A Super Hero like we've never seen before.

Rating: 8/10 (13 February 2016)

An R rated super hero movie. Our prayers have been answered.
That is because the people at 20th Century Fox, home of the X-Men franchise, have decided to kick things up a notch and then kick them sideways. In the process, they've given us a super hero movie heavy with violence, very, very, vulgar language and sexual situations. In short, every thing the Spider Man movies were not.
We get a movie with attitude to spare, right from the opening credits, which is a joke too good to spoil. Give the writers, Rob Liefield and Fabian Nicieza, along with director Tim Miller great credit; they get the Marvel character of Deadpool right and then some, perfectly capturing the Merc with the Mouth we've all come to know in the comic book. One the best things about this movie as that it does not try and do too much, giving a compact origin and revenge story without shoehorning in too many other Marvel Universe characters from the X-Men books. Unlike Spidey, Superman and Batman, Deadpool does not have a legendary origin story for screenwriters ruin by tweaking it for the big screen. We just get douche bag Wade Wilson diagnosed with terminal cancer and then mutated by risky "treatment" run by Ajax (aka Francis), the villain of the piece whose only motive is to create super powered slaves. Wade, his body now a mass of scare tissue courtesy of Ajax, fashions the now familiar red spandex costume, adopts the name Deadpool, and goes to get some payback. A simple plot that makes sense, unlike some other comic book franchises that believe big is better.
DEADPOOL finally gives Ryan Reynolds a part truly equal to his talent, and should make him the super star he should have become a decade ago. He's been a dependable actor in rom-coms and bad comedies, while often proving himself a very capable action hero. Deadpool is makes good use of his physical attributes and great comic timing; the jokes and one liners he gets off are funny enough on the page, but coming out of Reynolds mouth is what really makes them funny. And proving he is a very good sport, the script takes very funny pokes at GREEN LANTERN and BLADE II.
There is a good supporting cast, starting with TJ Miller, whose character should simply be called Comic Relief. Ed Skrein makes for a good bad guy with requisite British accent. Morina Baccarin is Wade's tough talking girlfriend, a love interest most worthy of the hero. Stefan Kapicic is the Colossus we've known from the X-books, while Briana Hildenbrandt is his sidekick, Teenage Nagasonic Warhead. Leslie Uggams turns up in a small, but very funny, part as the blind woman Deadpool rooms with a one point. Karin Soni is quite funny as cabbie who chauffeurs heroes to a couple of big showdowns. Stan Lee has his gratuitous cameo, but it really is one of the funnier ones-the man is a great sport.
The violence is bloody, and the there is a car chase that doesn't look like every one we've ever seen in a movie before. Many of the jokes are very dirty and in really bad taste-way beyond anything heard on Family Guy. Some of them will make you laugh just because of how awful they are-nobody who sees this movie will never again not giggle at the mention of Meredith Baxter Birney.
And there is a great soundtrack featuring Chicago and Neil Sedaka among others.
Though this is a super hero movie, it's not one for the kids, and its raunchy attitude breaks new ground for the super hero genre. Let's hope the guys over at Disney/Marvel are paying attention.