MOVIE REVIEW: Once Upon A Deadpool
(To Live Is To Die - Metallica)
Love him or hate him, Big Red is a legitimate box office phenom now. When the first Deadpool test footage came out years ago, the crowd went absolutely nuts. In spite of the absolute train wreck that X-Men Origins: Wolverine turned out to be, everyone had gotten a taste of Ryan Reynolds as The Merc With A Mouth, and they wanted more.
Fast forward through two movies -- one of which got an extended cut because there was so much extra material -- and the rest is glorious, profanity-laden, blood-soaked, joke-filled history.
Then someone went and told another joke, one that no one had heard before. "Could you ever imagine Deadpool as a PG-13 character?"
Sort of no, actually. I mean, Mario Lopez tried, but it didn't end well for him. Anyone who has actually seen either movie will understand the monumental amount of content that would need to be removed in order to make Deadpool even remotely close to PG-13.
Ryan Reynolds took a crack at it anyway. Did he succeed?
THE SHORT-ISH VERSION:
Well, yes, and no. It's still -very- worth a watch if you know what you're getting into, but a PG-13 movie this is not. Anyone who has deliberately stopped their children from seeing either of the first two Deadpool films and somehow thinks this one is a safe alternative is in for a rude awakening.
THE LONGER VERSION:
I need to be serious for a moment. Once Upon A Deadpool is an eye opener on a few fronts. It shines a very bright light on some of the silly things that we're doing in the world of cinema in the name of modesty and propriety. To be perfectly honest, I couldn't be happier.
Let's start with the Motion Picture Association Of America.
Once Upon A Deadpool is a masterclass in demonstrating the complete and utter uselessness of the MPAA. If Once Upon A Deadpool can get a PG-13 rating, there's just no point anymore. The whole goal, supposedly, of movie ratings is to provide a barometer that people can use to determine what will and will not be in a movie. OUAD clearly received its PG-13 rating, which means someone held this movie up to some obscure and functionally pointless metric by which a movie's appropriateness is measured, and found it suitable.
That might be the biggest joke in the entire film.
Whoever wrote OUAD's story and script understand that, like many things, perception is king and reality is merely its court jester. On one hand, I'm quite sad that this type of entertainment is boxed in by such a breathtakingly stupid rating system. On the other, I'm beside myself with delight that someone found a way to get around it so perfectly.
As I mentioned earlier, if you've been keeping someone from seeing DP1 or DP2 because you're worried about the content, OUAD isn't much better. There's less blood, and fewer of the -reeeeeally- over the top jokes, but the movie is still chock full of violence, profanity, and everything else you were worried about from the first two.
Now that I've said that, I can put the serious hat down and cover everything else.
It should be known right out of the chute that this isn't a new movie. It's a very pointed re-cut of Deadpool 2's Super Duper Uncut version to make it appropriate for a PG-13 rating. This is done through a frequently jarring series of edits, along with the careful addition of about 20 minutes of new footage with Fred Savage in it. That's not much of a spoiler for anyone whose been watching the internet, so put down your pitchforks. The question I asked above was a valid one, but here's a much better one:
Is this movie worth seeing again in the theater?
Well...sort of? If you wanted to go see Deadpool 2 in the theater again, you'll be really delighted by what you get. Most of DP2 is present here along with some legitimately excellent new material, but you -are- basically just watching DP2 again. That won't be a problem for some people because of how much they enjoyed the film. For others, you might feel a little taken advantage of financially. I read a review earlier online that stated that Once Upon A Deadpool didn't feel like a different movie as much as it felt like the world's biggest DVD extra, and now that I've seen it, I confess....that's pretty damn accurate.
Go see this movie if you really like Deadpool, just understand what you're paying for.
Love him or hate him, Big Red is a legitimate box office phenom now. When the first Deadpool test footage came out years ago, the crowd went absolutely nuts. In spite of the absolute train wreck that X-Men Origins: Wolverine turned out to be, everyone had gotten a taste of Ryan Reynolds as The Merc With A Mouth, and they wanted more.
Fast forward through two movies -- one of which got an extended cut because there was so much extra material -- and the rest is glorious, profanity-laden, blood-soaked, joke-filled history.
Then someone went and told another joke, one that no one had heard before. "Could you ever imagine Deadpool as a PG-13 character?"
Sort of no, actually. I mean, Mario Lopez tried, but it didn't end well for him. Anyone who has actually seen either movie will understand the monumental amount of content that would need to be removed in order to make Deadpool even remotely close to PG-13.
Ryan Reynolds took a crack at it anyway. Did he succeed?
THE SHORT-ISH VERSION:
Well, yes, and no. It's still -very- worth a watch if you know what you're getting into, but a PG-13 movie this is not. Anyone who has deliberately stopped their children from seeing either of the first two Deadpool films and somehow thinks this one is a safe alternative is in for a rude awakening.
THE LONGER VERSION:
I need to be serious for a moment. Once Upon A Deadpool is an eye opener on a few fronts. It shines a very bright light on some of the silly things that we're doing in the world of cinema in the name of modesty and propriety. To be perfectly honest, I couldn't be happier.
Let's start with the Motion Picture Association Of America.
Once Upon A Deadpool is a masterclass in demonstrating the complete and utter uselessness of the MPAA. If Once Upon A Deadpool can get a PG-13 rating, there's just no point anymore. The whole goal, supposedly, of movie ratings is to provide a barometer that people can use to determine what will and will not be in a movie. OUAD clearly received its PG-13 rating, which means someone held this movie up to some obscure and functionally pointless metric by which a movie's appropriateness is measured, and found it suitable.
That might be the biggest joke in the entire film.
Whoever wrote OUAD's story and script understand that, like many things, perception is king and reality is merely its court jester. On one hand, I'm quite sad that this type of entertainment is boxed in by such a breathtakingly stupid rating system. On the other, I'm beside myself with delight that someone found a way to get around it so perfectly.
As I mentioned earlier, if you've been keeping someone from seeing DP1 or DP2 because you're worried about the content, OUAD isn't much better. There's less blood, and fewer of the -reeeeeally- over the top jokes, but the movie is still chock full of violence, profanity, and everything else you were worried about from the first two.
Now that I've said that, I can put the serious hat down and cover everything else.
It should be known right out of the chute that this isn't a new movie. It's a very pointed re-cut of Deadpool 2's Super Duper Uncut version to make it appropriate for a PG-13 rating. This is done through a frequently jarring series of edits, along with the careful addition of about 20 minutes of new footage with Fred Savage in it. That's not much of a spoiler for anyone whose been watching the internet, so put down your pitchforks. The question I asked above was a valid one, but here's a much better one:
Is this movie worth seeing again in the theater?
Well...sort of? If you wanted to go see Deadpool 2 in the theater again, you'll be really delighted by what you get. Most of DP2 is present here along with some legitimately excellent new material, but you -are- basically just watching DP2 again. That won't be a problem for some people because of how much they enjoyed the film. For others, you might feel a little taken advantage of financially. I read a review earlier online that stated that Once Upon A Deadpool didn't feel like a different movie as much as it felt like the world's biggest DVD extra, and now that I've seen it, I confess....that's pretty damn accurate.
Go see this movie if you really like Deadpool, just understand what you're paying for.
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