‘Deadpool’: violent, potty-mouthed — and, yes, funny
Ryan Reynolds regains his superhero cred as a mask-wearing, foul-mouthed, immortal hero in “Deadpool.” (Joe Lederer)
Movie review: “Deadpool” is a very different kind of Marvel superhero movie. Maximally cheeky. Perversely potty-mouthed. Riotously funny. Insanely violent. Uneven as all get out. And fun, fun, fun. Rating: 3 stars out of 4.
“Deadpool” begins in chaos and wisecracks.
It begins, actually, inside a slow-motion car crash, with
glass and bodies and weapons flying every which way while, in peculiar
counterpoint to the mayhem, the gloppy pop ballad “Angel in the Morning” oozes
off the soundtrack.
Before the thought, “Whaaat the heck is going on here?” can
fully form in your consciousness, you notice the credits appearing on screen:
“Directed by an overpaid tool.” “Produced by ass …”
Whaaat?
A way different kind of Marvel superhero movie is going on
here, is what.
Maximally cheeky. Perversely potty-mouthed. Riotously funny.
Insanely violent. Uneven as all get out. And fun, fun, fun.
Deadpool is perhaps the most out-there, off-the-wall hero in
the Marvel Universe.
He can’t be killed, thanks to a horrendously painful medical
procedure — let’s call it torture, shall we? — that allows him to regenerate
body parts and survive shootings, burnings and skewerings past counting. In one
scene, he carries on a conversation with a knife stuck clean through his head.
And he simply won’t shut up. Smarty-pants remarks, many
marbled with pop-culture in-jokes, pour forth from his mask-covered mouth in a
Niagara of R-rated verbiage.
Think of the picture as the superheroic redemption of Ryan
Reynolds, shaking free forever of the taint of 2011’s “Green Lantern.” Reynolds
dons Deadpool’s signature red spandex suit, arms up with the character’s twin
swords and many, many firearms, and noisily kills his way through acres of bad
guys, snarking all the way.
Sample line: “You’re probably thinking, ‘This is a superhero
movie, but that guy in the suit just turned that other guy into a kebab.’
Surprise! This is a different kind of superhero story.”
Oh, yes. He breaks the so-called fourth wall, talking
directly to the audience. Deadpool knows he’s a character in a movie and
delights in it.
The picture is a little too in on its own jokiness and it
really goes overboard with a queasy-making early torture scene.
It’s kind of like one of those monster mousse cake desserts
you find at franchise restaurants: a slab the size of an Alp loaded with layers
of chocolate and whipped cream. You know it’s too, too much. You know it’s bad
for you. You know you shouldn’t enjoy it so much. Except you can’t help
yourself. It’s a tasty, guilty treat.
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