DEADPOOL (director: Tim Miller; screenwriters: Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick; cinematographer: Ken Seng; editor: Julian Clarke; music: Tom Holkenborg; cast: Ryan Reynolds (Wade/Deadpool), Morena Baccarin (Vanessa), Ed Skrein (Ajax), T.J. Miller (Weasel), Gina Carano (Angel Dust), Leslie Uggams (Blind Al), Brianna Hildebrand (Negasonic Teenage Warhead), Karan Soni (Dopinder), Jed Rees (Recruiter), Stefan Kapicic (Colossus-voice), Randal Reeder (Buck), Isaac C. Singleton Jr. (Boothe); Runtime: 107; MPAA Rating: R; producers:Lauren Shuler Donner, Simon Kinberg, Ryan Reynolds; 20th Century Fox; 2016)
“Witless, wisecracking, lewd and irreverent Marvel’s comic-book creation.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

First-time feature director Tim Miller helms this witless, wisecracking, lewd and irreverent Marvel’s comic-book creation. Writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick ply all their efforts to dumbing down the superhero film to slurs, cheap rape jokes and references to X-men.

The former Special Forces operative turned mercenary, Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds), undergoes a rogue experiment after he contacts cancer and that leaves him with accelerated healing powers. The super-cool anti-hero, adorned in a red spandex costume, seeks revenge on the person who disfigured him. He uses his alter ego name of Deadpool, as the scar-faced mutant plays it footloose in superhero drag while showboating a foul mouth.

The shallow film makes no emotional connections with the viewer. It’s a novelty superhero film that rests on showcasing extreme violence and extreme bad taste. It’s played for laughs. But I didn’t find it funny. It’s exhaustively crude and smug, and never got off to a good start with me. The film strikes me with the same feelings the villain arms dealer played by Ed Skrein says to the mutant, “I find you so relentlessly annoying.”

REVIEWED ON 2/21/2016 GRADE: C-

Dennis Schwartz: “Ozus’ World Movie Reviews”

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