I liked DAREDEVIL's vigilante, kill-the-criminal element, which creates an ambivalent undercurrent by asking whether getting some killer payback is something a supposed superhero should do. It follows, then, that I loathed the decision to have Affleck's Murdock back off on the vigilante attitude in the third act, having been cured of his rage by the love of his superhero girlfriend, Elektra (Jennifer Garner, who looks to me like a pretty guy in drag).

Affleck's all right as Murdock -- he gets through it -- but I'd much rather watch him in something like CHANGING LANES.

I liked the near-blindness aspect in the graphic novel, but it bothered me in the movie. I realize Murdock isn't "near-blind" but literally sightless, but his not being physically limited in the slightest by this makes him the near-equal of the fully sighted Batman, Spider-Man and the various X-men, so it's pretty much a moot point.

But I wasn't able to accept Affleck jumping off an 80-story building and, at a falling velocity of well over a hundred miles an hour, land on a window-washer's platform to stop his fall, as he does early in the film. Now, I don't mind anything supernatural happening in a film as long as an explanation of some kind has been put forward. Murdock's object-sensing ability is fine, and a lot of his super-gymnastic stunts are explained away by the use of a retracting-cable gizmo he carries in his walking stick.

But all this aside, Murdock is still just a blind guy who, not being from Krypton or any other planet outside our solar system, should be bound by the laws of physics. How, then, does he get to jump from building to building like a human grasshopper? The answer, of course, is because Batman, Spider-Man, Superman and the X-Men are all gravity-defying bipeds with super powers or appearances of same, and therefore Matt Murdock -- the star of a movie competing with all these previous super-hero flicks -- has to match them stunt for stunt.

Of course, comic books have always been about guys in spandex leaping off rooftops and landing 1,000 feet below like they've jumped off a stepladder. And yes, even the most believable of the characters (like Daredevil or Batman) has a hyper-reality aspect to what they're physically able to do, which is where the credibility-stretching comes in. I guess this is where someone who wasn't into Marvel as a kid (i.e., myself) parts ways with the Daredevil devoted.

The single best thing about DAREDEVIL? Colin Farrell's Bullseye. His part is all attitude, all punch lines. See it for him if nothing else.

Searchin'

I'm not sticking my neck out at all by saying that CHICAGO's 13 Oscar nominations are a near-guarantee it'll win the Best Picture Oscar. As the race is pretty much over, an idea came to me the other day. It might be interesting, I thought, to arrange a round-table discussion that would ask, in part, what it is about Rob Marshall's musical that is so transcendent and terrific that it deserves a Best Picture Oscar?

Naturally, for such a discussion to work I had to find a couple of CHICAGO lovers who would explain to the other round-tablers why this Miramax release has gathered so many nominations, and why it's not just a fun entertainment but something extraordinary and deserving of this special honor.

Admittedly, for every justly admired Best Picture winner like LAWRENCE OF ARABIA or A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS, there are others like THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH or AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS or WEST SIDE STORY. But there's still a lingering expectation that a Best Picture winner should convey some resonant truth or life lesson, or strike a common emotional chord, or at least reflect the zeitgeist in some way.

So I called and called and called...and I couldn't find a single soul who said they truly love and admire CHICAGO, or knew someone who does. All I could find were people who like it, or are "okay" with it. (That's me, actually. I didn't dislike CHICAGO -- I just don't think it amounts to very much.) A screenwriter told me, "People vote for the Best Picture winners, but nobody really likes them." Okay, but those 13 nominations came from some source of enthusiasm.

A journalist friend said in the midst of my travails, "You have to check with the much older members...they're the biggest fans of this film...and with the gay contingent, if you know them."

Anyway, I finally found someone who fits the bill and we're all supposed to meet at Hamburger Hamlet at 5:30 and go to it. I'll run the highlights of our discussion on Wednesday.

The Brown Card

Salma Hayek, a Best Actress nominee for her performance in FRIDA, seems to be playing what might be called "the brown card" in her bid for Academy support.

As the first Mexican actress to be nominated in this category, Hayek raised an ethnic-solidarity issue in a USA TODAY interview this week, the idea being to be persuade Academy voters to cast votes that would be read as a statement against racial barriers or stereotyping within the film industry.

Hayek seems to think she can ride the same horse that Denzel Washington and Halle Berry rode to Oscar glory last year, or at least is willing to give it a shot. As Hot Button columnist David Poland remarked earlier this week, "Brown is this year's black."

It's a safe bet that more articles will appear in major publications over the coming weeks pointing out the historical significance of Hayek's nomination, and reviewing the Hollywood histories of Hispanic actresses (Rita Moreno, Katy Jurado, Carmen Miranda) in decades past.

But if Hayek wins (and the odds at this moment are frankly not in her favor, with Nicole Kidman's prosthetic nose as competition), it would probably be for another reason entirely -- her gumption in pushing her FRIDA project for years until it was finally greenlit.

Hayek's ethnicity campaign was launched in a 2.13 article by USA TODAY writer Cesar Soriano. Noting that Latino actors and actresses had snagged 10 Oscar nominations last Tuesday, Hayek called it "the first time we (Latinos) have had this kind of presence in this kind of award."

FRIDA also received nominations for makeup, art direction, costume design, score and original song. Nominations also went to Mexico's EL CRIMEN DEL PADRE AMARO for Best Foreign Language film and to Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN'S screenwriting brothers Carlos and Alfonso Cuaron. And Spain's Pedro Almodovar was handed directing and screenwriting nominations for TALK TO HER.

"It feels like a love declaration from the filmmakers," Almodovar told USA TODAY. "This is actually history... Spanish history." He is the first Spaniard nominated for a Best Director Oscar.

"It's been a long time coming," actor and sometime Latino activist Edward James Olmos added.

Will these nominees make history like winners Denzel Washington and Halle Berry did last year? "We'll see what happens," Hayek told the paper. "It's the first step, and it's extremely important."

Los Angeles DAILY NEWS critic and film writer Bob Strauss wrote earlier this week that "this could be the Oscar year for Hispanics as last year was for African-Americans."

Even though, as Strauss confided yesterday, it's more likely that Academy members will vote for Hayek for her tenacity in putting FRIDA before the cameras.

"Part of why she got nominated is that her fellow actors love it when one of their own gets a dream project made by sheer force of will," Strauss noted. "She's been on this thing for six years -- she got it developed, she got the Madonna project knocked out, she got the Jennifer Lopez project knocked out...it got started and stopped five or six times before [director] Julie Taymor became attached and it finally got underway. She developed it and got her boyfriend [Edward Norton] to re-write it."

"Throughout the process, Salma was passionate about making FRIDA come to life," Miramax chairman Harvey Weinstein said yesterday. "Having worked with her on several movies over the years, the recognition she is receiving for this film is especially exciting."

The irony, of course, is that since her career began in the mid '90s Salma Hayek hasn't seemed all that strongly Hispanic. Her roles as Mexican women in DESPERADO, FROM DUSK TO DAWN and FOOLS RUSH IN aside, she is seen by mainstream audiences as pretty much a generic crossover star, in the same general category as Cameron Diaz or Drew Barrymore or Brittany Murphy.

Duelling Martha's

Two weeks after I wrote in this space how delightful it would be "if some go-getter director were to quickly scoop up the remake rights" to Sandra Nettlebeck's romantic drama MOSTLY MARTHA, Castle Rock producer Liz Glotzer, director Larry Kasdan and screenwriter Terri Minsky have announced they're pooling forces to do just that.

The original's basic story is about a gifted if somewhat neurotic chef in her mid 30s who suddenly has to care for her deceased sister's daughter, due to a sudden car-crash fatality, and the upheaval that results. The German-produced MARTHA is set mostly in Hamburg. Glotzer told me yesterday discussions are already underway to shoot the American version in some foodie city like New Orleans or San Francisco.

If Minsky can adapt MOSTLY MARTHA to an American setting quickly," wrote VARIETY's Michael Fleming, "Kasdan would direct it as his next project."

Unfortunately, as I noted in my 1.31 column, there's another American movie-in-progress that's already appropriating the basic story elements from MOSTLY MARTHA called RAISING HELEN, which is reportedly starting filming this month with plans to open in the spring or summer of '04

The Disney-produced film will star Kate Hudson as a modeling agency assistant named Helen Bradley whose life is turned upside down when her sister and brother-in-law are killed in a car crash, and she's left with having to take care of their three kids. Gary Marshall is directing, which appears to guarantee a certain mawkish approach. On top of which the presence of three kids seems to imply a tone of slapstick chaos.

I've read a review of the script by Patrick Clifton and Beth Rigazio (with revisions by Jack Amiel, Michael Belger and Audrey Wells) and it sounds like a semi-farce. As such, it doesn't appear to have even a fraction of the emotional simplicity or believability that ran all through MOSTLY MARTHA.

"Why does Helen have to inherit three kids, instead of one?," I asked in my 1.31 column. "What single woman of Kate's age (late 20s) would be emotionally willing to handle such a burden, or be able to afford the financial pressures, or for that matter be willing to throw her life away and pretty much forget about having a boyfriend or dating or anything else along these lines? It sounds like a bullshit premise."

Obviously I'm rooting for the Kasdan-Glotzer film, although I fear that when it finally comes out, which probably won't be until late '04, a certain segment of the public will go, "Oh, that one again."

Miramax Blew It

"As a film lover who happens to be Brazilian, I was also very disappointed by the omission of CITY OF GOD from the Best Foreign Film category at the Oscars. Along with BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE, it was my favorite movie last year (I haven't seen movies like THE PIANIST and ADAPTATION, as they have yet to be released here). Like the great AMORES, I believed it would be nominated, but not win because of its violence.

"I guess it's too late to say it now, but perhaps Miramax's marketing strategy for CITY OF GOD was wrong. They thought showing the movie at several festivals last year and then releasing it commercially closer to the award season would help it gain attention and then the nomination. But if they'd released it last year, it would no doubt be on many critics' Ten Best lists (only you and Ebert really considered it a 2002 release), the movie would be the "talk of town" earlier and therefore "force" the Academy members to vote for it come nomination time. I've read it's been doing well commercially and critically in the U.S. right now, but I guess it was too close to the nomination to make any difference.

"Anyway, it seems Fernando Meirelles has gained a lot of attention in the US, I hope it helps him work with bigger budgets and resources. That's a good thing, since it's unlikely he'll ever work on a Spiderman or XXX kind of movie but he'll always be able to shape and direct a good story." -- Fabio Augusto, Sao Paulo, Brazil

Ignatius J. Reilly

"I found your piece on the latest difficulties facing A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES more than just interesting. 'Dunces' is my favorite book. I read it in 1989 while skipping around Europe (or skipping out on responsibility) and it floored me. So reading about a movie version of it being made is exciting... but it also makes me nervous.

"However, after reading your idea about developing the story as a kind of ADAPTATION-like piece, I must enthusiastically applaud your idea. The story of Toole is as important as his masterpiece. If a movie is created purely based on the book (and as it sounds right now the word 'based' might be as loose as my first girlfriend), it will cheat the overall story of its character. Toole has always been at the center of the story. For the most part, Ignatius is Toole...and vice versa. "Having a pair of actors play Toole and Ignatius would also solve the problem of Hoffman's marketability, or lack thereof. Miramax could bring in a bigger name to play Toole and keep Hoffman, one of the finest young actors around, as Ignatius. Weinstein can then feel safe in greenlighting a movie with a great story, acting and possible box-office appeal.

"I urge you to keep throwing this idea around. Maybe someone with a clue will grab a hold of it and do this work of genius and psychosis justice." -- Magnus Lekay

"Philip Seymour Hoffman is a wonderful, great actor -- in an acting class unto himself -- but his countenance and carriage do not sufficiently congeal into a brand name on the screen. He is too much of an American everyman to make the impact of, say, the dewlaps of the late character actor Edgar Buchanan, much less a face that is Fellini-esque. Hence, Hoffman might fit better on a Broadway Playbill, rather than as a movie headliner.

"As far as casting someone to play Ignatius J. Reilly, you need either a lump with loads of talent, or a malleable actor with the metabolism and inclination to bulk up. Since John Belushi and John Candy passed away, no one has really filled the shoes of the slob laureate of Hollywood. Hence, how about an engorged Leonardo DiCaprio for Ignatius? -- Arizona Joe

Hunter and King of Kings

"That upcoming KING OF KINGS DVD release made me reread Dwight McDonald's hilarious piece on biblical epics in his collection of reviews, 'On Movies' -- truly one of the funniest bits of film criticism. By the way, I remember Jeffrey Hunter in one of those black-and-white B-movies they used to show at 3 a.m called BRAINWAVES. A weird little movie. -- Sean Griffin

"I just wanted to commend you for your brief bit on Miklos Rozsa, although you could have mentioned his score also for EL CID. I also love a score he did for a film few people remember -- MGM's THE POWER -- for which he wrote some wonderful music.

"Incidentally, I think this was in Ed Pressman's book, but Jeffrey Hunter wasn't passed over for the Cpt. Chris Pike role in STAR TREK. The producers thought he had done well and wanted him, but apparently his wife thought that Hunter was too big a star to do regular television and scotched the deal, at which point they went towards the Priceline.com guy." --Anonymous

Tuesday's Nominations

"In your Oscar reaction piece, you wrote, "If only Scorsese could have won [his Best Director nomination] for his one of his truly great films, like THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST."

"Of all of Scorsese's masterpieces, why did you single TEMPTATION out as truly great? Isn't the general consensus that it's just an ambitious failure, much like GANGS? For that 1988 film, he deserves praise for his passion in filming Kazantzakis book and his genuine curiosity in Christ and spirituality, but on its own terms the film is only is so-so. I feel that he only makes his points intellectually, in interviews, and in reviews many critics do it for him. "Plus, with all those method actors shuffling around in sandals in the desert, the movies has a strange LIFE OF BRIAN-vibe. Did you hear what Harvey Keitel said when Scorsese was shut out for GOODFELLAS? 'Marty got excactly what he deserved - exclusion from mediocrity.' Excellent point. I hope he doesn't win. -- Sveinung Mikkelsen

Wells to Mikkelsen: For me TEMPTATION gets better and better every time I watch it. It was never a so-so effort, and it seems especially good after having seen KING OF KINGS last weekend.

"Time, not the Oscars, will hand down the real awards... and you can bet that 10 or 20 or 50 years from now, THE PIANIST is the film that will have lasted and shown itself as the real classic of 2002. LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS, when taken as a whole, will still be awe-inspiring as well. The nomination that simply blows my mind (and one that seems to have been mostly overlooked by the groaning critics) is this -- who in their right mind came away thinking that the special effects in SPIDER-MAN were better than those in MINORITY REPORT?

"MINORITY REPORT had effects that were not only groundbreaking, but seamlessly woven into the real footage even more impressively than those in TWO TOWERS and ATTACK OF THE CLONES. Go back and watch that scene with the little cyber-spiders as they hunt for Tom Cruise, and compare that to the scene when the millipedes attack Senator Amidala in CLONES. There's no contest.

"Furthermore, Janusz Kaminski's cinematography worked perfectly, even though I agree with you that by the time CATCH ME IF YOU CAN came around he was becoming redundant. I'm not a fan of the film's third-act, or of the sappy broken-family subplot, but when it comes to visual marvels, nothing came close to MINORITY REPORT this year." -- Jeffrey Overstreet, Seattle.

"Thanks for expressing what so many of us feel about these awards. What relief I felt since I feel there were lots of movies just overlooked in this predictable, forced promotional process. So predictable and undeserved and overlooked.

And CITY OF GOD, the best movie of the year! I saw it at The Westside Pavillion last Tuesday night and haven't stopped telling people since, have studied the reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and can't wait to see it again. A travesty it wasn't nominated and isn't supported now with more advertising. Miramax really dropped the ball on this one." -- Sony Pictures Employee

Best Reaction Letter of All

"Is it just me or are the Oscars slowly going the way of the super-safe Grammies? The best are never acknowledged and votes are always spent on safe mediocre films. The films nominated (excluding THE PIANIST) are playing second fiddle to better films released last year with the same themes.

"LOTR: THE TWO TOWERS, I wouldn't even classify as mediocre. It was the most dreadful two and a half hours I've spent in a movie theater in quite some time. But there was another sci-fi film released this year that I felt was worthy of a nomination, but didn't get one because of an untimely release date -- MINORITY REPORT.

"GANGS OF NEW YORK was average at best. To give Scorsese a statue for this would be a total head-scratcher. Never receiving a statue for a myriad of jaw-dropping films such as TAXI DRIVER, GOODFELLAS, MEAN STREETS, but receiving one for GANGS would be called a sympathy Oscar. If one really wanted to acknowledge the best gang-related movie since GOODFELLAS, then CITY OF GOD would be nominated. Along with THE PIANIST, CITY OF GOD was the only movie I felt jolted me this past year.

"THE HOURS, a movie about a group of females coming to terms the choices they've made in their lives, left me wanting to tell everyone in the theater about a much better movie called LOVELY AND AMAZING. Catherine Keener and the supporting cast were top-notch, and I wasn't looking for a razor blade, noose, or a bottle of pills when leaving the theater.

"CHICAGO...pleeeease Academy -- stop trying to make up for the past few years when you slighted HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH and DANCER IN THE DARK. Both were superior to CHICAGO with the exception of flashiness and big money pushing it out for everyone to see.

"THE PIANIST was damn good, and definitely deserves the nod. Adrian Brody deserves the Best Actor statue, as Roman Polanski does for Best Director.

"This isn't to say Polanski was the absolute best director of the year. That honor would go to P.T. Anderson for PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE, a movie of pure directing genius from start to finish. The directing and set design reminded me in many ways of Jacques Tati's masterpiece, PLAYTIME. This kid is the best thing in Hollywood at present. Why? Because he writes and directs "outside the box," keeping things new and fresh with every project he creates. He is the total antithesis of everything the Oscar is becoming -- stale, tired, mediocre." -- Bobby Rathbun, Atlanta, Georgia.

Role Playing

Dan Doerr of Elk Grove, CA, was first to identify Wednesday's cast. They appeared together in Andrew McLaglen's MCCLINTOCK! ('63).

Today's cast: Long Chaney, Jr., Charles McGraw, Sidney Poitier, Cara Williams, Theodore Bikel, Tony Curtis.

What's That Line?

Cherry Kutac of Houston, Texas, was first to identify Wednesday's dialogue. The two snippets were from two films: MCLINTOCK! ('63), directed by Andew McLaglen, written by James Edward Grant; and RIO BRAVO ('59), directed by Howard Hawks, written by Leigh Brackett and Jules Furthman. The actor in both was John Wayne.

A fighter and his closest advisor are conferring in a locker room. The issue is how well his bouts have been going.

Fighter: We're on our way. It's like pulling teeth to get a kind word from that guy. But I could tell. I could tell from the crowd. I could tell every time I hit him.
Advisor: Yeah, you were great. But you know what I was thinking? Now that you've proved you can do it, maybe you oughta walk away from it.
Fighter: You out of your mind?
Advisor: I don't think so.
Fighter: Then what's eating you?
Advisor: Ohh, nothing. Forget it.
Fighter [Sitting down next to advisor] No, no, you got something to say. I know you.
Advisor: And I know you. But I didn't know you up in that ring. You looked as if you wanted to kill that guy. You would've killed him if they hadn't stopped you.
Fighter: Is that bad?
Advisor: I don't know. I really don't know. But I kept thinking, you weren't just hitting that guy in the ring. You were hitting a lot of guys. Different guys. All the guys that ever hurt ya. I can't put my finger on it, but there's something wrong about that. Especially in this business. And if you wanna know, I don't like this business either.
Fighter: You're talkin' kid stuff....crazy stuff. Listen - I won a fight. My first fight, that's all. You hear that crowd? The first time in my life people were cheering for me . Were you deaf? Didn't you hear 'em? Smell the coffee. Smell the steaks. Get smart. I got my foot on the ladder. We're not hitchhiking any more. We're riding.