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REVIEWS PREVIEWS: Daredevil
After the success of last year’s Spiderman, comic book heroes are flooding the silver screen. Marvel Comics’ Daredevil is the latest in this series. Starring Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner, the film tells the tale of Matt Murdock, a blind lawyer by day who’s a crime-fighting superhero by night.
A lesser known hero, Daredevil is a poor man’s Batman. Murdock is the son of a boxer who gets killed by petty criminals for refusing to take a dive. This pointless death propels Murdock to fight crime, despite his blindness. The childhood accident that cost him his sight, however, granted him exceptionally advanced senses of hearing, touch, taste and smell, as well as providing him with a strange sort of mental radar that helps to compensate for his lack of vision.
Murdock lacks the relatable ordinariness of Peter Parker (Spiderman). Although Affleck bravely dyed his hair red for the role and does have the physique of a superhero, he doesn’t have the presence. As the Jennifer in his camera love life, Garner does an admirable job as Elecktra. This movie should boost her to A-list status, long after the film itself is forgotten.—T. U. Dawood
The life of David Gale
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The life of David Gale is an emotional, dramatic thriller. David Gale (Kevin Spacey) is an academic who advocates abolishing the death penalty. He is a man of principles, but fate chooses something else for this popular professor. He is first framed for rape by a vengeful ex-student wanting to get back at him for giving her poor grades, and is now on Death Row for the rape and murder of fellow activist Constance Harraway.His life is full of emotional trauma, such as when his wife (Elizabeth Gast) dumps him, sells their house and takes away his son. His best friend (Linney) is dying of leukaemia, and he is further distressed by a lousy, redneck lawyer (Leon Rippy) and a governor who would love to see him sentenced to death.
With only three days before his scheduled execution, he chooses a reporter for a weekly news magazine named Betsy (Kate Winslet) who recently served time for refusing to reveal her sources, to tell his side of the story as Gale feels he can trust her. Betsy is convinced of his innocence and she, along with her intern Zack (Gabriel Mann) begin a race against time to uncover the truth that will save him. The question racing in one’s mind is whether Constance Harraway was killed by her boyfriend, or was Gale indeed the killer?
Kevin Spacey, Kate Winslet and Laura Linney all play their parts well. Cinematographer Michael Seresin portrays a down-home country feeling staying close to reality. This one is a real tearjerker, so keep some tissues handy before you start watching the movie. — Shamama Shabbir
Ballistic
Ballistic — Ecks Vs Sever starts off with exploding cars and gun fights, and this continues till the point when the producers realize all they have invested in is mindless action. The problem with Ballistic is its script, which has no novelty whatsoever.
Antonio Banderas and Lucy Liu play secret agents named Ecks and Sever. They start off as rivals until developments make them join forces. Both Liu and Banderas jump off across pavements without a single scratch and survive even when buried under thick metal pipes. This kind of tomfoolery has been witnessed incalculable times in Hollywood. The movie could have fared well if it was released in the 80s.
Lucy Liu concentrates more on flashing her glamour rather than delivering her lines. Only Banderas, who has performed some hardcore action stunts as well, takes the responsibility of delivering dialogues, most of which are used to explain the proceedings of the film. He is okay, but the real damage has already been done due to a poor theme and execution. Ballistic is not recommended for anyone.—Azeem Haider
Johnny English
In this yet another clone of the butter-finger 007 endeavours, Rowan Atkinson (Mr Bean) plays Johnny English, a British secret agent who is assigned to protect the royal crown jewels which are stolen under his nose amid airtight security. Johnny’s prime suspect is Pascal Sauvage (John Malkovich), a Frenchman of royal blood who happens to be a distant relative of the queen of England. His evil plan is to force the queen to abdicate and become the successor to the throne.
Nobody believes Johnny when he accuses Sauvage, so he has to take some life-threatening risks to get his man. Natalie Imbruglia is special agent Lorna Campbell who plays English’s love interest in her acting debut and comes out as unimpressive as Rowan.
In a flick of this kind, the onus is more on the title character than the script to deliver the goods. Sadly, take Bean (who looks out of form), and add a lousy script, and you’ve got a great recipe for a flop. The movie could certainly have done with a lot more of Bean’s shenanigans, the dearth of which is conspicuously felt. The best the movie is able to achieve is a few cheap laughs at the end, which, in the process, negate the much-touted label of being a family movie. The pirate print is as bad as the movie, so try to get a decent print — not that it would help much. The verdict: Watch when you have absolutely nothing else to do. — Saqib Khan
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