After my last angry movie rant, involving Star Wars: TheForce Awakens, I thought I would take a second chance and see if Hollywood
could redeem itself, so I load up the family in the old SUV and we headed off
to see the new Ryan Reynolds movie, Deadpool.
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| 20th Century Fox Anyone know where Francis is? |
For those of you who may not be familiar with the
protagonist, Deadpool, he is a fictional anti-hero who first appeared in comic
books published by Marvel. Originally, the character was depicted as a super-villain in ‘The New Mutants’ (Issue #98) and later in issues of ‘X-Force’, but he has
since evolved into the current role.
Deadpool is a disfigured, and mentally
unstable, mercenary with the super-human ability of accelerated healing
and physical prowess. He is known as the ‘Merc with a Mouth’ because of his highly
talkative nature.
Before I get into it, I’d like to send out a big Fuck You to
the 20th Century Fox execs who thought it was a great idea to slash seven
million dollars from the budget, effectively removing nine pages of glorious
Deadpool action from the movie. There’s
a special place in Hell awaiting you.
That being said, if you are looking for a completely irreverent,
action packed movie starring the anti-hero of all anti-hero’s then brothers and
sisters do I have a movie for you. The acerbic wit of Deadpool was enough to
make this old grizzled New Yorker feel downright homesick.
I admit that I was a bit apprehensive. Fans of the comic
book character know that he frequently breaks the fourth-wall, interacting
directly with the audience, and I wasn’t sure how that was going to come off on
the big screen.
For the record: Reynolds Nailed It!
I know a lot of you folks might have seen his original appearance
in the 2009 film X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Don’t worry, despite the suck
factor of that one, this incarnation of Deadpool is brilliant. Don’t believe
me? It brought in over $150 million in box office sales over the four day opening
weekend, utterly brutalizing the previous records in typical Deadpool fashion.
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| 20th Century Fox No..... It's not a ROM-COM |
Now, just so you know, this is not a family movie…… Don’t be confused by the graphic showing
Deadpool with his hands in the shape of a heart. This is a hard ‘R’ movie. A
very hard ‘R’ movie. I don’t want anyone coming back leaving comments that they
thought this was a Rom-Com.
It’s not……
It is filled with unrelenting sophomoric humor that only
seems to further endear the character to the audience. Honestly, sometimes don’t
we just need a kick-ass anti-hero? Apparently the ass-hats in Hollywood didn’t
think so. In fact, Deadpool is the box off smash that almost never was.
The fight to get Deadpool on the big screen has been going
on for years. It seemed as if this film
had to get pushed all the way up the hill. Back in 2010 an early version of the
script had been leaked on-line. For a typical movie that would have been a disaster,
but the exact opposite happened. Fans got behind it and added their voice,
calling for the film to be made. A couple of years later some test footage of
the freeway fight scene was also leaked and fans went nuts. This proved to be
the push needed and the project was finally green-lighted.
Now I am sitting, impatiently waiting, and wondering when the
sequel will come out…….. Note to movie execs, mention J.J. Abrams name and you’ll
end up a character in my books. Trust me when I say that it will not end well
for you!
Moving forward the real issue will be how to add Deadpool
into the X-Men world. Marvel’s cinematic universe has become a huge juggernaut
and one that doesn’t seem quite sure just how to open up for the real Deadpool.
To be fair, their universe seems much darker and serious, whereas Deadpool would
make a joke out of a massive heart attack. The
movie does take a swipe at the conundrum when Deadpool says to Colossus and
Negasonic Teenage Warhead: “Wow, this is such a big house [referring to Xavier’s
school], but I only ever see the two of you here. It's like the studio didn't
have enough money for any more X-Men....”
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| 20th Century Fox This is how you do Bad-Ass |
The cast is superb. Reynolds was born to play Deadpool and,
fortunately for him, he stole the Deadpool suit after production ended so they
have to bring him back. Morena Baccarin was incredible as Vanessa. Okay, she is
really hot and appears naked and spoke some words. Actually I’m really hoping
that the sequel expands her role to include Copy Cat, but time will tell. Ed
Skrein as Ajax was intense and Brianna Hildebrand as Negasonic Teenage Warhead
was perfect. At least we didn’t have to contend with some pretentious, emo,
teenage pain-in-the-ass, ala Kylo Ren. The movie also stars MMA fighter, Gina
Carano, as Angel Dust. She’ll kick your ass, but what a way to go.
If you’re looking for an action packed movie that will also
make you laugh your ass off, then you need to check out Deadpool. You’ll
probably end up going back to see it a 2nd time, I know I am, so that you can see
and hear all the things you missed the first time, while you were wiping tears
from your eyes. For hardcore movie geeks there are a ton of Easter Eggs in this
movie.
Well, I’d like to say more, but you really need to go see it
for yourself. So, in the immortal words of Deadpool: It’s time to make the
chimi-fucking-changas!
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