people to the religion by identifying personality flaws that - surprise! - Scientology can fix right up for you.

Aside from the creepy religious undertones of the personality test, what kind of a crap gift is that? Apparently it came in a goodie bag, so lord knows what else was in there. A DVD copy of Battlefield Earth? A hologram of Xenu looking ticked off? Kirstie Alley? Bleurgh.

Anyway, you shouldn't worry about this Scientology-recruiting gift converting hoards of hairy sound engineers to the religion, because we hear you only pass the personality test if your personality is found to be 'really really ridiculously gullible almost to the point where it's a medical syndrome.'

What you should worry about, though, is Scientology running wild on Will Smith the same way as it did with Tom Cruise. No, we're not talking about the avalanche of rumours about his personal life, the constant public ridicule or the lightning-fast erosion of his movie career – we're just slightly nervous that Scientology will convince Will Smith to get one of those creepy Hitler haircuts that Tom's been walking about with lately.

Read more:

Will Smith Boosting Scientology – NY Daily News