(Review originally written at 6 October 2007)

Basically this is a great comedy to watch late at night. It's nothing too fancy or original but it's basically good quality entertainment, from a great genre director and a real solid cast, filled with some of the best actors currently active in the genre.

The real most surprising thing about "Old School" is its cast. It's not only filled with some great leading actors but also lots of famous faces in small roles and cameos, such as Juliette Lewis, Elisha Cuthbert, Seann William Scott and Harve Presnell, among others. But of course the movie gets carried by the three main leading men; Luke Wilson, Will Ferrell and Vince Vaughn. Will Ferrell is such a show stealer! He has the best moments and lines in the movie. And Vince Vaughn once again shows that he is a great actor actually.

Perhaps the concept of the movie called for some more and better thought of jokes but nevertheless the movie doesn't feel as if it's not entertaining enough already now. In the end not all of the plot-lines get wrapped up properly or satisfactorily but you know, in a comedy you just tend to forgive this sort of storytelling flaws.

What I liked about the movie is that it greatly mixes the comical and the more dramatic and personal elements of the movie. The one doesn't distract from the other, which is I think due to the professional genre directing of genre specialist Todd Phillips, who also directed movies such as "Road Trip" and "Starsky & Hutch".

It's probably not a comedy that will go in the books as the most hilarious or best one of all time but the movie serves its purpose and that's to simply entertaining the viewer, with more than a couple of good laughs.

6/10

(Review originally written at 4 April 2006)

I had seen the theatrical version of "Daredevil" a couple of months ago. I hated it. I thought it was dreadful and it was lacking in its story, characters and pace. The movie was incredibly weak and totally uninteresting to watch because it lacked substance. Still I decided to give the director's cut a chance. I'm glad I did, for the Director's cut is so much better to watch. The pace is better, the story makes more sense and the characters are more involving. The theatrical version was lame, the Director's cut is awesome!

The Director's cut takes its time to build up the story and its characters. The Director's cut is about 30 minutes longer than the original version and most of that time is spend on extended scene's with the characters. Suddenly because of that not only the characters but also the story became more understandable and interesting. Especially the villains became so much better. Colin Farrell as Bullseye gets more opportunity to show his coolness and his character became so much more cooler now. He also really seemed to be enjoying himself playing this villainous over-the-top role. Same goes for Michael Clarke Duncan. Main reason why his character didn't really worked in the original version was because his character had quite limited screen time. The only part of the movie in which he was prominent present was the ending. In the Director's cut he gets to show more evil and his character becomes so much more villainous. Also the Joe Pantoliano character no longer makes a pointless impression and he gets to play a way more important part in the movie. Same goes for the Leland Orser, Derrick O'Connor and Erick Avari characters. Because the movie takes its time to build up the characters suddenly everything in the movie just makes more sense and everything suddenly fits and feels right.

Because the story flows so much better I can now actually say that "Daredevil" is a really cool movie to watch. The action sequences also suddenly are way more exciting. They are nicely choreographed and edited together.

Sure, the movie still does have its flaws and it still is far from the best superhero comic-book movie ever made but its just the fact that the Director's cut is so incredibly much better than the original theatrical version that causes my sudden (late) enthusiasm for this movie.

Lets do the world a favor, lets all burn the theatrical versions and lets all embrace the Director's cut.

7/10

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