This is not your family superhero movie. Don't be taking your mom and dad--or kids--to go see this. It's perhaps the uninhibited superhero film we've been waiting for, if you're into that sorta thing. It's not even really a superhero movie, so much as it's a comedy in a leotard.
Ryan Reynolds plays the title character, Wade Wilson (aka Deadpool), a mercenary who undergoes a special procedure to help cure him of his terminal cancer. This ends up giving him special powers of self-healing, but also makes him look like a freak--hence the mask. Meanwhile, he's afraid to see the love of his life, Vanessa (Morena Baccarin), because of what she might think of his new face.
The film plays around with the timeline a bit, jumping back and forth between post-superpower Wade and everyday guy Wade--most likely to avoid any boredom or anxiety built up by superhero origins.
At it's best, it's very very funny. Reynolds' timing is excellent as the snarky, insouciant rascal. From the beginning, the jokes are rapid-fire. It looks as though we're in for a Guardians of the Galaxy or Ant-Man type of film. But this goes way beyond that. It breaks the fourth wall about a dozen times, and occasionally has the star self-deprecating himself. At one point, Reynolds makes a quip about the film not having a big enough budget to feature any other X-Men characters.
The comedy can eventually get tiring for some. Not so much tiring, actually, just numbing. But luckily, the jokes come fewer and far between at about that point in the movie. Then we get the big action sequences and all that.
Deadpool is definitely something new in this world of belabored superhero films, and that's probably the most refreshing part about the movie. It never takes itself too seriously.
It doesn't give us some ridiculous villain who unstoppably giving a shot at world domination. Instead, Deadpool spends much of the film just trying to hunt down the man who turned him into a freak, killing anyone standing in his way--which is made to be funny until we realize there's no real reason for any of these people to die. In fact, maybe Deadpool is the villain after all.
But if looked at as a superhero action film, it will evoke distaste in many. However, if you see it as a comedy, then it all makes more sense and you can sit back and enjoy it.
It toys with this whole "beauty is only skin deep" theme, but never really capitalizes on its impact. Instead, the film cares more about its irreverence. If this movie were to be amazing, it would have found a perfect balance between heart and gall. But honestly, I don't even think it tried to.
Twizard Rating: 83
With tons of one-liners, a great main character, and an ending that will make you smile, Van Wilder is very much a product of the early 2000s. It also happens to contain probably the grossest scene I've ever seen in a movie (you'll know what it is when you see it). Although I was impressed with the direction, the story is middle of the road and the acting is just average. However, I do like this movie and would not hesitate to watch it again if I had the chance--especially to let some of the lines sink in my brain better for my own personal use.
Twizard Rating: 75
The story is unoriginal and the setup is very much rushed, but where it lacks in the screenplay it makes up for in its amazing talent. Reynolds is at as close to the top of his game as I've pretty much ever seen him and Bateman taking a break from the straight-man and does an excellent job being the second banana for once. I mean, a lot of the character depth was told to us via other characters rather than actually shown to us, but when it was shown to us it was really funny.
Although most people have drawn the recycled body-switching story to the likes of Freaky Friday, I feel that although similar, the two films serve a very different purpose. Instead of stepping in someone else's shoes to better understand who they are as a person and where they are coming from, this film allows the characters to step into each other's shoes so that they can come to a better understanding of themselves and what they need to do different in their own lives. It makes the characters more self-aware and challenges them to see what those closest to them feel that they need to do differently. Sure, it's not as world changing, but just as important to the individuals and in making others in their lives really appreciate them more.
I will say, however, that this film does tend to ignore much of the morality that has come into question when switching bodies and seems to leave the audience still concerned about how they were resolved. And this film suffers some minor plot holes very early on, such as the fact that when Dave's wife is asking him questions that only he would know, she asks him what her favorite color is and when their anniversary is. Not sure why she would think that his best friend wouldn't also know these things, but it seems as though the whole scenario with them trying to convince her that their bodies switched was forgotten about too quickly by her character and that she should have started reconsidering it at some point throughout her husband's crazy and out-of-character antics. Also, towards the end, why was she so willing to let "Mitchell" kiss her when she still didn't know what was going on.
This film may not be perfect, but I was laughing pretty consistently throughout and never found myself bored or uninterested.
Twizard Rating: 77
