Daredevil

I was always taught that if you have nothing nice to say, you should say nothing at all.

But that maxim doesn't make for the best reviews -- and it really is a public duty to inform just how bad this 'comic-book blockbuster' is.

Hollywood has already covered the better bases with X Men and Spiderman, this latest Marvel Comics offering gives us a superhero too far -- a leather-clad blind man whose remaining 'super senses' enable him to wreak his revenge and impose justice on those he sees fit -- no pun intended.

Ben Affleck -- a fairly dim A-list bulb among Hollywood's leading lights -- is the principal character with Jennifer Garner as the passable but slightly tedious character Elektra.

The rising stock of Colin Farrell is not helped with his turn as the balding, maniacal Bullseye, he's just not scary or funny enough, while Michael Clarke Duncan (he of Green Mile fame) takes the role of gangland boss, Kingpin.

The effects, fight scenes and soundtrack are okay but we have seen or heard it all before and there is little new here.

It is to be hoped that Brad Pitt as Captain America -- the next Marvel project -- learns from Daredevil's mediocrity.

Out now on DVD/VHS.

Stuart Roberts

Catch Me If You Can

Steven Spielberg recreates the 1960s in this true-life tale of a teenage runaway's audacious trail of trickery.

Frank Abagnale ran up $4 million of debts across the USA while living a four-year cheque-forging fantasy life.

He successfully posed as an airline pilot, doctor and lawyer before finally being cornered by a dogged FBI agent.

It's a story that can't fail, just made for a fluffy, witty, rollercoaster romp: but in Spielberg's hands it's something more.

We do get the gripping scenes as Leonardo DiCaprio's hero stages clever cons and skin-of-his-teeth escapes.

We get the darker undertones as Spielberg explores the troubled home life that motivated the trickster .

But also -- almost derailing this enjoyable movie -- we get half an hour too much material.

David Knights