Deadpool

In a very different mode from my recent review of Spotlight, today I went to see Deadpool, the latest film in the X-Men franchise. Since I am more aware of the Avengers in the Marvel universe, I didn't realize Deadpool is part of the X-Men.  Well, actually he is on the fringes.  Two of the X-Men are trying to recruit him to join, but so far he has resisted their attempts.

Okay, this one is rated R for language, nudity, and sexual situations.  It deserves the R rating.  This isn't a movie to take your ten year olds to see, unless they are surprisingly mature.  I was told by a friend her sister-in-law had gone to see this one and walked out soon after it started, offended by the language and content.

I can understand her reaction, although I would never do that...Deadpool is hilarious, but it is funny like Animal House on steroids.  Most of you are probably wondering what I mean by Animal House...it was a raunchy, frat-boy comedy, back in the day.

Both the opening and closing credits are very much a part of the show. The opening credits are hysterical.  I'll give you examples but I was laughing so hard, don't take them as exactly correct.  For example - the credits for producer referred to a "douchebag", while the credits for the writers was something like "the real talent around here..." Like I said, don't quote me, but you get the idea. All those credited were listed by description, not by name.

It's an outrageous, over-the-top comedy, which laughs at every superhero film, including the X-Men. Oh, the two X-Men who want to recruit Deadpool are a huge metal man known as Colossus and a sullen teenaged girl known as Negasonic Teenage Warhead. Her ability is pretty impressive when she uses it.

The villain is an enhanced man known as Ajax, but whose given name is Francis.  Deadpool while undergoing transformation to his ultimate superhero status, refuses to call his tormentor anything but Francis, even though Ajax frequently demands Deadpool say his name.

It seems Deadpool was once a disgraced special forces officer, Wade, who worked as a mercenary.  He meets a woman and falls in love.  No, there are no hearts and flowers, just down and gritty sex scenes with many comic elements.  He proposes with a Christmas bulb ring.  She accepts and they are happy for about ten minutes until he gets diagnosed with terminal cancer. A strange little man comes to him in his favorite bar and tells him he can be cured.  Desperate, though he first refuses, he thinks about what he has to lose and calls the number on the card the man left him.

Thus, Wade is transformed into Deadpool...nobody explained the side effects of making him immortal. To make matters worse, Ajax is a sadist and takes pleasure in the pain his subjects endure.  Wade vows revenge. Disfigured, he does not think he can inflict his new condition and face on the woman he loves, so he becomes Deadpool - after a few comic missteps.

Of course Deadpool is triumphant in the end.  He wins back his love and defeats Francis in a final cataclysmic battle on and around a dry-docked wreck of a helicarrier. What can I say, it's a comic superhero movie.

If you have ever seen any of the Marvel movies you know they always put a teaser scene foreshadowing the next movie after the entire credits roll.  This was no exception.  The scene was played for laughs like the rest of the movie.  I was shaking my head and laughing as I left the theater.

Oh, and the closing credits, which used the actual names of the people involved in the film, were just as raunchy as the first.  They used cartoon characters doing things no young child should ever see cartoon characters do.

Ryan Reynolds is a hoot as the title character. One review I saw referred to Deadpool as the "snarkiest" super hero in the Marvel universe.  I'd say that's right on.

If you are in the mood for this freaky, funny film, take a chance and see it. Just be warned, absolutely nothing is withheld in this one.  It's not like Captain America and goes much farther than Iron Man ever dreamed of going.  But that's the beauty of this character.

I'm seriously considering switching gears drastically again and going to see The Revenant tomorrow.

Stay tuned...