Sunday, February 14, 2016

Movie Review - Deadpool


The era of the superhero movie is here and it looks like it isn’t going away for a while. Deadpool proves that, as finally a studio is taking some real chances. Deadpool is as out of the box as it gets, a hard-R romp through the life of mercenary Wade Wilson. Two warnings up front—don’t go if you’re easily offended and don’t take a child under sixteen.

I was never into Deadpool comics, the character just never appealed to me. I never had anything against the deformed, wisecracking mercenary in a cartoony series, it just wasn’t my thing. But everything works in this movie. The humor starts from the opening credits and lets viewers know we’re not taking any of the next two hours super seriously.

Ryan Reynolds is hilarious as Deadpool, cracking joke after joke on his way through terminal cancer to a treatment that makes him a superh—well, he doesn’t like that word. It just makes him super. When his mysterious overlords try to enslave him, he rebels and finds out he has some cool new superpowers, like being able to heal from almost any wound. Unfortunately, he now makes Freddy Kruger look like Hugh Jackman. He is afraid to go back to his hot fiancée Vanessa (Firefly’s Morena Baccarin, in an extremely sexual role) until he finds a cure.

This movie is a full out, action packed, irreverent hoot. The jokes fly fast and from all sides and it will take multiple viewings to catch them all. Deadpool constantly breaks the fourth wall, and skewers Fox Studios, comic books, the X-Men, the aforementioned Mr. Jackman and breaking the fourth wall. Actually X-Men Colossus (Stefan Kapicic) and Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand) guest star and their heroics add incredible depth and contrast to Deadpool’s anti-anti-hero persona. The movie works on so many levels; as a comedy, a straight action adventure and a crass, vulgar love story. This is the best superhero movie out in quite some time and one to set the bar against for future enjoyment of superhero movies. And don't miss Stan Lee in one of his best cameos. Stan's always had a bit of a naughty streak and it was nice to see him indulge himself a bit. A terrific time.  

Rating: ***** out of 5 stars

4 comments:

  1. 100% agree - and special kudos to the Marketing department for A) understanding the character and creating some really smart videos/ads/web stuff and B) doing a fine job of letting parents not-in-the-know that they should know this is not a super-hero movie. The opening credits get the ball rolling and it just never stops.

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  2. Wow, you actually dragged yourself out to a movie in a theater? Are you dying? First run? Tell me you're not dying! I kid! Glad you liked it as much as I did. Which was a lot.

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  3. Had some time off during the day and got offered a ticket. Work on the novel or see Deadpool? Did Raymond Chandler have these problems?

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  4. Yeah. But he only saw noir flicks, so he could take them off his taxes and declare it a "work" day. Hey, don't you write detective novels ... ?

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