DEADPOOL

Twentieth Century Fox

Rated R

Running Time: 108 Minutes

Click below to watch a movie trailer of Deadpool from YouTube.
 

In Twentieth Century Fox's Deadpool, God's Perfect Idiot, mercenary superhero Ryan Reynolds goes after a British villain Ed Skrein who nearly destroyed Reynolds life and face and kidnapped his fiancee, the hot chick, Morena Baccarin.

THIS IS AN R RATED MOVIE - DO NOT BRING YOUR KIDS as there is graphic violence and big boy curse words throughout the movie, as well as sex and nudity. This is a different kind of superhero story, and was always intended to be an R movie. Although, surprisingly there is not as much sex and nudity as I was expecting given the hype that I was exposed to. But there is genuine love that grew between Baccarin and Reynolds and in a sense this is the driving force behind the movie. Most of the graphic violence comes from Deadpool's use of his katana swords. What's great is that computer generated graphic test footage was incorporated into the movie and not just used as a gimmick to sell the movie to the studio.

Based on the Marvel Comics character created by Rob Liefeld and Fabian Nicienza, and as of February 2016, is released 25 years after his first appearance in New Mutants #98, the Merc with a Mouth Deadpool is an antihero with moral ambiguity who constantly breaks the "fourth wall" and talks to the audience as he goes about fighting the bad guys looking for Skrein and Skrein's henchwoman Gina Carano/Angel Dust. While the movie is marketed as a comedy - there is a lot more drama in the movie Deadpool than I had expected, similar to the movie Ted which also was a comedy but had a lot of drama to that movie. Most of the drama dealt with Baccarin's relationship with Reynolds and his developing cancer. This is a tour de force performance for Reynolds, especially as he had spearheaded the making of the movie.

The first half of the movie goes back and forth between the present day of Reynolds searching for Skrein so that Skrein can cure Reynolds of his disfigurement, and the origin story of former special forces operative Reynolds/Deadpool - who was trying to find a cure for his terminal cancer. After the movie gets caught up, Deadpool is a fairly straightforward superhero film.

With the creation of Deadpool by supposedly the same secret organization who created Wolverine - at least in the comics - both characters have mutant healing factors. With the promise of a cure, and abilities most men would only dream of, Deadpool's creation cured his cancer - but permanently disfigured him and messed up his relationship with Baccarin. The movie Deadpool is basically the eight X-Men film to be done - especially with a CGI character Stefan Kapicic as Colossus, as well as having a moody teen Brianna Hildebrand as Negasonic Teenage Warhead as the only two X-Men shown in the movie that is trying to recruit Deadpool. This is also the first X-Men related movie where Wolverine does not make an appearance. Wolverine was originally supposed to have a cameo, but was cut from the movie. Pictures of Hugh Jackman, who played Wolverine, however do appear in the movie. The movie also has no relationship to the previous Deadpool appearance in the movie X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Deadpool's elderly blind woman roommate Leslie Uggams and Deadpool's best friend T.J. Miller were also good in the movie.

For Stan Lee fans, a gratuitous cameo is in the middle of the movie in a strip club.

There are two after credits scenes, which teases Deadpool 2 - with a major X-Men/Deadpool character to be introduced when it gets made. I am also looking forward for Monica Baccarin to becoming the mutant Copycat in a future movie, which was sort of teased in that Baccarin played a lot of roles. Both the opening credits and the closing credits of Deadpool are very creative and are indicative of the type of movie Deadpool is, as well as the music for the opening credits and the closing credits.

The movie broke several box office records for an R-Rated movie, including the first R-Rated movie to open above $100 million at the US Box office. This is especially of interest as Deadpool was made on a smaller budget than a regular superhero movie.

Rated R for graphic violence, graphic language, sexual situations, nudity, and drug use. Running time: 108 Minutes.

Click below to watch an R-Rated review of Deadpool from YouTube.



Click below to watch the comic movie trailer of Deadpool from YouTube.



Click below to watch the romantic movie trailer of Deadpool from YouTube.



Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

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Ted

Universal

Rated R

Running time: 106 Minutes



Click below to watch the Ted trailer.



In Universal Pictures Ted, Mark Wahlberg's relationship with Mina Kulis is threateaned by his childhood relationship - with his Teddy Bear Ted, Seth MacFarlane.

This is the feature-length directorial debut of MacFarlane, who also wrote and produced Ted as well as the movie being the first live-action project for MacFarlane. MacFarlane does the voice-over for the grown-up Ted. After lonely child Bretton Manley wishes for his teddy bear to be a real-life friend, Teddy Zane Cowans becomes a real-life bear and soon becomes a celebrity. The movie then focuses on the present day, where Wahlberg and Ted/MacFarlane are now grown up - but very immature adults, even if they do have jobs. How Mila Kunis spent four years with Wahlberg and Ted/MacFarlane is a mystery to me. I could have accepted Kunis being with Wahlberg for four months instead, as in the movie Kunis finally has had enough of Wahlberg's and Ted/MacFarlane's relationship and immaturity.

While Ted is supposed to be a raunchy comedy, I found the movie uneven as half the time the movie seemed like a serious relationship drama. A chick flick. The movie is basically a dramatic version of the movie Paul, when I would have preferred Paul meets Superbad. I think part of the problem is that half of the characters were serious characters instead of off-the-wall characters which would have made the movie much funnier, much like the off-the-wall characters that were in the movie Horrible Bosses. There was a scene that was a takeoff of a scene in Airplane!, which I think would have made the movie much funnier if the entire movie was made like that - especially with the idea of a walking, talking, living teddy bear running around. Having Ted being a raunchy teddy bear was not enough, especially since in the film Ted is now a has-been 1980's celebrity and is an accepted member of society instead of some mythical character suddenly come to life. The movie opens with basically a 1950's feel with Wahlberg's childhood home, but then grows up into a raunchy film.

The 1980 film Flash Gordon was a great influence in the movie. The fact that the producers actually got Sam Jones from Flash Gordon to play himself in the movie was great. Although I prefered Jones as the kick-ass alien bounty hunter in Stargate SG-1 much more, rather than Jones portrayal as an aging actor trying to reclaim his glory as Flash Gordon in the movie. Cameos by singer Norah Jones, Tom Skerritt and archived footage of TV late-night host Johnny Carson integrated with Ted/Macfarlane was great. And an uncredited Ryan Reynolds made an impression with me. The opening and closing narration by Patrick Stewart had the right irreverance, which was first evident in the first couple of minutes of a politically incorrect statement. I just wish we got to see Wahlberg's parents Alex Borstein and Ralph Garman as characters when Manley grew up to be Wahlberg. Although I felt Manley was too old to be so excited about a stuffed bear, when Teddy became alive, I could accept Manley being excited about having a new friend.

For an R film, Giovanni Ribisi and his son Aedin Mincks were not creepily off-the-all enough for me to accept them being the movie's bad guys. They were just acceptable for a PG or PG-13 movie, but not enough for an R film. Actually having children actors in an R film, even if it is a comedy, is a little disturbing for me. Obviously, children could not see the movie - which cuts down on the box office on the family audiences that might have seen the movie. I just wonder if the child actors themselves saw the movie.

The computer graphics of Ted are very good due to MacFarlane being motion-captured. I just accepted Ted as a character, a living Teddy bear who even has sex. Ted/Macfarlane still can not run very convincingly, but the rest of the CGI and motion-capture appeared believable and was very detailed in his fur. It was cool to see the cosmic zoom from the Universal Pictures 100th Anniversary logo of Earth from space zooming down into Wahlberg's childhood neighborhood. I was surprised that various referances from several movie and TV studios were used in the movie. At first I thought that they all came from Universal as that would have been easy and cheap - until I recognized the theme from the Indiana Jones movies, and they were distributed by Paramount Studios and not Universal Pictures. Getting the rights to use all of these referances from the various studios and media would be difficult legally and expensive. For having Seth MacFarlane having the clout to get this personal project of his off the ground is incredible. For a small crowd in the theater, as the movie has been out for a few weeks already, there were quite a few laughs from the audience and I admit I laughed too - but I laughed very little as to me the movie was too much of a drama instead of a comedy.

Rated R for Language, Sexual Situations, and Drug Abuse. Running time: 106 Minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Green Lantern

Warner Bros.

Rated PG-13

Running time: 114 minutes

Click below to watch the Green Lantern trailer.



In Brightest Day,
In Blackest Night,
No Evil Shall Escape My Sight.
Let those who worship evil's might,
Beware My Power...
Green Lantern's Light!
- Hal Jordan/Green Lantern

In Warner Bros. Green Lantern, a dying alien Temuera Morrison bestows on cocky test pilot Ryan Reynolds a power ring and lantern which allows Reynolds to turn into an inter-galactic policeman - a Green Lantern.

With the release of a galactic villainous force Parallax, the inter-galactic police force - the Green Lantern Corps - try to contain him. With Parallax's ability to feed on fear, several Green Lanterns fall prey to the power of Parallax. When Parallax arrives on Earth to meet with it's telepathic scientist controlled subject Peter Sarsgaard - who was exposed to a part of Parallax during the autopsy of the alien Abin Sur/Temuera Morrison - it is the newest Green Lantern Reynolds who must overcome his fear and use his willpower to become Earth's last hope.

While the film tells the story of the origin of Hal Jordon/Ryan Reynolds who would go on to become the greatest Green Lantern of the Corps, the scenes on Earth are anti-climatic compared to Reynolds training scenes out in space on the planet Oa - home of the Guardians of the Universe. While this origin story is much better than Thor, the scenes at home at Coast City on Earth still seem a little trivial. Even though the origin scenes include Hal Jordon's comic book associates from the Ferris Aircraft company Blake Lively and Taika Waititi, as well as dealing with the loss of his test pilot dad, there is not as much angst as what would seem necessary for such an origin story. The climax does not seem as Earth-shattering as you would expect as it happens in one city instead of being world-wide.

What is good about the movie is that the movie looks like the comic book. That is what really made me want to see the movie is because it looked like the comic book, which looks amazing and not something really cheesy. Even the aliens looked believable which includes Geoffrey Rush, Michael Clarke Duncan, Mark Strong, and Clancy Brown - most of which are done through performance-capture. The computer graphics of the Green Lantern uniforms and the Green Lantern's animated light image of their willpower creations were also believable. The relationship with the Central Power Battery of Oa and the universe of Green Lantern was interesting and unexpected to me, which also leads to a potential sequel as hinted at during the end of the movie's credits which is not unexpected if you have read the comic books.

Cameos by Tim Robbins and Angela Bassett were not well used, even though they played powerful characters. Angela Bassett's character was especially disappointing as she is supposed to be the head of the intelligence organization Checkmate in the comic book.

Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 114 minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

The Proposal

Touchstone Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running time: 108 minutes



The Proposal, the story of Canadian boss Sandra Bullock coerces her American executive secretary Ryan Reynolds to marry her - or she will be deported.

While cute and predictable, The Proposal is a cynical version of While You Were Sleeping as Sandra Bullock switches from her usual good girl character - to a bitchy character. In fact, many of the story elements were the exact opposite of While You Were Sleeping. The most obvious comparison of the two movies is the wedding scene as her opinion of Reynolds upgrades from lowly secretary to prodigal rich son with a loving family. If you don't mind feeling as if you have seen this movie before, then this movie is for you.

Rated PG-13 for sexual situations. Running time: 108 minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.