Movie Review State of Play

State of Play (2009) 

Directed by Kevin MacDonald 

Written by Matthew Michael Carnahan, Tony Gilroy, Billy Ray 

Starring Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, Robin Wright Penn, Jason Bateman, Jeff Daniels, Helen Mirren 

Release Date April 17th, 2002 

Published April 16th, 2002 

Some of my favorite movies of all time have featured crusading journalists. All The President's Men is, of course, the best known, but my favorite is Ron Howard's underrated The Paper. I know I am likely alone on that one but Howard's bustling newsroom filled to overflow with quirk ridden reporters and columnists makes me smile every time I watch it. Michael Keaton may be best remembered as having played Batman but for me he will always be the ink stained wretch who kept after the story even after the paper had gone to press. Randy Quaid, Glenn Close, Robert Duvall and Marisa Tomei round out a brilliant cast in a movie that dripped with ink.

Now comes State of Play, another crusading journalist story, this one with the kink of having notorious reporter hater Russell Crowe as of all things a reporter. It's a sensational piece of casting, working for the aforementioned kink and because Crowe is just so charming. What source wouldn't turn cartwheels to help this guy get a scoop.

Crowe is Cal McCaffrey, a 15 year veteran newsman at the Washington Globe. While the rest of the industry is on laptops and blogging, Cal is still all about the pen and the kind of shoe leather journalism that gets you information you could never get in an email or a Facebook posting.

McCaffrey is investigating an odd double homicide when his best friend, a Congressman named Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck) suddenly comes to the center of all Washington headlines. Collins' top assistant and secret bedmate has been killed or maybe committed suicide and the Congressman is in hot water. He turns to Cal for some sympathy and boy does Cal owe him one.

You see, Cal has a history with his best pals' wife (Robin Wright Penn) and doesn't think the Congressman is going to let him forget about it. So, Cal quickly helps the Congressman with some crisis strategy and even crosses an ethical line by trying to convince one of the paper's online bloggers, Della Frye (Rachel McAdams) to not report certain details about the Congressman's affair.

Eventually, the murder Cal is covering comes to cross paths with his pals political scandal and Cal has no choice but to join the two stories and begin looking for answers. Answers about the murder, about a potential Government and Corporate conspiracy and some very uncomfortable questions about his best friend the Congressman.

Russell Crowe joined the cast of State Of Play a week before shooting began, Ben Affleck shortly after Crowe, and yet both are terrifically well cast.. Crowe is especially good, coming to perfectly embody the role of a hardscrabble reporter. With his greasy, floppy hair and a guy that says he spends all day hunched over a keyboard, Crowe owns this character and it is through him that State of Play succeeds.

Affleck is strong as well but he's much more in the background of this story than the commercials may be. Scenes where we are focused on Affleck's Congressman are arguably the weakest of the movie but that is no comment on Affleck's performance but rather of how compelling the newsroom scenes with Crowe, Rachel McAdams and the great Helen Mirren as their crusty editor are.

We are left wanting more of those scenes and are a little letdown when Crowe is offscreen so other information can be imparted.

There are some little inconsistencies in this allegedly modern newsroom. First comes with a line from McAdams about people wanting to read their big scoop stories and 'get ink on their fingers' as if the story weren't going online well ahead of the print edition. The other minor niggling detail is, really could a scandal ridden Congressman really walk into a shady hotel or even less plausibly, A Washington D.C Newsroom, without someone hitting Twitter or Facebook within seconds with the news that said scandal ridden Congressman has just walked in.

The film and the plot have neither the time or the inclination to tackle such modern technological issues. Realistically, the film doesn't have to address these things for it to be a highly entertaining popcorn thriller but someday some movie will and that movie will be the definitive movie of the modern newspaper.

State Of Play aims to pay tribute to old school journalism and tackle the modern problems plaguing modern journalism and in the performance of Russell Crowe and in an end credits montage, elements of State of Play are indeed like a Hallmark card to a dying breed of dogged journos.

It is as a thriller where State of Play aims to find an audience and it is a good if not great one. When Crowe accidentally stumbles into some serious danger you will hold your breath waiting for him to be safe again. There are one or two of those moments in State of Play and they are tense and exciting enough and the ending just twisty enough for me to say check out State of Play.

Movie Review: Extract

Extract (2009) 

Directed by Mike Judge

Written by Mike Judge 

Starring Jason Bateman, Kristen Wiig, Ben Affleck, Mila Kunis, Dustin Milligan, Clifton Collins

Release Date September 4th, 2009 

Published September 3rd, 2009 

Writer-Director Mike Judge has a tremendous talent for creating memorable, well observed characters. From the moronic Beavis and Butthead to the best approximation of the American everyman on TV in King of the Hill to his put upon corporate drones in Office Space, Judge's talent for character is the glue that holds his work together.

For his latest effort, the dark comedy Extract, Judge has his talent for character working in abundance. It's unfortunate that his terrific characters are stranded in a meandering mess of plot that doesn't seem to know what to do with them.

Bateman is the star of Extract as Joel the owner of a company that makes sweeteners or Extract. Joel is married to Suzie (Kristen Wiig) but the spark has gone out of the marriage, they haven't had relations in over a month. Joel confesses this to his best friend Dean (Ben Affleck), a scraggly haired bartender at a sports bar. Dean suggests drugs.

First he offers a horse tranquilizer. When that succeeds in zonking Joel out he offers a bizarre solution to Joel's problems. You see, Joel is thinking of cheating on his wife. He has his eye on Cindy (Mila Kunis) a temp at the Extract company. However, he feels to guilty to cheat. Dean's ingenious plan is to get Suzie to cheat first thereby absolving Joel.

As Joel is still whacked on drugs, Dean calls Brad (Dustin Milligan) a good looking doofus who will seduce Susie in the guise of cleaning the pool at Joel's home. Meanwhile, Joel has problems at the factory as well as an industrial accident cost an employee, Step (Clifton Collins) a testicle. He set to sue the company and blow a deal to sell the company to a major corporation.

Cindy is a key to both stories but in ways that never really connect plot wise. There is a whole lot going on in Extract but Mike Judge just isn't certain what he wants to do with it all. He's aware, it seems, that his characters are funny, they really are, but they are funny without a purpose.

The plot is like a spinning top that after 90 minutes finally loses momentum and simply ceases to move. After running out of funny things for his characters to say and do, Judge simply ends the movie and on a note that really has zero to do with anything that happens in the rest of the movie.

I will give you just a hint, the end involves Joel's irksome neighbor played by comic suppporting all star David Koechner. That Koechner is brilliantly funny in the role is without question. Why his seemingly unrelated character figures into the film's ending is an utter mystery, I think even to Mr. Judge.

Extract ends with a bizarre black comic whimper that fails to payoff even the modest arcs that set up early on. Still, because of Mike Judge's talent for great characters and a stellar cast, I am recommending Extract. Just don't be surprised if at the end you are left wanting.

Movie Review Smokin' Aces

Smokin' Aces (2007) 

Directed by Joe Carnahan

Written by Joe Carnahan 

Starring Ryan Reynolds, Jeremy Piven, Ben Affleck, Chris Pine, Ray Liotta, Alicia Keyes, Taraji P. Henson, Andy Garcia, Jason Bateman

Release Date January 26th, 2007

Joe Carnahan was getting his ass kicked. On his first blockbuster assignment, Mission Impossible 3, Carnahan was dealing with a restrictive studio, a demanding star in Tom Cruise, and an unwieldy script that just never made sense for Carnahan’s style of filmmaking. While it would have been a dream project for anyone in Carnahan’s position, leaving Mission Impossible 3  was a blessing for Carnahan who went back to his own work. With the blockbuster behind him, Carnahan was able to make Smokin’ Aces a movie that is perhaps the purest distillation of Carnahan’s style of filmmaking. 

Smokin' Aces is the result of Carnahan's studio movie frustrations. An ultra-violent, multi-character action pic with a final act that kicks the doors down. Smokin' Aces crosses a dash of Tarentino with a hint of Guy Richie and a little Scorsese. But this is no mere homage to other filmmakers. The final act of Smokin' Aces is all Carnahan, an operatic denouement that turns a jaunty exercise in major film violence into a grand guignol of violent drama and revenge fantasy.

Simply put, Smokin' Aces kicks ass.

In a penthouse hideout in Lake Tahoe, Buddy 'Aces' Israel (Jeremy Piven) is hiding out, waiting for the feds to finish his deal. Buddy is turning state's evidence against the mobsters who made him a star lounge act on the Vegas strip. However, do not make the mistake of thinking Buddy is just another snitch. This move comes after his attempt to transition from lounge act to gangster nearly got him killed.

While Buddy hides out his old mob buddies have thrown a one million dollar bounty down on his head and every top hitman in the world wants a piece. Converging on Lake Tahoe are some of the most bloodthirsty cutthroats in the business of cutting throats. Worst of this lot are the Tremor brothers (Chris Pine, Kevin Durand, Maury Sterling), crazed terrorists with no fear of killing in broad daylight, in front of thousands of witnesses. Throwing bombs, literally, the Tremors are as subtle as a jackhammer but they are efficient killers.

On the slightly more subtle side, Georgia (pop star Alicia Keyes) and her girl Sharice (Taraji P. Henson) plan on stealth but carry a 50 caliber machine gun in case things get nasty. On the international front, Pasquale Acosta (Nestor Carbonell) is an efficient killer who specializes in the quiet kill. Assimilating himself to any situation he gets up close and personal with his victims and kills with icy determination.

The most underestimated and lethal killer is a shape-shifter named Lazlo Soot (Tommy Flanagan). No one has ever seen his real face, he specializes in masks and various torture techniques. Standing against this evil menagerie are a pair of FBI agents, Carruthers (Ray Liotta) and Messner (Ryan Reynolds) who have no idea just how bad things are about to get as their boss (Andy Garcia) works on Buddy's witness protection deal.

That is just a thumbnail sketch of the plot of Smokin' Aces which also makes room for roles filled by Ben Affleck, Common, Jason Bateman, Martin Henderson and Peter Berg. These roles may or may not be essential to the film's finale but they all combine for one of the funniest, gaudiest and largest  ensembles of any movie ever. Smokin’ Aces featured stars who would go on to dominate much of the next decade as blockbuster leading men. It’s a testament to how much people believed in the vision of Joe Carnahan back in the day. 

Joe Carnanhan made a killer debut with the movie Blood Guts and Octane back in 2000 and Narc in 2002. But with Smokin' Aces, Carnahan affirmed his directorial chops with a slick, stylish modern thriller that while it evokes many comparisons, in the end, it's all Carnahan After two acts of snarky, over the top violence, the third act of Smokin' Aces becomes a hardcore drama in which Ryan Reynolds' FBI agent steps forward and takes over the picture.

Reynolds had never been known as an action hero or a great dramatic actor before Smokin’ Aces 2006 release but in the final scenes of Smokin' Aces, Reynolds matured before our eyes and quickly showed the ability to take over and dominate a scene with something other than snappy one-liners. The former Van Wilder is a true badass in Smokin’ Aces, an early example of the full power of his superstar charisma. 

Smokin' Aces is a high octane violent spectacle. A superstar ensemble cast brought together by a then rising star director made for one seriously cool movie that has somehow become lost to history over a decade and a half later.. Many considered Smokin' Aces derivative at the time and that perception perhaps lingers, but for me, the cool factor is just undeniable and that goes a long way to redeeming whatever elements may feel overfamiliar today. 

And then there is that killer third act which takes Smokin' Aces from just another ultra-violent modern thriller into a whole other realm of high cool. Smokin Aces is so cool that it’s no wonder that Carnahan has never been able to recapture the magic of it. Carnahan has floundered over the last decade doing punch ups on terrible movies and delivering some of the most forgettable directorial efforts of the last decade and a half. It’s a shame but at least he will always have Smokin’ Aces as a reminder that at his best, Carnahan made one heck of a great action movie. 

Movie Review Hollywoodland

Hollywoodland (2006)

Directed by Allen Coulter 

Written by Paul Bernbaum 

Starring Ben Affleck, Diane Lane, Adrien Brody, Bob Hoskins

Release Date September 8th. 2006 

Published September 7th, 2006 

The death of Adventures of Superman star George Reeves is one that has haunted Hollywood for years. Did this once successful TV actor take his own life during a party in his home in 1959 or was he murdered? The new mystery/biopic Hollywoodland does not purport to answer any that question. Rather, Hollywoodland exists to ask some probing questions about the death of George Reeves. A question that may be answered by Hollywoodland is whether audiences will ever again accept Ben Affleck as a big time movie star. If people cannot let Ben off the hook for his movie mistakes, after his exceptional performance in Hollywoodland, they may never will.

By 1959 the career of George Reeves. formerly TV's Man of Steel, Superman, was seemingly over. After breaking off hsi relationship with Toni Mannix (Diane Lane), the wife of Hollywood power broker, Eddie Mannix (Bob Hoskins), George Reeves (Ben Affleck) found his once promising Hollywood career suddenly shut down. Trapped in a loveless relationship with a woman he had met only months earlier; and with a serious drinking problem, Reeves went to bed on June 16th 1959 with little promise for good things in his future.

Does that mean that Reeves went to his bedroom that night and took a German luger pistol and put it to his head and pulled the trigger? No one seems to know for sure. Reeves' mother, Helen Bessolo (Lois Smith), is certain that her son would not kill himself. So certain is Helen that she moves from her home in Illinois to Los Angeles where she engages the services of a private eye named Louis Simo (Adrien Brody).

Better known for his headline making than his detective work, Simo was once a prominent studio detective until he gave away confidential information about a starlet's death to a newspaper. Now, working out of a fleabag motel room, Simo's most consistent work is following and photographing cheating wives. That is, when he is not fighting with his ex-wife Laurie (Molly Parker) over the care of their son (Zach Mills).

The death of George Reeves looks to Simo to be exactly the case the LAPD said it was; a simple suicide. But with cash in pocket from Reeves' mother and the chance to make some big headlines, Simo takes the case and finds far more than he bargained for.

Louis Simo is a fictional creation of screenwriter Paul Bernbaum and director Allen Coulter who use Simo in Hollywoodland as a shorthand character to reveal real life mysteries. The things that the Simo character uncovers and the questions he asks are legitimate mysteries that have kept the death of George Reeves in the headlines for years. This fictionalization does nothing to dampen the real life mystery of the death of Superman.

The one problem with Simo as a character are the subplots attached to him. Director Coulter, best known for his work on HBO's Sex and the City and Six Feet Under, gives far to much screen time to Simo's problems with his wife, her new boyfriend, and the issues with his son. And on top of all of that Simo has a girlfriend and another case he is investigating. Each of these Simo subplots take far too much time away from the far more intriguing real life story of George Reeves and his mystifying death.

This is not the fault of Adrien Brody who rises to the challenge of this difficult role. The first half hour of the film is spent establishing Simo as a character and admittedly, it tries the patience of audiences who came for the George Reeves story. A testament to Brody's talent is that he holds these scenes as well as he does. The scenes still try the patience but they are certainly less irritating because of Brody's magnetic performance.

Ben Affleck delivers a tremendous performance as George Reeves in Hollywoodland. A subject of derision for the past few years because of missteps like Surviving Christmas and Gigli; Affleck is redeemed as the failing actor who could not escape the shadow of his most famous role. Affleck brings to Reeves the charisma and magnetism that Reeves exhibited on television, but where Affleck really excels is in bringing out Reeves' sad, tortured soul away from the glare of the stage lights. 

Like Andy Kaufman, who suffered every moment of his time on the television series Taxi, George Reeves hated the role of Superman. Reeves knew that playing a kiddie show hero, as his Superman was portrayed, would typecast him as not being a serious actor. We know this from the testimonials of Reeves' former flame, Toni Mannix and while anything she says regarding Reeves is colored with bitterness over their break up, it does track with Reeves' post-Supeman life where he struggled against the kid show stereotype.

When Superman finally ends and Toni is unwilling to help Reeves's career by talking to her husband, Reeves ends it and gives Mannix a motive to kill him. Of course, the volatile studio head Eddie Mannix also had plenty of motive to want Reeves killed. Reeves cuckolded the studio head and since Mannix had a reputation for punishing his enemies, the Mannix murder theory isn't farfetched/ These are a couple of plausible but wholly unprovable theories that the film covers but nothing close to a resolution of the mystery is approached. Despite the strong conjecture, you are likely to leave Hollywoodland thinking Reeves took his own life/ 

Movie Review: Clerks 2

Clerks 2 (2006) 

Directed by Kevin Smith

Written by Kevin Smith 

Starring Brian O'Halloran, Kevin Anderson, Rosario Dawson, Ben Affleck, Jennifer Schwalbach Smith

Release Date July 21st, 2006 

Published July 20th, 2006 

I am a huge Kevin Smith fan. I own all of his movies, have listened to the DVD commentaries, I even loved Jersey Girl! So maybe I am not the most objective person to review Clerks 2. Dante and Randal, the lead characters of the original Clerks, are like old friends of mine because of the many repeat viewings of that film and revisiting them is like seeing old friends after a longtime away.

Nevertheless, it is my job to review movies and that provides me the pleasure of once again indulging in the pop culture literate, bathroom humor and far out scatology of my old friend, whom I've never met, Kevin Smith.

In Clerks, Dante (Brian O'Halloran) and Randal (Kevin Anderson) had a very eventful day at work at the Kwik Stop and adjoining video store, and Dante wasn't even supposed to be there that day. They played hockey on the roof, sold cigarettes' to minors, a guy died in the bathroom, and Dante broke up with his loving girlfriend Veronica to go back to his old girlfriend Caitlin and lost her when she accidentally screwed the aforementioned dead guy in the bathroom; she thought he was Dante.

10 years later, Dante and Randal are still working at the stores. That is until they find the building burned to the ground in an accident likely to have been Randal's fault. Months later the boys are not exactly better off. Having accepted work at Moobies fast food restaurant; they remain underappreciated wage slaves wasting their lives.

Things may be turning around for Dante. He has decided to marry his new girlfriend Emma (Jennifer Shwalbach Smith) and she has in turn promised him financial security in Florida courtesy of her father. Facing the loss of his closest, really his only friend, Randal decides to make Dante's last day in Jersey memorable or convince him not to leave at all.

Dante may have another reason, aside from Randal, not to leave Jersey. His boss Becky (Rosario Dawson) and he, have been carrying on a hot flirtation that includes at least one passionate tryst in the kitchen after closing time. Becky is sad to see Dante go and makes this clear in one of the films many flights of fancy, an all out, cast wide musical number set to the Jackson 5's ABC.

In the fantasy world of Kevin Smith that has made room for angels and god and actors who play several different characters within the same sphere of people; who can begrudge a giant musical number. It's a bit of a stretch, especially since the original Clerks was grounded in reality, but its such a joyous and lively choreographed number I can forgive the loss of realism.

Its even easier to forgive once the film gets back to its own manufactured reality and begins to give new life to these beloved characters. The relationship between Dante and Randal is mined for great comedy and in the end a little pathos and love. Like Jay and Silent Bob, Dante and Randal are heterosexual life partners, forever entwined in each others lives and we want nothing more than to see them together forever, in a totally not gay way.

Admittedly, much of Clerks 2 plays like Kevin Smith's greatest hits. The scatology, the pop culture references, an argument involving Star Wars and Jay and Silent Bob holding up the walls, all of this is crammed into Clerks 2. And yet, despite the been there done that vibe, these characters are so fun and the humor so strong that who cares that it's all a little too familiar.

My favorite scene in the film is one that many might consider the most played out and predictable. Randal and new Moobies co-worker Elias (Trevor Fehrman) along with a customer played by former Alias cast member Kevin Weisman get into a debate over the merits of Star Wars vs Lord of the Rings. Kevin Anderson nails this scene in typical Randal fashion making salient points about arguably the most meaningless things.

Again, I am not the right critic to review Kevin Smith's work. I am an apologist and an unabashed fan of his work and I forgive him almost anything. Even I can see the cracks of Clerks 2 but I won't acknowledge them beyond forgiving them and focusing on the positives in the film of which there are many. Is Kevin Smith basically delivering a greatest hits collection with Clerks 2? Yes. But when your greatest hits are this good its worth it.

Movie Review Paycheck

Paycheck (2003) 

Directed by John Woo 

Written by Dean Georgaris 

Starring Ben Affleck, Aaron Eckhardt, Uma Thurman, Paul Giamatti, Colm Feore, Joe Morton 

Release Date December 25th, 2003 

Published December 24th, 2003 

In the just over 10 years that John Woo has been working in the Hollywood system of filmmaking, we have yet to see the potential that was promised in his earlier Hong Kong work. It's interesting then that he would work on a film based on a story by Philip K. Dick, the legendary science fiction writer whose work has also been difficult to capture in a Hollywood film. An element of both Woo’s best works and Dick’s best writing have been seen in flashes but neither are fully realized. Paycheck goes no further toward capturing the best of either Woo or Dick, and in fact may be a huge step back for both.

Paycheck stars Ben Affleck as Michael Jennings, a reverse engineer who copies a work of technology and changes it just enough to step around copyright laws and delivers a similar product to a different company. For liability purposes, Jennings' works alone, often secluded for months at a time cut off from the outside world. At the end of his work, his memories are wiped clean through a disturbing, dangerous process that literally cooks his brain, burning away the portions of his memory that relate to his work.

Jennings is well paid for his work, often with six-figure paycheck. His next job however is for more money than he could have imagined. Michael's friend Rethrick (Aaron Eckhart) offers him an eight-figure paycheck for a job that will take up to three years of his life. At that price, three years is worth it and Michael takes what should be his last job.

Three years later, Michael wakes up in Rethrick's office with his memory wiped clean. With no memory of the job or anything of the past three years, Michael's only concern is picking up his sizable check. However, when he arrives at the bank he is shocked to find that he has signed away his money, stocks and has only a bag of 19 personal items which he doesn't even think are his. Through a series of odd encounters, each of the 19 personal items comes in real handy in saving Michael's life as he pursues the reason why he refused his paycheck. There is also a minor romance with a biologist named Rachel played by Uma Thurman, which is merely functional and unnecessary to any description of the plot.

Where to begin with the disappointments of this film?

It's big dumb and loud. The film doesn't even have John Woo's usual stylistic virtuosity to fall back on, assuaging style in favor of a more bland action movie mode, save for Woo's trademark doves. There isn't even a scene where Affleck carries Woo's trademark double handguns, one gun in each hand. There is the usual standoff this time with two characters standing in a subway with a train coming. Sadly, it's not as cool as it sounds.

The most egregious problem, as I see it, is the shoving aside of Philip K. Dick's sci-fi story in favor of a generic Hollywood action movie. The story of Paycheck is a man who builds a machine that can see the future. He then forgets the future he saw, and only through a Sherlock Holmes set of clues can he reconstruct his memory to save the future. The implications of seeing the future, of seeing your own future and changing your fate, these are high minded ideas that are hinted at in the film but quickly shoved aside for gunfire and car chases.

Ben Affleck is my boy but Paycheck is a second consecutive misstep after the god-awful Gigli. There is still hope for Ben with Kevin Smith's Jersey Girl coming in March but he needs to begin choosing his material a little better.

Only Spielberg's excellent Minority Report has come close to showing the potential of Philip K. Dick's material on screen. More often than not, Dick's idea-driven stories are like Paycheck. A clothesline from which to hang huge special effects and stunt sequences that may or may not be technical marvels but are definitely less interesting than the ideas that are the core of the stories.

As for John Woo, it's becoming increasingly apparent that it was hype as much as talent that brought him worldwide attention. Woo has turned out a few exciting action pictures since coming to Hollywood but for the most part he has become a cog in the Hollywood money machine, pumping out easy to market, demo-driven, action trash. Special effects films that have posters before they have scripts that he brings a modicum of style but little else. What a shame.

Movie Review: Daredevil

Daredevil (2003) 

Directed by Mark Steven Johnson

Written by Mark Steven Johnson 

Starring Ben Affleck, Jon Favreau, Colin Farrell, Jennifer Garner, Michael Clark Duncan 

Release Date February 14th, 2003 

Published February 13th, 2002 

Ben Affleck has this amazing quality that very few actors have, he feels like an old friend. His participation in the commentary tracks for Kevin Smith's Mallrats, Chasing Amy and Dogma, where his self -deprecating wit and frat boy charm remind you of someone you know. It is those same qualities that he has brought to every role he has played and it is endearing to those in the Kevin Smith fandom, maddening to those outside that cultish group.

This may explain the mixed reviews of Daredevil, where people like myself are willing to cut Affleck a lot of slack artistically, and allow the film to skate on his charm and the unreal beauty of co-star Jennifer Garner. Daredevil is yet another Affleck guilty pleasure.

When Matt Murdock (Affleck) was a kid, he was a nerd who was picked on by neighborhood bullies and never fought back because of his father's advice. One day Matt was taking a shortcut home when an accidental toxic waste spill cost him his sight but enhanced his other senses to superhero proportions. Young Matt's tribulations don't end with losing his sight however, as Matt witnesses his father's murder. Of course, he never actually saw the killer, only sensed the killer's calling card, one red rose.

Years later Matt is a lawyer who, by using his uniquely enhanced senses, defends only clients he knows are innocent. When things don't go well for Matt in court and it seems a bad guy got away with a crime, he uses his alter ego to deliver the justice the courts did not. Matt's alter ego is the urban legend Daredevil, a red leather-wearing hero who the police refuse to believe exists.

The difference between Daredevil and most other superheroes is his willingness to cross that line between good and evil and actually kill the bad guys that most superheroes are content to leave for the police. Though Matt/Daredevil has been able to convince himself that his quest is just, his skirting the line between justice and vengeance is exposed when he is confronted with real good in the form of Elektra Natchios (Jennifer Garner). Though she isn't pure as snow, her fighting skills are lethal as shown in a killer fight sequence set in a park. Her father is a partner of the evil Kingpin, whether she knows that or not is in question. Elektra is a good person and Matt falls for her immediately.

The relationship is put to the test however when Elektra's father is killed and she blames Daredevil, though the real killer is Kingpin's number one henchman Bullseye (Colin Farrell). This leads to another sensationally choreographed fight sequence between Affleck and Garner and leads into a shocking climax, which sets up the film's final battle inside of a church. Director Mark Steven Johnson is a perfect technician, he knows how to film the action and step back and allow his actors to do their jobs.

Johnson rightly keeps the film faithful to the comic's noirish antihero roots. How odd is it to see a superhero kill a villain intentionally.

The films supporting cast is excellent, including Michael Clarke Duncan as Kingpin, Joe Pantoliano in a rare good guy role as journalist Ben Urich and Jon Favreau rounding out the cast as Affleck's oafish law partner. Colin Farrell as Bullseye shows he learned something from Al Pacino in The Recruit and that is how to unapologetically chew scenery. Bullseye is a terrible villain, but Farrell is so terrifically over the top you can't help but enjoy his performance and revel in the character's fate. Daredevil gets extra points for Kevin Smith's giddy cameo as a morgue worker.

What Daredevil relies on in the end is it's two leads, Affleck and Garner, and they work perfectly. Though Affleck's overly earnest voiceover threatens to push the film over into self-parody, his humor and charm carries the film over the rough spots. As for Garner, words have not yet been created to describe how beautiful she is.

The films CGI effects don't always work and the editing is choppy and at times, but I liked enough of the effects and stunts to give them a pass. I also liked the film's soundtrack of rock ballads that while somewhat lame in their MTV style editing still are kind of cool because they are well placed throughout the film.

As much as I liked Daredevil, it pales in comparison to it's superhero brethren like Superman, Batman and Spiderman. However, in the same way Blade is cool, so is Daredevil. It's moody and atmospheric, has it's share of shocks and surprises and some well-timed humor.

In the end what it all boils down to is, Affleck is da bomb in Daredevil, Yo!