Deadpool 2 (2018) [Blu-ray]
Action | Adventure | Comedy | Sci-Fi

Tagline: Their biggest adventure hits the biggest screen.

Wisecracking mercenary Deadpool meets Russell, an angry teenage mutant who lives at an orphanage. When Russell becomes the target of Cable -- a genetically enhanced soldier from the future -- Deadpool realizes that he'll need some help saving the boy from such a superior enemy. He soon joins forces with Bedlam, Shatterstar, Domino and other powerful mutants to protect young Russell from Cable and his advanced weaponry.

Storyline: After surviving a near fatal bovine attack, a disfigured cafeteria chef (Wade Wilson) struggles to fulfill his dream of becoming Mayberry's hottest bartender while also learning to cope with his lost sense of taste. Searching to regain his spice for life, as well as a flux capacitor, Wade must battle ninjas, the Yakuza, and a pack of sexually aggressive canines, as he journeys around the world to discover the importance of family, friendship, and flavor - finding a new taste for adventure and earning the coveted coffee mug title of World's Best Lover. Written by Twentieth Century Fox

Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, August 21, 2018 If the ineffable charm of Ryan Reynolds can help lift a property as questionable as even the recently reviewed National Lampoon's Van Wilder 4K, that may be an indication both of how powerful Reynolds' charm is, as well as how low the bar can be set in terms of the dreck he's sometimes found himself in. Deadpool 2 may not have quite the kick of Deadpool, but it easily tops the "quality bar" alluded to above, offering another pretty raucous assortment of hilarity, "meta" pronouncements, and adrenaline pumping action sequences. The film is bookended with two laugh out loud references to Logan, with Reynolds' Wade Wilson initially lambasting the "hairy" Marvel superhero for riding Deadpool's coattails, and then, in a series of just jaw droppingly funny vignettes interspersed as the closing credits begin, returning to confront Wolverine again (more than once in a way, but that won't be spoiled here). In between these highly amusing moments, Deadpool 2 traffics in the usual fare of superhero films, with Wade dealing with an unexpected tragedy which throws him into a tailspin, only to rebound (more or less, anyway) as a "trainee" with the now politically correct renamed X-Force.

One of the chief plot points of Logan is used to both comedic and dramatic effect in Deadpool, but for those who have yet to see either of these films, without overtly detailing things, let's just say that even superheroes have to "ride off into the sunset" someday. That may seem like an "impossibility" for Wade, who is of course gifted (cursed?) with near miraculous healing powers, but Deadpool 2, despite what Deadpool refers to in just one of many fourth wall breaking moments as "lazy writing" on the part the scenarists (which includes Reynolds, by the way), crafts a conceit whereby mutants who have been incarcerated are outfitted with a little "necklace" that short circuits any "superpower" proclivities they may have.

Deadpool is encumbered with just such a disabling device only after he's marauded through a bevy of bad guys (the film has a good fifteen minute prelude before the opening credits), which in turns leads to the central tragedy of the film. With his life in a tailspin, Deadpool attempts to "one up" Logan (in a manner of speaking), which then leads to him being rescued (again in a manner of speaking) by Colossus. There's the cheeky humor typical of this still nascent franchise bubbling just underneath some already fairly dark material, but the upshot of it all is that Deadpool manages to heal emotionally, at least a little bit, by forging a new "family" with various mutants.

His new status as a "trainee" with the X-Men, er, X-Force leads him to a showdown with an out of control young mutant named Russell Collins (Julian Dennison), who insists he be called Firefist, which may give a clue as to his particular superpower. Russell had been a "resident" (inmate?) at a "reeducation center" run by the martinet zealot headmaster (Eddie Marsan), and he's none too happy about the abuse he's suffered. Deadpool rather unexpectedly manages to get through to the kid, who is destroying things right and left, but Deadpool himself has a bit of an overreaction when he finds out about the abuse suffered by Russell, which soon leads to both Deadpool and Russell being outfitted with those aforementioned neck adornments, with both of them being shipped off to the Ice House, a kind of maximum security prison for the most incalcitrant mutants.

Meanwhile, a time traveling soldier named Cable (Josh Brolin) shows up at the facility and starts blowing things up, with Deadpool coming to the understandable conclusion that Cable is after him. It turns out of course that Cable is actually on the hunt for Russell, since Russell evidently grows up to be a very bad boy indeed. Cable has not so coincidentally suffered a tragedy very similar to Deadpool's, linking the two characters even before certain plot machinations makes the two unexpected partners. Into this morass of competing motivations another potential nemesis is unleashed when the petulant Russell decides to team with Juggernaut, who is also being held at the Ice House.

While the above gives the general outlines of Deadpool 2, as with the first film, this follow up is stuffed to the gills with sight gags, and one especially funny sequence comes when Deadpool and Weasel (T.J. Miller) attempt to recruit a new team to work with Wade. That leads to the introduction of one of this film's "new" major characters, Domino (Zazie Beets), whose "superpower" is nothing other than luck, something that Deadpool repeatedly insists can't be a superpower. While Domino gets her fair share of butt kicking scenes in the film, some of the other recruits don't fare nearly as well, as documented in one of the film's most hyperbolic but admittedly hilarious sequences that serves as a prime example of Murphy's Law, Deadpool style. The film kind of repeatedly goes to "nothing is sacred" mode, but much as with the first film, it's actually unabashedly appealing, at least to those with somewhat jaded viewpoints about so-called "tent poles".

This release offers two versions, with the Super Duper Cut running around fifteen minutes longer than the Theatrical Version. It has some excellent new bits, as well as at least one soundtrack change that may ruffle some feathers, but it's one of the rare instances where an alternate version is actually a lot of fun on its own merits. What's kind of interesting about the alternate cut is how different lines, or sometimes even words, are in scenes that are in the theatrical version, along with bits that aren't in the theatrical version at all.

There's one set of earnest sequences involving the aforementioned tragedy in Deadpool's life that Deadpool 2 returns to which may strike some as "Hallmark moments" in an otherwise pretty scabrous outing. The fact that Deadpool 2 is actually able to get away with these, as well as a couple of other kinda sorta heartfelt moments, is one of the key elements of what makes this rough and rowdy new franchise so enjoyable. The humor here is as bitingly sharp as in the first film, even if this follow up can't muster the same built in surprise factor that the original Deadpool had going for it. Technical merits are first rate, the supplemental package bountiful, and for once the alternate cuts of the film are both worth watching for their own peculiarities. Highly recommended.

(Based on Comic Book) -- (Marvel)

[CSW] -3.3- The original had the full backstory and shock value, but now that you're expecting it, Deadpool 2's challenge was to rise above the gratuitous violence and shock value humor... and it may have. There is still an extremely large amount of gratuitous violence and shock value humor, but a lot of it relies on 80s/90s pop-culture references. Though it threatens to buckle under the weight of its meta gags, Deadpool 2 is a gory, gleeful lampoon of the superhero genre. I may have zoned out on that era's pop-culture so I am sure that a lot of it went over my head and may have seemed sophomoric to me when it was actually a deeper humor. Although enjoyable to most adults those truly steeped in the pop-culture superhero genre should find it outstanding.
[V4.5-A5.0] MPEG-4 AVC - No D-Box motion codes were available at the time of this rental although they are available now.


º º