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Carrie (1976)
De Palma and King. What more do you want?
You could hardly ask for a better movie based on King's debut novel. It captures the essence of the book perfectly with only some changes and Brian de Palma makes it his own with many of his signature trademarks. Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie both received nominations which were obviously well-deserved. Spacek's innocence and Laurie's insanity are pitch-perfect. Brian de Palma and Stephen King are a match made in heaven, or since we're talking about horror, maybe hell?
Daredevil (2015)
Very good show. Marvel proves itself again, this time on the Netflix format!
Sorry in advance for the poor organization. I began writing, and then it kind of turned into rambling, but I think it's pretty comprehensive. I pulled it from a blog I'm doing, so it's kind of raw as is.
The series, as a whole, impressed me. It didn't blow me away, but I really enjoyed it. The characters were all fun to watch, except for that weasel, Wesley (see what I did there?). Charlie Cox did a good job playing a character with many different qualities. I remember him saying in an interview that he had to get special training to be able to play a blind person, and then Matt Murdock is also a lawyer and a superhero, making Daredevil a very difficult role to nail, I think. I don't know if I'd go so far as to say Charlie was a perfect casting, but he did a good job. Foggy Nelson grew on me but he was downright awful at the beginning, and even by the end I wasn't sure if I liked him, or if I simply didn't mind him anymore. I don't know if this negative reaction was due to the way the character was written or because of the actor who played him (that kid from mighty ducks, can't remember his name). Karen was off and on for me. She really annoyed me at first, and then I actually started to really like her, and then sometimes she went a little far in how careless she was and how much she pushed her agenda. That being said though, I would still say I did, overall, like her. Rosario Dawson's Claire was good. Not much to say about her. Vlad grew into a really likable character by the time he was offed. Owlsley was the same. He actually got to be pretty funny by the end, too. The guy who looked like an old version Terry Crews, playing Ben Urich, also did an excellent job. I guess the only other person worth noting is Vincent D'Onofrio's Kingpin. I was glad to see a villain done well in a Marvel production, considering the only other case has been Loki. This is one aspect of the television format that really works in the favor of superhero properties. In fact overall, this is the biggest strength It's just easier to flesh out characters, and give them development in this format. Although, while I really liked that Kingpin was well-developed, the direction they took him in was a little odd to me. He acts so immature, he's babyish at times, such as his reaction to being "embarrassed" in the presence of Vanessa, and how he's so uncomfortably awkward around her when he first meets her. I don't think I'm interpreting the character wrong either, as it really did seem that this was intentional. I know he's psychologically messed up because of his dad and what he did to him, but his character just came off as a little weird at times. I think the fact that it was on Netflix helped in other ways too, because it didn't have to adhere to network standards. There were 13 episodes, meaning there wasn't pointless filler material and the plot was very focused. There was the whole issue as well of it being "dark and gritty." While that phrase is getting so overused, it's beginning to sound like nails on a chalkboard, it was successful in having these qualities, and I'm glad they were able to bring that tone into the MCU. The easter eggs were all good and I didn't think any of them were too in-your-face. The music was awesome. The street- level plot was used very effectively, and in that way I think they utilized the television/Netflix format perfectly. While I wouldn't go so far as to say that Daredevil is the greatest thing Marvel has put out or anything like that, it was very satisfying. If it is any indication of what Marvel will be giving us with it's other Netflix shows, then I'm definitely excited to see them.