Movie Review: Deadpool 2

"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." -- Twentieth Century Fox

And there you have it. And, just in case you don't already know you're diving into a comic book movie turned surreal and sideways, in the opening scene the main character complains about the main character of an entirely different comic book movie stealing the idea of the original Deadpool's R rating. While showing a model of a dramatic scene from the other movie.

Deadpool: Tell me they got that in slow-motion...

At the opening of Deadpool 2 our hero (Ryan Reynolds) has everything: A loving girlfriend, a  successful life as a freelance crime fighter/assassin/wiseguy, and the ability to heal from the most severe of injuries. Obviously he'll fall hard, and in short order superhero Colossus rescues him from the debris of his life (literally and figuratively) and tries to make Deadpool an X-Men trainee.

It doesn't work. What pulls Deadpool out of his funk is a foul-mouthed teenage mutant hunted by the time traveling killer Cable (played by Josh Brolin, who was also Avengers villain Thanos.) To protect the flame-throwing kid from Cable, Deadpool assembles his own team of superheroes, who he nicknames X-Force.

Cable: Who are you?
Deadpool: I'm Batman.

It's all very regular superhero-ish. Or it would be, except this is the Deadpool word, where everything goes sideways with hilarious results. To some extent the Deadpool films can be compared to Mel Brooks movies: crude, politically incorrect, and always winking at the audience--sometimes literally. No one-liner is out of bounds, no sight gag too vulgar, no convention above being poked fun at. At one point I quite literally fell out of my chair.

Oddly enough, there were also a few scenes that hit you in the feels, which may be the most unexpected thing about Deadpool 2. There's an actual story there, with personal tragedy on more than one side, and once or twice it's even treated seriously. Not by Deadpool himself, of course. There are also huge chunks of graphic violence, again sometimes literally chunks, cursing, and general hard R-ratedness of the type that would have brought an X when I was a kid. It's not for the little ones.

The new breakout character could be Zazie Beetz's Domino, whose mutant superpower is ... luck. This leads to a funny sequence in which Deadpool insists luck is neither a power nor cinematic, while Domino proves him very wrong on both parts. I also liked the introduction of Yukio (Shioli Kutsuna), who's relentlessly friendly and cheerful, but also more than she seems.

Deadpool: Luck isn't a superpower. And it isn't cinematic!
Domino: Yes, it is.
Deadpool: I'm gonna meet you in the middle and say no.

My rating:

Entertainment value: 4 M&Ms, the good green ones. This kind of funny is not for everyone, for sure--but it made me giggle helplessly and roll around in my chair.

Oscar Potential: 1 M&M. Yeah, the Academy isn't going to touch this one.