A routine superhero movie based on the cult-favorite comic book about a satanically-costumed blind vigilante, Daredevil plays like a C-grade grad project for a night school course called Superhero Filmmaking 101. Writer-director Mark Steven Johnson's one stroke of genius comes in the pulses of fluid, ghostly imagery he uses to depict the sightless crime fighter's enhanced ability to "see" through sound waves and smells. But most of the picture apes its action style--and many whole fight scenes--from last year's Spider-Man, astar Ben Affleck's--as mild-mannered lawyer Matt Murdock (by day) and superhero Daredevil (by night)--stilted acting is further handicapped by his staring into space all the time to simulate the character's blindness, resulting in a C-minus performance as the flick's homogenized hero. Colin Farrell (The Recruit) is a gas as scenery-chewing baddie Bullseye and Jennifer Garner (Alias) acts circles around them both both as Murdock's lover and Daredevil's kung-fu-kicking, Sai-sword-wielding sworn enemy who mistakenly thinks he killed her father. But villains and love interests do not a superhero movie make. Not a necessary purchase. [Note: Available in widescreen or full screen versions, DVD extras include an audio description track for the visually impaired, audio commentary by writer-director Mark Steven Johnson and producer Gary Foster, an enhanced viewing mode (with a branching behind-the-scenes fact track), a “Fact & Fiction” text commentary track, the 59-minute documentary “Men Without Fear: Creating Daredevil,” the 58-minute making-of documentary “Beyond Hell's Kitchen,” a 25-minute HBO “First Look” special, costar Jennifer Garner's two-minute screen test, the eight-minute featurette “Moving Through Space: A Day with Tom Sullivan” on the film's sight-impaired consultant, the six-minute “Shadow World Tour” featurette on Daredevil's hyper-senses, modeling sheet character stats, a two-minute featurette on villain character Kingpin, multi-angle dailies of two action sequences, music videos for “Won't Back Down” by Fuel, “For You” by The Calling and the wildly popular “Bring Me to Life” by Evanescence, a soundtrack promo spot, a stills gallery, trailers and DVD-ROM features. Bottom line: a whopper of an extras package for a whimper of a superhero flick.] (R. Blackwelder)[DVD Review--November 16, 2004--Fox, 133 min., R, $19.98--Making its second appearance on DVD, Daredevil: Director's Cut features more than 30 minutes of extended footage (including a subplot featuring '90s rapper Coolio), audio commentary by director Mark Steven Johnson and producer Avi Arad, “Giving the Devil His Due” (a 15-minute "making-of" featurette on the director's cut), and trailers. Bottom line: the additional footage makes this a better--but still not good--film, and the extras package is a lot smaller than what's on the theatrical version, meaning this is still a very optional purchase.]
Daredevil
Fox, 96 min., PG-13, VHS: $22.98, DVD: $29.98, July 29 Volume 18, Issue 4
Daredevil
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