Demolition Man (1993)

"The exchange of bodily fluids? Do you know what that leads to?"

From unpromising beginnings- Sylvester Stallone's first line is a very crude bit of blatant exposition- a film I was expecting to be just a fun '90s action movie turns out, as well as being exactly that, a genuinely (and intentionally) funnt comedy at the same time as well as a timely warning against an over-sanitised society. No sex or alcohol? That's no utopia.

The cast is superb. Yes, this may no longer be the Stallone of First Blood who actually acts but more the Stallone of Judge Dredd whom you just point as a script and let you do his shouty stuff, but that's exactly what's needed for the part of John Spartan. Wesley Snipes gives a much more accomplished performance- yes, his role as Simon Phoenix calls for much scenery chewing, but this is considered, nuanced and multi-layered scenery chewing and the perfect performance. The lovely Sandra Bullock, meanwhile, gives a perfect comedic performance. She's a talented actress, although sadly one who (present film excepted) hasn't always chosen the best films in which to appear. And Nigel Hawthorne, although bizarrely miscast, is superb as always.

On the surface this is a film about a cop and a psycho from 1996 emerging into the distant future of 2032, where they continue their rialry amongst much skulduggery. Yes it is just as much a comedy of manners, finding copious humour in putting its macho hero in a saccharine future where police are unable to handle violence and swearing is prohibited. I'm certainly not a libertarian of the right-wing sort, you'll never catch me railing against that nebulous concept of "political correctness", but, in its attitude to civil liberties, sex, beer and ratburgers, this is perhaps a rebuke from the '90s towards our society of facial recognition and that silly, arbitrary fourteen units a week. It's also a bloody good and well-shot film, both as a comedy and as an action film.

Daredevil: The Ones We Leave Behind

"It's a difficult thing, isn't it, taking a life?"

It's the penultimate episode plus, you know, that title: we can expect some deaths. And it's interesting to see how we're going to advance towards the finale because, frankly, Fisk seems as impregnable as ever at this point. Especially with Matt and Foggy so far apart, and Karen despairing. Not to mention poor Ben Zurich being fired for flying too close to the Sun.

In an episode all about killing we begin with Karen feeling guilt for killing, albeit in self defence. That is an emotion Fisk will never feel about killing those who get between him and his goals, and he's out for revenge for both Vanessa's poisoning and Wesley's slaying. It now becomes just about feasible that they might be able to wrap up the season in one more episode, but it still feels sudden.

And we also have the shock ending; Ben, about to start a blog exposing Fisk for what he is, is killed in cold blood by Fisk himself in what is a superbly written and acted scene. It's an excellent episode as an individual piece of television, as have so many this season, but surely they've left it a bit late to start wrapping up the season now?

Daredevil: The Path of the Righteous

"We're going through a rough patch."

"I found the Nelson and Murdock sign in the trash."

"A very rough patch."

Fisk shows rare vulnerability as he struggles to save the poisoned Vanessa, while both Matt and Foggy spend much of the episode lying to Karen and not saying why they've fallen out. There's a lead- Karen and Ben know that Fisk killed his dad- but the evidence is weak and it's doubtful they can use it. The situation seems to have hit rock bottom.

Meanwhile, Claire gives Matt the idea of body armour. She'll always be there to patch him up, but her heart is closed to him. He's too dangerous. And Matt's priest then mentions, as part of a philosophical conversation, the Devil as a figure to encourage sinners to find the path of righteousness. We can see where these two things are going. And so he visits Melvin Potter (the Gladiator himself!) to commission a certain set of red-hued items. Daredevil is coming.

Fisk angrily swears revenge on Vanessa's poisoners. He's a fascinating villain portrayed brilliantly by Vincent D'Onofrio. Interestingly, he isn't a psychopath. He has morals, of a kind. What he does he does from a genuine love of his city. It's just the means by which he does it that he's damned himself.

We end with Karen captured by the resourceful Wesley going rogue. She is, it seems, in very deep trouble. And yet, she's resourceful. I don't know about the state of New York, but I think English law would certainly acquit her for what she manages to do in shooting him. Go Karen...

Daredevil: Shadows in the Glass

"You're my son! You should be a king, not some fat little pussy."

At last we get an episode about the very interesting figure of Wilson Fisk, played interestingly by Vincent D'Onofrio as a crimelord who believes himself to have noble aims and who is, against type, an introvert. At last we get to see the childhood experiences that made him this way, a take of poverty, debt, extreme '70s-ness, domestic abuse and child cruelty, all on the part of Wilson's father, Bill. Who, incidentally, he kills with a hammer and, in a nice touch where we see his daily morning routine, he always wakes up to memories of that day.

In the present, though, Fisk is slipping a little, as Madame Gao kindly reminds him, and it's only with Vanessa's love and support that he's able to end the episode with a more or less firm grip on his mojo.

Incidentally, Fisk speaks both Mandarin and Japanese, which seems to point to an extended history in Eastern parts of the world of which we do not yet know.

Karen and Foggy end up having to confide in Matt about the whole Union Allied thing and he agrees to help them, directing their researches into areas much less likely to be physically risky for them- rather hypocritical of him.

Importantly, Daredevil finally talks to the magnificent Ben Urich, telling him about Fisk and everything he knows. But Urich's subsequent article is somewhat ruined by Fisk's coup de main in stepping out from the shadows. It's yet another superbly paced and crafted bit of telly throughout. Daredevil just gets better and better the further in you go.

Daredevil: Stick

"In my experience there are no heroes, no villains, just people with different agendas."

I've only read parts of Frank Miller's fabled run on Daredevil, so I'm not too familiar with Stick, the Hand and all that. So I came to Stick pretty much for the first time here. I found the character (and performance) fascinating, and this very different episode (placed just after a turning point) to be one of the finest so far. It's time to give the arc a bit of breathing space- although Karen and Ben Urich make progress in their investigation into Fisk's misdoings, and include Foggy in their plotting- for a bit of a flashback and a bit of a character piece for Matt.

We first meet Stick in the title sequence as he carries out a rather cool assassination, establishing that, unlike Matt, he has no qualms about killing.  Then he and Matt meet up, establishing that Stick once meant a lot to Matt, but that he just upped and left, twenty years ago.

Cue flashback, Matt as a kid, Stick's training of and impression upon the young boy to whom he's given hope, and how Matt's natural affection for this gruff new father figure drives him away,disgusted at the young boy's sentimentality. Our old blind Spartan does not much care for sentimentality, or baggage.

Twenty years on they set out on a mission together, looking for a MacGuffin called Black Sky which is being delivered to Fisk. But this is a background in front of which Daredevil's good liberal conscience clashes with Stick's more cynical ways. This "Black Sky" weapon seems to be a little boy and Stick, to Matt's utter disgust, has no qualms about just killing him. The ends justify the means.

An excellent episode, mostly because of Stick, but it's also firmly convinced me how much I really like and respect Ben Urich as a character.

Daredevil: World on Fire

"Could be the machines plotting, but I don't speak computer overlord..."

At last. Five episodes in and Daredevil clicks for me. I get the programme, I get the characters and I'm enjoying the ride. And yes, the fact that this is a superb hour of television certainly helps. I knew I was right to have faith and stick with it.

The episode is structured around three budding relationships, all very different in terms of wealth and terms of the morals of the three men. Our first couple- and, indeed, the least dwelt on- is Matt and Claire. Here we have no date, but an admission both that she's falling in love with him and that she has grave concerns both about the ethics of what he dies and, of course, his safety. They kiss. She's living with him. But there's some discomfort there. That's to continue in future episodes, though: the rest of this episode consists of Karen slowly falling in love with Foggy because he is, simply, a good man with integrity beneath the self-deprecating quips. Vanessa, in direct contrast, consents to a relationship with Fisk (there is no talk of love here) in full knowledge that what he does is morally murky, to say the least, that he had hurt and killed before, and he will hurt and kill again. 

Fisk, incidentally, is not himself right at the top of the food chain by himself: he is, it seems, one of a consortium of four, all of which we will no doubt come to know further. He is powerful nonetheless, though: in the episodes most disturbing scene a criminal gives his name to the cops and is simply killed by them, making it look like self defence. That's how far Fisk's tentacles can cover.

Foggy, though, gets a contrasting scene where he gets the better of his opponent's lawyer, from a fancy law firm, utterly devoid of ethics and, if all that wasn't enough, his ex. I'm sure Karen thought he was awesome. I know I did.

The two respective dates are a blatant contrast- Karen and Foggy in the tiny, ruined apartment of a poor but grateful client; Fisk and Vanessa in the most opulent surroundings imaginable. But one is about real attraction and the blossoming of real love, whereas the other is all about the lure of the "bad boy" and the seductiveness of power. Still, the scenes with Vanessa and Fisk are truly electrifying.

This is a masterful exercise of structure, theme, characterisation and dialogue. Superb. Quite the cliffhanger too...

Daredevil: Rabbit in a Snowstorm

"Used to be if you killed a man you sent his wife flowers. Now you send his wife with him."

This is the first episode with no introductory stuff, and it's an episode with no real heroics. Instead, it's an episode where Matt and Foggy make a moral compromise in representing a dodgy client with even dodgier backers. It also introduces us to Ben Urich, a principled journalist in a cynical, Murdochian world. It's not hard to see him as a parallel to Matt, both of them principled Philip Marlowe figures floating in a world with moral anchor. Yet both must make compromises.

Set against this is Karen's decision not to compromise. In showing Urich all the stuff she knows from the first episode she is doing the right thing, not the smart thing. 

Oh, and we get our first proper introduction to Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin. He's a villain with power, presence and charisma and will, no doubt, stay in the background for a long time until he and Matt meet.

What we don't get, despite the displays of Matt's superpowers, is any costume stuff. No doubt there'll be some of that next episode. As for this one, it's perhaps better thought of in terms of set-up, mood and character development for the long term, and may seem better in hindsight, but it perhaps underwhelmed slightly.

Daredevil: Cut Man

"Word's getting around..."

There's a certain logic to the structure of this second episode. Last episode introduced the characters and the format; this time we get a slower episode in which an injured Matt Murdoch is treated by a kindly person who agrees both to help him and be exposited at, although it isn't anywhere near as crudely obvious as all that, and Claire is allowed to be mildly disapproving of some of his ways.

Said exposition is balanced by the inevitable flashback to Matt's childhood, the loss of his sight in a terrible accident involving bizarre chemicals, and his close relationship with his poor and put-upon father Jack, a decent man at the mercy of organised crime who dies because of his principles. Matt shares those principles but, unlike his father, he refuses to be a victim. Still, these are early days. He's making dangerous rookie mistakes, and even his outfit is a "work in progress". We also explore more of his powers in the form of his superhuman hearing.

Meanwhile, Karen and Foggy bond through the happy medium of an alcohol-fuelled all-nighter. And who's that Battlin' Jack is fighting in flashback? Why, it's "Crusher" Creel, the Absorbing Man, so recently seen in Marvel's Agents of SHIELD.

All this is still just set-up, but it's very good indeed.

Daredevil: Into the Ring

I'm "I'm seeking forgiveness for what I am about to do..."

Daredevil was never a title I followed much as n my comics reading days, although I followed Ann Nocenti'scrun for a bit in the early '90s. I have, though, read Frank Miller's iconic work on the title and, much as Miller's star may have since fallen with his increasingly apparent right-wing obsessions and his inability to move beyond what Alan Moore has called "hard-boiled", his run on Daredevil is truly great and possibly the highlight of his career.

It's good, then, to see that Drew Goddard's 13 episode season, released all at once on Netflix, haas retained the mood and approach of Miller's work. This episode is a perfect introduction to a very likeable Matt Murdoch and Foggy through the eyes of a desperate Karen Page, but also an introduction to a world of incredible darkness. Hell's Kitchen is a realm of crime, despair and entropy where hope and goodness are stamped out by cruel, amoral cynicism. Corruption and conspiracy conspire against the innocent and the good. And yet, amazing just all this, like Philip Marlowe, stands Matt Murdoch, starting out as a vigilante but not quite Daredevil yet.

(Intetsstingly, dialogue shows him to have a more robust attitude to crime and the law than Foggy. Is this setting something up?)

We're introduced, significantly, to Matt's father Battlin' Jack, a huge influence in his life and no doubt to appear in many more flashbacks. There's only a slight reference to the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe,  as it's inferred that the destruction of New York in The Avengers afforded the opportunities now available to organised crime.

The pivotal scenes, I think, are of Karen staying with Matt. On the one hand it illustrates Matt's blindness- he never uses the light switches- and on the other it helps the two of them to bond. We are also introduced to Matt's ability to tell if someone is lying by their heartbeat. And towards the end we see him as a mysterious hero in black, fighting the bad guys in the dark and the pouring rain. 

We end with Karen being hired by Matt and Foggy, and the corruption behind her persecution is out in the open. Yet only the foot soldiers are punished; those truly behind it are untouched. We end with a boy being kidnapped by a gang; crime and cruelty go on, and Matt has a Sisyphean task.