Remember how Mom always used to say that if you find something you really like, buy it in multiples? Daredevil must have received the same advice, because when we peek inside this crimebuster's closet, hanging neatly side by side are a handful of identical crimson-colored, leather superhero costumes and silver-tipped canes.
The closet tour is a rare moment of humor in Daredevil, a dour, vaporthin action thriller that takes both itself and its hero, first introduced in a Marvel comic book in 1964, far too seriously. By day Daredevil is Matt Murdock (Affleck), a blind attorney in Manhattan. By night, dressed in red and armed with a blade-concealing cane, he stalks the city's rooftops and streets, using his close-to-super remaining senses to root out evildoers. He can hear bullets and sniff bad guys from afar, swoop down the sides of tall buildings and otherwise make like Superman minus the cape. But Daredevil, a brooder, is conflicted, particularly after he falls for a rich beauty (Garner). Can he still be a good guy if he's a vigilante? This is a moral debate to keep 15-year-old boys up nights—exactly the audience to whom this movie, with its lack of character development and pell-mell rush to get to the next choreographed crunch-and-punch fight, is pitched.
Daredevil isn't egregiously bad; it's just ever less involving once it becomes clear that the film has no other purpose besides wrapping up what passes for a plot—a crime kingpin (Duncan) hires an assassin (Farrell) to whack both Daredevil and his sweetie—and setting up a sequel. Only in his scenes with glamorpuss Garner, who certainly brightens up the screen, does a slumberingly dull Affleck seem even half awake. Duncan and Farrell's villain roles are written so sketchily that neither actor can do more than mug fiendishly. (PG-13)
BOTTOM LINE: Far from red hot
Matt Damon, Casey Affleck
Two guys named Gerry (Damon and Affleck, who is Ben's younger brother) set out for a quick hike on a trail in a nameless state park, take a wrong turn and end up getting lost in the desert. They tramp, tramp, tramp across endless expanses of sand for several days, desultorily yakking away about computer games and other inane topics and squabbling about which way to go. For all we actually learn about the pair, these seemingly brainless slackers might as well be waiting for Godot, but without as many laughs as one finds in Samuel Beckett's classic play.
Gerry, directed by Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting) and largely improvised by Damon and Affleck, is the sort of art house picture that makes even art house fans yawn. Sure, it features one gorgeous vista after another of majestic natural scenery (the film was shot in California's Death Valley and in Argentina), but there's a little thing called narrative—call me old-fashioned—that one wants when watching a movie. This just proves again that men shouldn't be afraid to ask for directions. (R)
BOTTOM LINE: Arid as its desert setting
Animated, with voices By John Goodman, Haley Joel Osment
Like its pint-size hero, Jungle Book 2 is a small but lively package. It's no Lion King, but there's not much else in theaters for the under-10 set right now, and this will keep them reasonably content on a Saturday afternoon.
The 72-minute sequel picks up near the end of the 1967 original, which was loosely based on Rudyard Kipling's stories about a boy raised by animals in a jungle in India. Mowgli (Osment), our youthful hero, is living with a warmhearted human family in a nearby village. But when he returns to the jungle to visit Baloo (Goodman), his ursine mentor, his human family follows. There Mowgli must protect them, and himself, from a predatory tiger and other threats.
Book 2 feels padded—its predecessor's Oscar-nominated tune, "Bare Necessities," is reprised at least three times—but the animation, combining hand-drawn and computerized, is sumptuous, and there's plenty of humor. Warning: Young tykes (and the timorous) may find the rapacious tiger way too scary. (G)
BOTTOM LINE: Jungle fun
•All the Real Girls A small-town Casanova (Paul Schneider) finally learns love hurts when he falls for a pal's sister (Zooey Deschanel). Well acted but strained. (R)
•Chicago Our kind of film, this musical is. And Oscar's, too, with 13 nominations. Renée Zellweger, Richard Gere and Catherine Zeta-Jones star in an entertaining tale of murder and showbiz. (PG-13)
•How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey try mightily, if vainly, to keep a contrived romantic comedy afloat. (PG-13)
•Shanghai Knights Shanghai Noon's Owen Wilson and Jackie Chan reteam for more laughs, this time in London. (PG-13)
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
