Joe Lederer Ryan Reynolds is the Marvel superhero Deadpool in the movie of the same name. He jokes a lot as the body count rises.
This is not your father's superhero movie — and it's certainly not for the kiddies, either.
Nominally a spinoff of Fox's "X-Men" franchise, "Deadpool" earns its hard-R rating by saturating the audience with raunchy scatological humor and brutal arterial blood spray.
The politically incorrect material suits Ryan Reynolds as snugly as Marvel's tight red costume, giving the Canadian actor a chance to work out his mutant power for hurling snarky one-liners. It's buckshot humor that is funny when it lands; cringe-worthy when it doesn't.
"Whose b--s did I have to fondle to get my own movie," Deadpool asks the audiences in one of the movie's many foul-mouthed meta gags.
Reynolds stars as Wade Wilson, a terminally-ill mercenary who is tricked into undergoing a life-saving procedure to activate his latent healing power, orchestrated by a criminal mastermind (Ed Skrein). The experiment works, but not without leaving Wilson horribly disfigured and out for revenge — especially when the bad guys kidnap the love of his life, Vanessa (Morena Baccarin).
And, boy, is that revenge bloody, with enough fetishistic close-ups on bullet-riddled foreheads to make John Woo queasy.
Joe Lederer Reynolds stars as Wade Wilson, who undergoes lifesaving surgery and becomes a superhero bent on saving his girlfriend Vanessa (Morena Baccarin).
There's no sign of the marquee X-Men, including Hugh Jackman's Wolverine, so Deadpool is left to team up with the franchise's D-listers. Colossus (Stefan Kapicic) and a Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand) are the only members of the supposed super-team to regularly show up — and the absence of the others does not go unnoticed by the protagonist.
"It's almost like the studio couldn't afford another 'X-Men,'" Deadpool deadpans at the camera.
It's a clever wink and nudge at the scale of the movie, but legitimately also raises the question of why a movie-goer should shell out for a ticket when "Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice," "Captain America: Civil War" and "X-Men: Apocalypse" loom in the coming attractions.
Director Tim Miller, a relative rookie, makes the most out of his comic characters and the comic relief, including scene-stealers T.J. Miller and Leslie Uggams.
But the movie is very much Reynolds' show — and it's clear at least Deadpool himself is enjoying the ride.
References
- ^ esacks@nydailynews.com (www.nydailynews.com)
- ^ movie reviews (www.nydailynews.com)
- ^ deadpool (www.nydailynews.com)
- ^ ryan reynolds (www.nydailynews.com)
- ^ superheroes (www.nydailynews.com)
- ^ morena baccarin (www.nydailynews.com)
- ^ ed skrein (www.nydailynews.com)
