Deadpool 2 - Directed by David Leitch
Normally, I wouldn't bother to report on the latest CGI comic book slug-fest put on by a major studio to make money. If I were a contemporary of its day, I might have said the same thing about "A Night at the Opera" as a fluff-piece filled with funny lines. However, we all know "Opera" to be the Marx Brothers at the pinnacle of their game with only "Duck Soup" as a rival.
So it goes with the "Deadpool" franchise, an anti-hero do-gooder with super powers who throws off one-liners faster than a nightclub comedian. Peppered throughout the script are parodies, double-entendres, and, of course, dripping sarcasm. There is also a point to his comedic diatribe that goes deeper than irreverence and that biting cynicism lies at the heart of Deadpool and Deadpool 2. We know he's going to fight bad guys. He knows it, too, and calls it out for what it is. Reynolds takes those conventions and turns them on us, so that we can laugh at the way they're constantly presented. The spoofs of other films is so blatant, it's artwork personified. The brilliant Bond parody near the film's start is so beautiful it's almost criminal in the way it's presented. Why? Because, for the first time, someone is saying: "How can you, the film-going, admission-paying public accept the exact same norms and same conventions each and every time?" We act so grateful, we don't question their validity. Reynolds never lets up on his "alternate reality" twists liberally peppered throughout the film. I couldn't stop laughing and it continued long into the credits.
Deadpool 2 is the kind of movie so full of comical one liners that I'm afraid I need to go back and take notes. It's made me wonder - why can't an adult script, why can't a comic book hero-type film, be nominated for Best Original Screenplay. Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, and Ryan Reynolds have crafted a gem that will be quoted for decades to come.
