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List Price: $14.98 | | Label: Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation
Salesrank: 6981
Released: November 30, 2004 |
| Our Price: $3.75 |
| Used Price: $1.68 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
After losing his sight to radioactive exposure, Max Murdoch uses his other, now heightened, senses to fight crime.
Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: R
Release Date: 6-SEP-2005
Media Type: DVD
Description of Daredevil (Director's Cut):
Darker than its popular comic-book predecessor Spider-Man, the $80 million extravaganza Daredevil was packaged for maximum global appeal, its juvenile plot beginning when 12-year-old Matt Murdock is accidentally blinded shortly before his father is murdered. Later an adult attorney in New York's Hell's Kitchen, Murdock (Ben Affleck) uses his remaining, superenhanced senses to battle crime as Daredevil, the masked and vengeful "man without fear," pitted against dominant criminal Kingpin (Michael Clarke Duncan) and the psychotic Bullseye (Colin Farrell), who can turn almost anything into a deadly projectile. Daredevil is well matched with the dynamic Elektra (Jennifer Garner), but their teaming is as shallow as the movie itself, which is peppered with Marvel trivia and cameo appearances (creator Stan Lee, Clerks director and Daredevil devotee Kevin Smith) and enough computer-assisted stuntwork to give Spidey a run for his money. This is Hollywood product at its most lavishly vacuous; die-hard fans will argue its merits while its red-leathered hero swoops and zooms toward a sequel. --Jeff Shannon
Daredevil (Director's Cut) Reviews:
DAREDEVIL! Pioneer of Wire-Fu and Stick Fighting! 
2008-10-05 - I subscribed to the early comic book. I liked Daredevil because he was different with his disabilities (blind and mortal) and strengths ('radar-sense' and martial arts style of moving and fighting). I thought the film was a great version of my favorite underdog hero. There's a dark feeling in the look and story of this 'early wire-swinging' hero. A earthy cross between Batman and Spiderman with a realistic approach that is almost noirish. The picture and sound are BluRay bests! Basically, Daredevil is a blind stick fighter, who is so hyper-sensitive, that he has to medicate himself and get into a isolation tank, to get any sleep. And he's got a girl. Give DAREDEVIL a chance.
What's Wrong with This Film... 
2008-09-29 - That title is not a question; it's a statement, because I'm going to tell you what I think ruined this movie. It wasn't Ben Affleck. As far as well-known actors go, he performed quite well in a niche role. It wasn't Michael Clarke Duncan. Even thought the Kingpin is white in every other version, what big white guy are you going to get to play the role as well as Duncan did? Turning a white character black is not a concern for me; they're doing it with Nick Fury for the Ultimate Avengers, and it works.
No, the problem with this film is two-fold: Jennifer Garner and Colin Farrell. Or maybe it should be Jennifer Garner and Mark Stephen Johnson. Well, whoever's responsible for the crap-tastic versions of Elektra and Bullseye, they're responsible for the lameness of "Daredevil."
Jennifer Garner is just not a good actress. She looks nice, but that's it. Her portrayal of Elektra was such a deviation from the original character; she's too outgoing, too nice, too kind-hearted. She's Greek, but she can't even speak to her father in their native language, even when he speaks it to her? She also talks too much. And couldn't they have at least dyed her hair black? This is like making Jean Grey a blonde; you don't do it.
Maybe Colin Farrell isn't to blame for Bullseye's failure; maybe he was just doing as directed. Either way, he took an already cinematic character from the comics and made him so incredibly generic. Bullseye's cocky and talkative; Farrell was soft-spoken and had an accent (Don't try to tell me he can't fake an American accent. "Phone Booth"). I understand that the comic book version of Bullseye wore a silly spandex outfit that wouldn't look good on film, but couldn't they have done better than a trench coat? Go play "The Punisher" video game that came out in 2005 to see a perfect representation of Bullseye that would have worked for the film. To bad Garth Ennis didn't work on this film.
I'm interested in seeing Director's Cut, but I see no way it will change my opinion on the failings of these two characters. Maybe I'll just skip around their scenes.
Daredevil: Director's Cut - Blu-ray Info 
2008-09-26 - Version: U.S.A / Region-A
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
MPEG-4 AVC BD-50 / High Profile 4.1
Running time: 2:13:08
Movie size: 27,17 GB
Disc size: 47,57 GB
Average video bit rate: 19.95 Mbps
DTS-HD Master Audio English 3977 kbps 5.1 / 48kHz / 24-bit / 3977kbps (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48kHz / 24-bit / 1536kbps)
Dolby Digital Audio English 448 kbps 5.1 / 48kHz / 448kbps
Dolby Digital Audio French 448 kbps 5.1 / 48kHz / 448kbps
Dolby Digital Audio Spanish 448 kbps 5.1 / 48kHz / 448kbps
Dolby Digital Audio English 224 kbps 2.0 / 48kHz / 224kbps
Subtitles: English / English SDH / Chinese (Traditional & Simplified) / French / Spanish
Number of chapters: 45
# Enhanced video mode - BonusView
# Audio commentary with Writer/Director and Producer
# Fact and fiction feature - Pop-up trivia on the story, characters, and Marvel Universe
# Beyond Hell's Kitchen - The making of Daredevil
# Jennifer Garner screen test
# Featured villain - The Kingpin
# Daredevil: HBO First Look - Hosted by Jennifer Garner
# Moving through space - A day with Tom Sullivan
# Giving the Devil his due - Editing process for Daredevil
# Multi-angle dailies for Daredevil
# The Comic Book
# Music videos
# Still galleries
# Trailers
Aren't director's cuts nice?
2008-09-23 - It certainly is this time around.
Daredevil - the Director's Cut, is what the theatrical release was intended to be, when the film was being made. Contractual obligations kept the film from being released in theaters as R-rated, opting instead to cut out many key sequences to achieve a PG-13 rating. This version carries a good deal more weight behind it, with a greatly expanded-upon story and adding back in character development scenes. The movie still struggles through the awkward and out-of-place playground fight scene which is so very out-of-character for Matt Murdock, but the rest of the film hits much closer to home for the horned protaganist.
Ben Affleck makes a surprisingly good attempt at portraying Murdock/Daredevil, in this action-adventure film. His scenes as Murdock w/the affable "Foggy" Nelson are a pleasure to watch, but he's able to make the transition to the grim and all-too-breakable vigilante, as well. Michael Clarke Duncan's turn as a street-grown version of the Kingpin is interesting and works well enough within the framework of the story, that the departure from the character's origins is negligible for all but the truly hardcore. More-involved fight sequences and fewer romance scenes give this version of the film better pacing and help to center the viewer on the character of Murdock/Daredevil, rather than his relationship w/ hum-drum Jennifer Garner and her less-than-stellar tv actor-quality performances and fight scenes.
Overall, this film is still flawed and an uninspired take on the character of Daredevil and the stories of Hell's Kitchen, but it is a far cry better than the theatrical release. In comparison to it's theatrical release, this film is on a whole new level. Fans of Daredevil and comics in general will be able to enjoy this film, despite it's numerous flaws.
Directors Cut - The sweetest cut of all!
2008-08-25 - Finally!
Having grown up reading the comic from the Frank Miller era it would be fair to say I was a fan long before the film arrived. Having seen the studio release when it first came out I enjoyed the film but certainly felt it was missing something. That something that was missing has been judiciously amended in the Directors Cut of which this review comprises.
The Directors Cut proves yet again that studio's don't know as much as they think they know about the movie going audience. The decision to cut important character development, sub plot and themes which serve to enhance and underpin the Daredevil story merely reveals this flawed 'think tank in a bubble' aspect of the industry. What is put back into the film is a crucial 30 minutes of footage that was initially deemed superfluous to the action - not by the director it must be said but rather the studio heads.
The difference between Daredevil the Studio release to the Directors Cut is glaring and in the case of the latter what we are presented with is a Marvel superhero film of great depth and action combined. This is the way intelligent audiences always want their Marvel films - the studio's seem to miss this at times and assume we all just want action without storyline or character development ... how wrong they are!
A great deal of what initially fell to the cutting room floor was the story of Matt Murdock's ( Daredevil by day ) legal business partner Foggy played by Jon Favreau. It would have been criminal for this footage to never see the light of day as Jon Favreau brings a much needed light and contrast to the darker aspects of the films mood which also serves as exposition for what passes for Matt Murdock's normal day to day life as a lawyer. Through Matt's exchanges with Foggy we are also able to witness a more three dimensional and human side to Daredevil. Without Foggy we'd have a 2D superhero that not even the comics presented but which the studio's saw fit to provide us with in their chosen release! Are you listening film makers?
The treatment of Daredevil overall is pretty well spot on as we get to see his origins as a young boy growing up in New Yorks Hell's Kitchen, the son of a working class single parent who is a boxer down on his luck.
There are plenty of clever nods to the Comic reading audience with the various names of fighters being the names of artists in Marvel who worked on Daredevil over the years. We get a nice cameos from Stan 'the man'Lee and one other absolute classic appearance from a Daredevil artist later in the film in a scene with Ben Urich, played by the great Joe Pantolano.
Ben Afleck does a great job playing Matt Murdock as does the stunning Jennifer Garner who plays what must be the ultimate film version of Elektra. Both of them put a great deal of work into training martial arts with the likes of Jeff Imada ( Bourne Identity ) and Wu Ping ( Crouching Tiger et al ) but I did feel the fight scene with Murdock and Elektra in the school playground was the weakest of the fight scenes in the entire film ... frankly it looked very stiff and not particularly fluid as it should have been. In the 2 disc version of the Directors Cut that I have we see the Chinese wire crew performing the fight scenes as they worked them out in Hong Kong using only handycams. What we see in these rough cuts is the difference between Martial Artists/Athletes and actors! Having said all this the rest of the fight scenes in the film were excellent and very well choreographed and performed.
Michael Clark Duncan is superbly well chosen to be the giant mob boss King Pin and the director was absolutely correct in ignoring skin colour and instead making sure that the spirit of King Pin was served through the right man playing the role ... he does indeed bring the gargantuan quality to King Pin to the big screen.
Colin Farrell as Bullseye is actually very good indeed and as he says himself, he 'camps it up' as that is exactly what we would expect from a complete psychopath like Bullseye. Having Farrell play himself as Irish was the best move yet and he brings something very nasty to the role even though his character is so over the top. When we finally get to the crucial Frank Miller scene with Elektra and Bullseye it really is quite gut wrenching and Farrell delivers a kiss of death that saw the film elevated to an R rating based on this act alone! Not that I felt an R rating for this scene was justified but I agree that for younger audiences it is quite a powerful scene and can see why they may have given it an R.
Jenifer Garner as I said earlier is absolutely stunning as Elektra and is certainly not just a pretty face. She brings a visceral quality to Elektra that certainly brings her to life in way Daredevil fans could have only hoped for - her weapons work in the film is very well done and is to be commended.
All in all Daredevil the Directors Cut builds beautifully as it was supposed to have done and runs in at 128 mins which for me was not overly long at all. I will say it again, an audience would happily sit through an extra 30 minutes of footage that brings essential character development to a film and adds depth to the storyline. Rather than sit through a dissatisfying action film which runs in 30 minutes shorter and makes little sense of the overall theme it should serve as testimony to the fact that this kind of thinking from studios is a false economy.
We can have our popcorn and eat it too ... the Directors Cut gives you exactly that!
