Deadpool (2016) Film Review

Whilst I love comic book films, I’ve never really read many comic books. Well, okay, I did love Asterix as a kid, and MAD magazine, but not really more than that. So, I have no idea who this Deadpool guy is. Luckily, this film is an origin story film, so I learnt that there was a guy, Wade (Ryan Reynolds) who was a bad guy but with a wild sense of humour who fell in love with this chick, Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) but then he got a terminal illness and put himself through an experimental process to heal him which made him immortal, but also scarred him a lot, so he was unwilling to show his now ugly face to his beautiful woman. And then there are bad guys and a couple from the X-Men (I think) turn up and there are a whole heap of fights.

It’s funny. The type of funny that is often offensive and didn’t really need to be as offensive, but I found myself laughing more than being annoyed… I guess I’m saying that a lot of people will be offended, and it wouldn’t have been hard for me to be more offended, but I wasn’t. And I’ve used that word way too much. I think that the film is worth seeing for the insane extreme slow-mo first sequence, but stick around. I look forward to seeing more of Deadpool in sequels and hopefully in some other films.

Serenity (2005) Film Review

Firefly was the television series that Joss Wheedon made around the time of the success of Buffy and Angel. It was cancelled after a season, much to the despair of the cult following it gained. However, in 2005, this film, Serenity, was made, and it is one hell of a way to bring some closure for the fans (yet with still a hint that a sequel film and/or series could be created).

It’s a science fiction; because Earth could not sustain the large numbers of humans, many ships were sent to a far part of the universe where many planets were terraformed to become habitable, and then settled. There has also been an inter-galactic war. Mal(Nathan Fillion), the captain of Serenity, was a fighter on the losing side of the war. He, with his small crew, travel from planet to planet as guns for hire, performing robberies and the like for money. However, they have taken on a couple of guests, Simon Tam (Sean Maher) who is a doctor who patches the various injuries along the way, and his sister, River (Summer Glau) who is a teenage psychic he has removed from experimentation and is an unknown quantity. Suddenly, everyone is against them and things get most exciting.

It took me a couple of goes to get into the television show, and that was several years ago. However, I recall loving it; loving all of the Joss Wheedon humour and characters. The cast is awesome fun, and includes one of my favourite ‘that guy’ actors who keeps popping up – Adam Baldwin (playing Jayne, with a most amusing tough-guy voice). I couldn’t believe it when I realised that I, being so obsessed with watching everything in a series or a group, had missed Serenity. I knew it existed I just, kind of, didn’t watch it. Now it’s been so long, I can’t really compare Serenity to Firefly, but I can say it works as a stand alone film. What’s more, it’s got a whole bunch of fighting, exciting chase scenes, and that wonderful humour. Yup, I loved it.