Good, Clean, Family Fun..."Deadpool 2"

Deadpool 2 (2018)

Rated R

Starring Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin, Morena Baccarin, Zazie Beetz, Julian Dennison, T.J. Miller

Directed by David Leitch

The Story:

Wade Wilson (Reynolds), for reasons unknown to even him, is trying to save a kid (Dennison) from being killed by a time traveling mutant named Cable (Brolin). However, to tackle this latest obstacle, Wade's going to need a little help, so he decides to make his own team of X-People...

X-Force!

Now playing in theaters, so I'll be cryptically vague to the point of being totally nondescript about anything in the movie so as to not sway your opinion one way or another as to whether you should bother to even see it or not.

Because apparently, that's my mutant power!

:)

IF you enjoyed the first Deadpool film...

then the odds are already in you favor that you've already seen the sequel.

The odds are also considerably high that you enjoyed this second coming of Deadpool as much, or possibly more than the original.

Hey, it happens.

Josh Brolin isn't the first actor to play double duty in comic book movies, but he's a welcome addition to the film and plays the perfect Cable.

There is even... gasp... some character development for Mr. Wilson between the start of the film and the end credits.

You'll laugh... you'll cry... you'll laugh some more.

Not sure if we'll get a Deadpool 3 first, or an X-Force movie, but either way, I'm in!

Final Grade: A-

Just Like Old Times..."Back In The Day"

Back in the Day (2014)

Rated R

Starring Michael Rosenbaum, Morena Baccarin, Nick Swardson, Harland Williams, Isaiah Mustafa, Kristoffer Polaha, Jay R. Ferguson,

Written and Directed by Michael Rosenbaum

The Story:

Jim (Rosenbaum) is an actor who left home to become successful out in California. He's doing okay, but not getting the roles he wants. Depressed, he heads back home to Michigan for their upcoming class reunion. He reunites with his best friends (Mustafa, Williams & Polaha) and finds the one that got away (Baccarin). He finds out she's finally engaged after all these years... to his arch nemesis (Ferguson). Cue the hijinks...

Rosenbaum crafts a film that is equal parts raunchy R rated comedy mixed with a romantic comedy.

It's a tough act to balance, but he does balance it fairly well, and the cast is game for everything he throws at them.

Naturally, the story behind the story is a chance for him to reunite with his former love, and the girl that he's never gotten over.

And it appears he might be in luck because she has not moved on after all these years, but with an impending marriage just days away, Jim's got a very limited window of opportunity to win her back.

Meanwhile, his friends are all married now, and Jim isn't the best influence on them.

Jim's got some decisions to make.  Clearly you can go home again, but then what?

Final Grade: C+

The Merc With The Movie..."Deadpool"

Deadpool (2016)

Rated R

Starring Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, T.J. Miller, Gina Carano, Leslie Uggams, Ed Skrein, Brianna Hildebrand, Stefan Kapicic

Directed by Tim Miller

The Story:

Wade Wilson (Reynolds) is a mercenary who winds up finding the girl of his dreams, Vanessa (Baccarin). When Wade is diagnosed with terminal cancer, he turns to a place that promises to cure his cancer, and give him amazing powers and abilities to go with his already formidable skills. It is here that Wade becomes the guinea pig for Ajax (Skrein) who manipulates him until Wade's latent mutant abilities are revealed. What kicks in is a healing power that pretty much makes immortal, he will heal from any injury, but the side effect is that his skin is not very easy on the eyes. With vengeance on his mind and Vanessa on his heart, Wade becomes the merc with a mouth that comic fans have loved for the past 25 years, and now the rest of the world is sharing in our joyous rapture...

Deadpool!

Yep, I finally got around to seeing the film.

I figured I would give the rest of a world a couple week head start, and that would also remove the amount of obnoxious fans chattering in the theater.

Worked like a charm.

So, obviously those that know me well enough know that Deadpool is easily my favorite character from the last 25 years, and rivals the likes of Cap, Spidey and Hawkeye as one of my favorites of all time.

Why? He's fun. He's funny. And oh so much more.

He is what you will see on the movie screen, brought to life straight from the comic page.

Reynolds was born to play the role, and it wasn't just by luck that he was cast. The writers of the comic even alluded to Reynolds being the face of Deadpool way back when, long before anyone ever dreamed of Mr. Wilson becoming a movie, let alone the most successful R rated movie, superhero or not, in the history of forever.

All while being done with the smallest superhero budget since Superman or Batman, 2 films that were both made in the 70s/80s.

Yes, an entire century ago!

They made it work with a great script, perfectly cast actors that believed in what they were doing, and believed in the concept of creating the perfect Deadpool movie.

This is easily Fox's best release of any superhero franchise they have the rights to.

Plus, if you saw my Facebook feed, or went on the internet at any point from December until the movie was released, you also bore witness to the genius of the Deadpool marketing team who made the best viral promotion of any movie, ever made.

Genius.

I salute you all!

However, is it the best superhero movie I've ever seen?

Yes...

And no.

IF you're going to make an R rated Deadpool movie, then this is what you're going to get.

COULD they have made this film into a PG-13 movie without watering it down too much?

Absolutely.

Tweak a few scenes slightly, then dial the language back a bit. Have Deadpool utter some nonsensical "Fluffy pink unicorns!" type profanity and that would allow the kids that have grown up seeing Deadpool in the comics and on all the animated Marvel cartoons (as well as all of the superhero toys) a chance to see Wade in action.

But they didn't, and that was their choice.

Will most kids see it anyway?

Absolutely.

My Facebook news feed was filled with stories from everyone who saw it during the opening week seeing lots of 8-10 year olds in the theaters with their parents.

Which tells me they didn't get the memo from Deadpool and Fox that sit this one out and wait until Civil War to take the kids to the movies.

Or, they really don't understand that an R rating should probably be viewed without kids at first, and then decide if you think your child can handle it.

So the knock on Deadpool is it will be a movie that I can't sit back and enjoy with my whole family, like Winter Soldier, Ant-Man, or Guardians of the Galaxy.

Fair enough.

They didn't set out to make a family friendly film, so I can't honestly knock them too hard for it.

I'll just take their + away.
;)

However, anyone that was able to convince their date that it would be a fun romantic comedy, I hope they succeeded because the love story shines through as the entire reason for the movie.

I hope the majority of the cast returns for the sequel(s).

Here's hoping that Deadpool is # 1 again this weekend after 3 straight weeks at the top of the Box Office.

Looks like that ban from China isn't as worrisome as originally feared.

:)

Final Grade: A

Time To Turn In My Nerd Card... "Firefly"

Firefly (2002)

Created by Joss Whedon

Starring Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, Alan Tudyk, Morena Baccarin, Adam Baldwin, Jewel Staite, Summer Glau, Ron Glass, Sean Maher,

The Story:

In the distant future, Captain Mal Reynolds (Fillion) and his ragtag crew take on any and all paying jobs while trying to stay out of the hair of warring factions and authorities bent on catching them.

That's all I'm going to write for the plot, because really, that's all that matters at this point. People that read this are going to be of one of two camps:

I love Firefly.

What's Firefly?

This hybrid western/science fiction crossover is the answer to many fans question of "what show was cancelled too soon?" or "if you could bring back any one television show?" or...

Well, you get the idea.

Fox has a history of cutting short anything that's new and doesn't attract earth-shattering numbers to keep viewers interest.

They also have a tendency to keep animated shows on the air long after they've ceased being consistently funny, or in some cases, ever being funny to begin with.

But at least they compensate their voice actors handsomely, right?

But wait, I'm getting distracted with Fox and their bad business decisions

Let's get back to why we're here today, nearly 15 years after cancelling Firefly, I finally sat down and watched the first episode.

Should I mention I saw the movie Serenity a few years ago with no Firefly experience whatsoever? The movie was alright, nothing great, but it wasn't a waste of time.

Guess what?

I saw Firefly the other night, with only my experience of having seen these characters before in Serenity a few years ago. The show was alright, nothing great, but it wasn't a waste of time.

Now I know why Fox killed it.

That first episode really did nothing for me.

I even gathered the family around to watch with me.

As the show continued, I looked around and most heads were buried in sketch books as they doodled something other than a character from Firefly.

I think I may have been guilty of checking my email and Facebook a few times as well.

There, I said it.

Firefly was okay. Nothing great.

Would I come back and watch the other 13 episodes?

Maybe someday.

Not in any real hurry.

If Netflix were to announce that it's being pulled at the end of the month, I would shrug my shoulders and go " oh well " versus rushing out to binge watch the show and see if it got any better.

Plenty of other things to try out.

And like I said, I saw Serenity. I know how the saga ends, if you will.

So there's not a whole lot of likelihood that the show is going to get THAT much better in the next few episodes.

Sorry for all the browncoats out there that loved this show, I just don't get the hype.

I am however, sorry for your loss.

Currently streaming on Netflix as of this writing.

Final Grade: C+