The basic story structure is still intact, but with a significant portion of the blood and gore removed. Reynolds has this drily ironic fourth-wall business down pat, and Savage makes for an entertaining foil. This film was enjoyable. I like how this Deadpool was a great pg 13 adaptation of mech with a mouth who loves to use curse words. I don’t usually review movies anymore but thought I’d add my score to this one since imo it doesn’t deserve to be rated so low. All in all I really enjoyed OUaD, not as much as the original cut or the first movie, but for what it is, I certainly didn’t hate it. Honestly, I kinda wish the “family friendly” promise was adhered to more closely, but the absence of the over-the-top violence and language didn’t really ruin the film for me. What WAS a little bit of a bummer was the editing of the film. The editors presumably did their best with the time and money they had but there were some obvious moments that really could have been cleaned up better (and some of the storyline felt a little left out at times). Besides that, though, I felt like this was pretty well done. I think the key to enjoying this film is accepting it for what it is, not what it isn’t. No, not quite as good as the original cut, but still a heck of a lot of fun Those not on the Deadpool bandwagon already will probably not be converted by this version and those who are fans may find it to be a vaguely interesting curio they'll watch once. If nothing else, Once Upon a Deadpool is an experiment that’s interesting in theory, but it doesn’t prove fruitful in terms of execution. In the end, the whole clean-up project is as shrug-worthy as most of the "Unrated Director's Cut!" edits that go the other direction on home video, promising more nudity and gore but changing little of consequence. Once Upon a Deadpool doesn’t offer nearly enough new gags to justify its cheeky family-cut re-release. Sure, the bits they add are great – Fred Savage’s hostage situation with Deadpool should have been a cool third of the film – but in the end, it’s a retread as limp as one of Wade Wilson’s re-growing limbs. It's all a shell of itself, with Fred Savage on hand to occasionally note how weird this all is. This isn't a great movie, but it isn't a bad one either. Still gives us some jokes that were good. I still somewhat enjoyed this for the most part. Even if this was obviously a cash grab. Deadpool 2 was fine and fun enough on its first watch, but this was straight-up a chore to sit through. The Fred Savage cutaways have their moments, but without the over-the-top gore and R-rated banter, this just feels awkward and bland. The post-credits tribute to Stan Lee is great though, maybe YouTube that in a few months... Basically it's a PG-13 Deadpool 2 but with additional scenes starring Deadpool and Fred Savage. There were a few moments that I laughed. I think that's because Ryan Reynolds and Fred Savage are great together and make some funny jokes but overall this movie was a massive disappointment. Don't waste your time watching this film like I did. The existence of this cut is a joke in itself, but it stops being funny when you actually watch it. The movie is filled with jokes about how it's PG, baby-proof and fun for the whole family, which will tease any child actually watching it into seeing the R rated cut at some point, with or without permission. It's basically just a PG trailer for an R film, and if you seriously think your kids need that, I can't help you. As for adults, even the most Deadpool-starved among you will be bored by this low-effort gag reel. Ni la pude terminar de ver, sólo un niño menor de 10 años podría disfrutar de esto a secas, en general es verdaderamente aburrida... A new Christmas film arrives in theaters this weekend, but I'm surprised there's not more controversy about it. The new holiday movie Once Upon A Deadpool overtly steals from a previous 2018 release titled Deadpool 2, stealing not just the basic story beats but even several character names and mimicking some scenes shot for shot. Even the title rips off the earlier film -- there's no way the word "deadpool" appearing in both titles is just a coincidence. This new movie is a bit more overtly Christmas-themed, and has less profanity and bloody violence than the other similar release, and it admittedly has a major character (played by Fred Savage) who doesn't seem based on anyone from Deadpool 2, but if you look closely you'll notice this character appears ripped off from a totally different movie named The Princess Bride. Did the makers of Once Upon A Deadpool think we just wouldn't notice? They'll be lucky if Ryan Reynolds doesn't sue. Since the film Deadpool 2 was a blockbuster hit to the tune of $734 million this summer, there's a chance Once Upon A Deadpool will appeal to the same audience and perform to healthy box office numbers over the holiday season. And here's the thing -- while it's a total ripoff of another film, I can't deny that Once Upon A Deadpool is freaking hilarious and will get tons of positive word-of-mouth. Which means I actually expect it to perform better than you might expect, with a range anywhere from $20 million to $50+ million, depending on how big it's opening weekend turns out to be. So far, it's banked about $1 million from Wednesday's early screenings. That's enough to suggest a healthy bow this weekend, and the audience buzz should help as kids get out of school for the holiday vacation. Deadpool 2 was a great, hilarious film that actually improved upon the first movie with an expanded stronger supporting cast, including far superior villains and a more engaging, complex story. Does this shameless ripoff known as Once Upon A Deadpool have any hope of comparing positively to the movie it steals from? Could it be good enough so that Fred Savage won't mind the kissing parts so much? The answer is not yes, but HELL yes. All joking aside now, Once Upon A Deadpool proves once and for all that we can stop debating whether Deadpool can exist within a PG-13 world. Not only "can" he, he's better off for it. Because Once Upon A Deadpool is superior to the R-rated version of the movie, improving upon it with a framing device making the film feel even more like the comic book source material that's been mostly PG or PG-13 for the character's nearly 30 year history, with lots of humor arising from self-censorship and silly interludes freezing the story's action so we can watch characters discuss the story and revel in the absurdity. This is frankly the version of Deadpool 2 the studio should've made and released all along, except that by having the two versions to juxtapose for comparison, we more readily see the reasons it works so well in PG-13 and how audiences can respond well to both approaches. We had R-rated Deadpool filmmaking, and we can still maybe have that in the future as well, but there's no reason it has to be PG-13 to tell the best stories and let Deadpool be himself throughout. I don't think any serious person can walk out of Once Upon A Deadpool doubting whether the character can survive in a PG-13 world. Nor can I imagine anyone seriously denying the brilliance of what this new version accomplished by taking a film we've already seen and making it a must-see AGAIN. Once Upon A Deadpool does what the first Deadpool movie did a few years ago -- it once again demonstrates new ways to push boundaries and rethink the way we make and experience superhero cinema. Ryan Reynolds and his creative team are thinking so far outside of the box with this franchise, they're creating a whole new box for the series and then thinking outside of THAT box, too. This is important, because it gives lie to the already-tired old refrain from some myopic quarters who insist "superhero fatigue" will soon set in and that there's nothing new or unique left to do or say in the superhero genre. Plenty of other films are likewise helping demonstrate how empty such notions are, but Deadpool films created and popularized a whole new approach and then, when everyone else was rushing to mirror that approach, the creative team was already looking for a way to go beyond their own approach and render it obsolete even for themselves. That, dear readers, is why Once Upon A Deadpool is some wildly daring high art, and it accomplishes this by censoring itself. Who would've thought a film and creative crew would find a way to turn self-censorship into important commentary on the entire way we think about the genre and about censorship itself? They've demonstrated that there are no limitations on creativity or what's artistically possible and desirable, if you are actually smart enough and creative enough to turn anything and everything into a new opportunity to grow and make better art. This isn't to say they're championing self-censorship -- rather, they're saying they reject the inherent limitations and myopia of the very notion that anything can succeed in censoring their vision. Even literal intentional self-censorship can't restrict them. Fred Savage is masterful and feeds off Reynolds' energy perfectly, and their interactions are more than worth the ticket price. I've seen Deadpool 2, then I got it on Blu-ray and watched it at home, and now I've seen Once Upon A Deadpool at a free press screening, and I'll STILL pay to go back and watch it again with family over the holidays. It's that good. But there's still more to recommend about Once Upon A Deadpool. Because part of the re-edit of the film includes a wonderful brief visual tribute to Stan Lee within the film -- watch for it, on the side of a building. Then, there's a post-credit scene that made me choke up and dribble a little emotion-juice from my eyes. It's so effective and yet so simple, the final shot being the one that broke through my attempts to restrain my emotional reaction and caused me to really tear up. Once Upon A Deadpool is a triumph of hilarious PG-13 vaccination for a character who will inevitably transition into the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe with the X-Men, proving Deadpool has been a massive success for nearly three decades precisely because he's versatile enough to work comfortably within whatever boundaries you try to erect around him -- he'll burst through them sometimes, stretch them til they bend other times, and then just politely accept them when you least expect it. That's why we all love him in the first place, isn't it? So don't insist Deadpool has to be R-rated, or you'll simply reveal how little you really know and understand him. |
