Supplement dated November 18, 2002

                                       to

                         PROSPECTUSES dated May 1, 2002


This Supplement is intended to be distributed with prospectuses dated May 1,
2002 for REVOLUTION EXTRA VARIABLE ANNUITY, REVOLUTION VALUE VARIABLE ANNUITY,
and REVOLUTION ACCESS VARIABLE ANNUITY CONTRACTS issued by John Hancock Variable
Life Insurance Company.

We have added a third paragraph under the heading titled "Competition" on page
60 of the Revolution Extra Variable Annuity and Revolution Value Variable
Annuity prospectuses, and on page 58 of the Revolution Access Variable Annuity
prospectus. The following paragraph is inserted in the places and on the pages
mentioned above:

     Rating agency data as of November 15, 2002, affirms JHVLICO's financial
stability rating from A.M. Best Company, Inc. of A++, its highest, based on the
strength of John Hancock and the capital guarantee. Standard & Poor's
Corporation and Fitch IBCA have assigned insurance claims-paying ability ratings
to JHVLICO of AA, which place JHVLICO in the third highest category by these
rating agencies. Moody's Investors Service, Inc. has assigned JHVLICO a
financial strength rating of Aa3, which is its fourth highest rating.



REVRATESUPP (11/02)