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Daredevil (Widescreen Edition)

Daredevil (Widescreen Edition)

List Price: $19.98
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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Double Dare
Review: Daredevil is yet another comic book hero that takes a crack at movie stardom. Created by Stan Lee and Bill Everett in 1964, for Marvel Comics, the film adaptation ends up as a mixed effort at best.

At the age of 12, young Matt Murdock (Scott Terra) is left blinded by dangerous chemicals, while running away from a the scene of a crime, in Hell's Kitchen New York. Soon after, he realizes that the same chemicals that took his sight, have somehow enhanced his remaining senses and made him superhuman. As Matt grows up. he vows to use his powers to fight crime and bring order to Hell's Kitchen...Now an adult Matt (Ben Affleck) is a defense lawyer by day and the masked Daredevil by night...Our hero is being hunted by a ruthless assassin named Bullseye (Colin Farrell), who was hired by the Kingpin of Crime (Michael Clarke Duncan) to take him out. Things get even worse for Matt as the woman he loves, Elektra Natchios (Jennifer Garner), blames his alter ego for a devasting loss.

Written and directed by Mark Steven Johnson, the film serves the character's origins pretty well, in other words, it stays true to the original comic book.. The film boasts some cool action sequences and solid effects. I especially liked the way in which Daredevil used his power and how that was shown on screen. Since many of the stunts in the movie were staged by the team that handled the Matrix. I was never bored or put off by what I saw there. As usual actors Jon Favreau, playing Matt's pal Frank Nelson, and Joe Pantoliano, as New York Post reporter Ben Urich provide the film some comic relief. Cameo watchers will notice creator Stan Lee and a famous comic book fan turned film director in the film as well.

While the film does have its good points, I found the casting of the film troublesome, and in the end, that's why I only rate this film 2 and a half to three stars. When it comes right down to it, in order for a super hero film to work, it has to be well cast. Without a solid cast to breathe life into the characters, the best special effects can't do it alone. Take the villians. Colin Farrell (can you say over exposed), Hollywood's latest rebel, with his raspy portrayal of Bullseye, comes across as having a bad case of laryngitis, instead of posing any threat. I also thought the nature of the Kingpin character was lost because other than the film's finale-MCD really had little to do in the film-even though sequels are a certainty, the role was all too brief. Therefore I felt any bald actor could have played the role.As for Affleck, he was just kind of just there, like so many of his roles, he seems to be on cruise control. He did Ok I guess. But at the same time he didn't WOW me either. As good as Garner may be at kicking butt, I didn't think she shared a lot of chemestry, with Affleck and she seemed to over play it at times in the film. My final gripe with Daredevil is its running time. At just above 90 minutes, the film felt rushed for a comic book flick Fans of the character will see the film anyway.

Even though the film, has its share of problems,I have to hand it to the producers of the 2 disc DVD set. Like the set for Spider-Man set, the extras are pretty extensive and entertaining. The commentary by director/screenwriter Mark Steven Johnson and producer Gary Foster is better than I thought it would be Aside from the theatrical trailers disc one has several other ways viewers can watch the film. There's the enhanced viewing mode and an on-screen trivia track.

Disc 2 takes an in depth look behind the scenes of the making of the movie. "Beyond Hell's Kitchen: Making Daredevil" documentary with optional enhanced viewing mode is pretty good. We also get to see Jennifer Garner's screen test, 6 multi-angle scene studies, a Kingpin featurette, and the usual fluff of an HBO First Look special. To gain some insight into how the visually impared really live, the profile "Moving Through Space: A Day with Tom Sullivan" is included and is a nice touch. 3 music videos: "Won't Back Down" by Fuel, "For You" by the Calling, "Bring Me to Life" by Evanescence from the soundtrack also show up. A still gallery, a look at the character's comic book start with, "Men Without Fear: Creating Daredevil" documentary and "Shadow World Tour": an in-depth look at "Daredevil's sight", as well as model sketches. Rounding it all out is DVD-ROM material including Daredevil #1 virtual comic book, history of the comic book, bios for your favorite heroes and villains, wallpapers, and a sensory quiz.

I must say the extras help make Daredevil better at home than on the big screen

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Nothing but visual candy
Review: Daredevil is yet another dissapointing comicbook come to life. While this movie may have exciting action scenes it completely lacks in everything else. The script is so poor and redundant it may aswell not be there. You could watch this movie with ear muffs and know exactly whats happening, which i probably recommend anyway since you wont have to hear the teen metal ridden soundtrack either. So anyway, Ben Affleck is Matt murdoch, a blind man who gains super human senses as a kid when radioactive waste is splashed over his face (how original). Other than being a superhero, he is also a kind hearted lawyer, which is ridiculous as his daredevil persona is a ruthless killer, although he keeps reassuring himself that he is "not the bad guy". This brings up the moral dilemma of does revenge = justice? who cares? The story doesn't flow very well at all. Characters almost force thier way into the lack luster script. There is absolutely no development of King Pin who has about 3 scenes in the whole movie, even though he is responsible for nearly all the crime in the city and also murdochs fathers death. Elektra played by Jennifer Garner is Murdochs love interest, and also becomes a ninja fighting superhero to exact revenge for her fathers death. And then theres Collin Farrel who overacts as the crazy Irish assassin Bullseye, who throws projectiles with deadly precision, and doesn't seem very scarey at all. The movie only really gets going after Bullseye is hired by King Pin to kill Elektra's father. We see lots of over the top computer generated fight scenes between daredevil and bullseye and you could probably guess the rest of it. All the events in this movie are tied together in a shallow and haphazard manner and the storyline plays more like a backdrop to the fighting scenes. The movie ends up being a pointless, uninteresting waste of time.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Eh, is okay
Review: Rented this on a lark. It's okay. Something for the kiddies. The best acting in the whole movie was between Murdock and his priest.
It's funny how he does the Bruce Lee/Rambo thing before he goes out on a nights foray.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Waaaay better that Spiderman!!!
Review: Because that pretty boy Ben Affleck was choosen to be the star character, I had honestly expected this movie to suck. Fortunately, after watching it, it turned out to be a great movie.

The acting is well done, with a very heartbreaking storyline. Daredevil does many stunning airial acrobatic moves. This has everything that I had expected to see in the Spiderman movie (a movie which I hated).

Daredevil is a true Marvel classic. It really is better that Spiderman.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: They ALMOST got it perfect
Review: Before I go into any kind of criticism I wanted to make it a point to point out the good in Daredevil, because there's really a lot there to enjoy.

I LOVED ... I mean ... LOVED the origin story in the beginning. It was PERFECT absolutely perfect. I can't say it enough, although a character or two was missing, they perfectly captured the spirit of what made Daredevil such an appealing character.

The casting was pretty good, Ben Affleck (I though) was a terrific Matt Murdock/Daredevil. I felt that although Jennifer Garner looked amazing as Electra, her performance came across a little rigid, as if she couldn't relax into the role. Colin Ferrell was hysterical as Bullseye. Ferrell was clearly having the time of his life making the movie. Michael Clarke Duncan was OK as Kingpin...

The stunts and 'shadow-vision' and effects, I enjoyed them all. I also LOVED all of the little nods to the comic book readers such as Frank Miller and Kevin Smith's cameo, seeing long-time artist John Romita's name as Jack Murdock's opponent.

I loved the coy interaction between Matt Murdock and Foggy Nelson or Matt Murdock and Electra. I ate it all up, I just couldn't get enough.

But of all the things they could have possibly slipped on, how did they actually slip on the character of Daredevil? They turned him into Batman for God's sake! Daredevil isn't a dark brooding anti-hero. He's the guy you see leaping off of a twenty-story building without a net with a big grin on his face. He's Spiderman without the Spider.

I was actually heartbroken that they had built up this insane amount of positive momentum and then lost it all when they turned Daredevil into a cold-blooded killer. I know they incorporated it into the storyline of Daredevil "finding himself" but it was just so far out of his character it bordered on being unforgivable for me. Try as I might I really had a hard time getting past it; especially in light of how much they got right.

Not a bad movie by any stretch, I'd still look forward to seeing a sequel, but it definitely has flaws.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Daredevil can go to ... heck.
Review: A friend of mine loaned me his copy of "Daredevil" a little while back, and I was actually quite excited to watch it. I knew next to nothing about Daredevil, save that he was blind and that his other senses worked extra-well to compensate for that fact ... beyond that, I was totally in the dark. I had recently come off of seeing a pair of comic book adaptations not too long before trying out this one: the excellent "X2: X-Men United" and the pretty good-but-not-quite-as-much-fun "Hulk", so I was pretty sure I would enjoy this one too. I was sadly mistaken.

To be fair, this film did have a couple things going for it, though one of them is admittedly entirely subjective. First off, I was interested immediately by the use of Roman Catholicism in relation to the main character. To be clear, this both interested me and set me on edge ... while I appreciated seeing a character in a movie have the Faith play a notable role in his life, just as it does with mine, it also set me on edge ... I didn't want the church to be portrayed in the wrong way, as it tends to be in movies that I have seen (not in the fact that the Church is insulted, but that the writers' understanding of the Church is sometimes mistaken on a particular point or attitude, which leads to the Church not being properly represented. I felt the same way when I saw Nightcrawler praying the rosary in "X2". Gladly, I had nothing to worry about from him, and Nightcrawler definitely came out as my favorite character of that film). I felt the Church itself to be well represented in this film ... Daredevil's actions contrary to her teachings, such as the things he does motivated by revenge, were his own choices. Good enough for me.

There were two more things I liked about this film, which helps to merit it two stars rather than just one. First, the whole childhood of Matt Murdock/origin story episode of the film was enjoyable. Second, I have to say that Colin Ferrell stole the show as the villainous Bullseye, hamming it up to a most entertaining degree and becoming a true bright spot amid the mindless chaos which surrounded him. If he had been the star, I would never have considered the movie to be a perfect one, but it would have still been incredibly fun to watch ... like seeing a movie just about the Kurgan from "Highlander"!

Now that I've got the good things out of the way, let's take a look at the stuff I remembered most: the bad.

First off, there's our main characters. Murdock and Elektra have got to have the worst possible scenes together out of any cinematic couple I've seen in recent history. Their meeting in the coffee shop or wherever it is is just awful (and he comes off looking like a major creep, if you ask me), and their little fight on the playground was downright embarrassing (made even worse by the awful one-liners they were forced to spout). Things don't get any better, and there was certainly no sympathy to be found from me when Elektra ... well, let's not spoil it for those who have not yet seen the movie (though I should still tell you not to bother).

I was majorly bewildered and frustrated by Murdock's confession scene after he had 'a bit of fun' with Elektra. It's one thing not to confess something you aren't sorry for, but if you aren't ... well, shouldn't you be telling the priest about that? I find it truly distressing that he could be such good friends with a priest and so familiar with the Church and all her practices/disciplines/beliefs and not mention or even think twice about that little detail. If he had been a non-religious character I wouldn't have given this matter a second thought.

What else is wrong with this movie? There's the awful music (I eagerly await the day when the world realizes that rap is cra ... crud and stop subjecting us to it), hearing the phrase "lawyer by day ..." repeated over and over ad nauseum, the incredible stunts that Daredevil is able to pull off (I actually had to double-check and make sure that he didn't have other superpowers besides his hyperactive senses) ... If that's really true, I'd like to be able to jump off of buildings the same way he does, and a heck of a lot more.

"Daredevil" was a complete waste of time, and has soured me from seeing any more comic book adaptations until the third "X-Men" film comes out in a year or two. You know it's a bad sign when you find yourself rooting for the bad guy, which we all know will only result in disappointment if we do. If you haven't seen this yet, give it a miss and do something else, like go to the library or clean your bathroom sink. You'll have a better time of it, and if you knew what you were missing you would thank me.

Carry on Carry on,

MN

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: cool dvd
Review: Daredevil is a cool movie. I didn't hate Ben. Garner is hot.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: what do you people want
Review: People say Daredevil never confesses, but how many times do you see somebody in a movie sit down and look at a menu. If we don't see em eat it dont mean that they dont eat. Daredevil starts to confess in the standard way and is cut off by the padre. He goes back later. Who knows what he says? Where's the problem with that? Its not a problem. He's talking to his padre. It shows he has soul. He's not heartless. He's got conscience. Some people are waaay too serious and stuffy. This movie is supposed to be fun. It is. I liked the action. Bullseye is a trip! The subway scene is off the hook! There's touching scenes too. It's a good. Not great, but good for sure.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: mayhem in the mighty marvel manner
Review: Daredevil comes to life! Rex Smith's take on the Daredevil was okay, but Affleck really nails it. The DVD contains an interview with Frank Miller who says that Superman should go after Wonder Woman not Lois. He's got a point. I never bought Heather Locklear's attraction to the Swamp Thing (then again, she was a vegetarian), Kilmer and Kiddman in Batman Returns, or Dr Who's fling with Grace. Relationships in these kind of things are often crappy, but I must admit that Jen and Ben fit well together. Daredevil and Elektra "click".
The dark side of Daredevil is handled well in the movie too. His anger issues are understandable. His religous side is shown too. Some wanted more, but I lked how it was presented. True, we don't hear the entire confession when he tells the priest he was wrong, but I don't think we have to. The scene is left open ended for a reason. The point that he confesses is clearly made.
It doesn't always make sense that Daredevil is as gymnastic as he is, but logic can kill the fun of most fantastic fiction so why bother? Bad guys often steal the show in these types of movies. Nicholson's Joker did it in Batman. Treat Williams' Xander Drax did it in the Phantom. Hackman's Luthor stole the show from Superman, and then General Zod and his crew did the same in the sequel. It's a tradition going back to the days of Charles Middleton's Ming the Merciless. He always stole the show too. Bullseye is no exception. Kingpin is a good baddie, but Farrell takes the cake.
The bonus materials are outstanding. The outtakes from the playground scene are a riot. The interviews with the likes of Stan Lee and Kevin Smith are informative. The director provides great commentary too. All of these, and much more, make for an enjoyable movie experience. While it's not Birth of a Nation, the double disc Daredevil provides plenty for fans of popcorn, action movies, and superheroes to enjoy.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Not Daring, Just Dumb
Review: I'm not really familiar with comic book superheroes. The only superheroes I can think of I've read about in comic books are SpaceMan Spiff and Stupendous Man from "Calvin and Hobbes." I never got into Marvel Comics and that whole genre...I only read the funnies. With that in mind, I'm going to try to review the new movie "Dare Devil." Bear in mind that I know practically nothing about the whole "Dare Devil" comic strip, and I don't know the background or anything like that. I went into the movie as a practically blank slate (except for my predisposition to not liking Ben Affleck).

The movie started out sort of interesting, with the opening credits starting out as Braille. I could easily see the irony of watching Braille on the screen as the opening for a movie about a blind man. The movie went downhill from there.

I flat out didn't really like this movie. Yes, there were a few funny one-liners that I found amusing but possibly offensive to blind people...but basically everything else about the movie I didn't like. I'll just list the things I didn't like first, and then list the thing(s) I did like so we'll end on a positive note.

The dialogue (which reminded me of Spiderman), was horribly cheesy. The acting matched the dialogue (though there were a few good performances mixed in the bunch). I'd have to say that Affleck actually did a half decent job with the character he was given, despite the skin-tight leather outfit he wore.

In action movies like this, generally the action is the redeeming part of the movie...the part that makes up for the poor dialogue and plot (I can't complain about the plot...it was based on the comic books...). Unfortunately, in this movie the action seemed to be direct copies of Spiderman...just a different outfit and Dare Devil had to do the same stunts without web...instead he used a cable that he could shoot out and retrieve at will. Basically the action was just your basic fluid CG action that defied gravity...and my attention span. The worst part of the fight scenes was the weird pseudo crucifixion scene in which "Bullseye" (played by Colin Ferrel...the same guy that plays the Detective in Minority Report), gets shot through both hands and stretches out his arm while in a large cathedral. Yeah, it was a little weird.

Walking back from the movie, the guy accompanying me (we'll call him "Dan" to allow anonymity) made several remarks on the simplicity of the soundtrack and how it really had no depth. I'm not the music diehard he is, but I agree that the music never really seemed to fit the scene...but the lyrics that I heard seemed to sort of fit (A few lines I caught included "Open your eyes" and "Can't you see" etc). I'd probably have to watch it again and pay more attention to that portion to give any real clues on what that was about (but I'd rather not see it again...).

I don't really want to give away the plot...but it does mostly fit into the plot of most superhero movies (good guys vs. bad...), and fits even closer into the plot of Spiderman (I guess Stan Lee wasn't as creative as we thought). Anyhow, I don't really want to complain about the movie anymore, so I'll mention the good point(s).

The good points: Ummmm...I thought it was really amusing that Joe Pantoliano played the reporter in the movie. I sort of enjoyed his character (he's Cipher from "The Matrix"). Also...KingPin was sort of interesting...I would never, ever, EVER fight that guy. Man, he was HUGE. I'm not sure whether that's a good point or not, but I had to make it. Oh...and the whiz bang special effects were neat-o. Basically, I walked out of the theater thinking that I had just enjoyed the movie. Then I realized I paid money to see it and I realized I really didn't enjoy it that much.


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