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“Deadpool” Review

I saw ‘Deadpool’ last night with my good friend  Jettsen Keck. Before I go any further, I assume that some of you have seen the notices from Deadpool to children, warning them that this is not a children’s film. He’s right. It’s rated R for a reason, and it’s not a soft R. Don’t bring kids. Language, violence, adult content- the trifecta. Now that that’s said… if you’re of age, you can handle the above features of a hard R film, and you like a silly action superhero movie, go see ‘Deadpool.’ From the opening credits, I knew I was going to love this film – they’re self-referential and irreverent, and perfectly set the tone for what you’re about to watch.

Ryan Reynolds should enter a contest for smart-alecks. I think he’d win, or at least walk away with the silver or bronze. He is absolutely wonderful as the Merc with the Mouth, and whether he’s being genuinely funny, over-the-top childish, or frighteningly violent, it was a tremendously entertaining performance to watch. The rest of the cast tends to fall to the background, as expected, but did a fine job. My favorites were probably Ed Skrein as the delightfully hate-able Ajax, and Brianna Hildebrand as Negasonic Teenage Warhead (on which point, by the way, I agree with Deadpool when he said that hers was the coolest superhero name ever).

The action scenes are fast-paced and exhilarating, fun and exciting. The scenes are helped along by a truly fantastic soundtrack, including an eclectic mix of tracks from Wham! to DMX, and an original Deadpool rap that was genuinely funny.

Speaking of funny, this is something of a comedy. Comedy’s difficult to judge, as far as its effectiveness goes, because everyone’s threshold for humor is different. I am pretty picky when it comes to my comedies (something that my friend Branden has been quick to bring up when I talk about movies), so I am as surprised as I am pleased to say that I thought that the vast majority of jokes in ‘Deadpool’ were solid hits. Some are worth a half-smile, perhaps, but there were many times that I found myself laughing out loud in the theater. It’s funny. Irreverent and ridiculous, but undeniably funny.

The visuals are crisp and frenetic. The pacing is fast and exciting, splicing the origin story of the title character into a more ‘in the moment’ scene in a way that I thoroughly enjoyed. The action is great. The characters are fun. It’s FUNNY. Go see it.

And make sure you stay til the end. Not only are the ending credits amusing on their own, but Fox seems to have forgotten that this one isn’t a Marvel studios film. It’s good stuff.

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“13 Hours” Review

I saw “13 Hours” last night. I know everyone’s probably already seen this one, but I’m still going to do this. I don’t like Michael Bay much. I thought “The Rock” was an awesome movie, “Armageddon” was flawed, but had good moments…and he’s made other movies, as well. None of those ‘others’ have been more than cheap action schlock, in my opinion. The man has proven time and again that he doesn’t understand comedy, he doesn’t understand subtlety, and he worships the military with an almost fetishistic fanaticism. So, here was a military film from Michael Bay. I approached the theater with trepidation.

First of all, Michael Bay still cannot do subtlety. The quiet moments in-between action scenes are riddled with some pretty sub-standard dialogue, and characters are kind of boiled down into archetypes: the quiet, well-read one, the leader, the new guy, the jokester, and the tough old soldier. The CIA chief, in particular, is an absolute cartoon character, drawn as this incredible bureaucratic blowhard, which I think must be a ploy by the actual CIA to throw people off what they’re really like.

Secondly, Michael Bay still can’t really do comedy. Thankfully, there were far fewer characters like Sam’s parents in the ‘Transformers’ series, but there were still some awkward, cringey attempts at humor that just didn’t work at all. However, we’re dealing with barracks-room soldiers, so barracks-room humor is called for, and sometimes the jokes landed, and were actually entertaining, so he is improving.

My question going in, after having seen the “Transformers” series, “Pearl Harbor,” and the like, was “Can Michael Bay make a film in which the American flag is not poignantly destroyed, and then lingered on more than the deaths of actual characters?” My answer, as far as this film goes, is “no, he cannot.” I don’t feel that I’m spoiling anything by saying that.

However (and this is a big however), whatever the film’s shortcomings, when it wants to be tense and exciting…it can definitely be tense and exciting. The action scenes are great, managing to go from edge-of-your-seat tension to that involuntary grunting noise that (typically) guys make when someone gets hit really hard in a film.

The acting is also pretty solid. Look, I don’t like the characters in “The Office.” I think they fall under either “insufferable,” or “boring,” and John Krasinski’s Jim Halpert was definitely in the latter category. I admit that I blamed my lack of interest in Mr. Krasinski’s lack of talent, but he pulls off a really nice little performance here, tough and compassionate, and he’s only ever really let down by the script.

It’s not a perfect movie. The dialogue is amateurish, the characters can be a little archetypal and over-the-top, but the acting is solid and the action is great. If you’re interested in a pretty good military movie, and don’t mind the truly remarkable amount of bad language, then this isn’t a bad watch at all.