Multiplex Madness
Deadpool & Wolverine
⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Genre: Comedy, Superhero, Action, Adventure, Science Fiction
Director: Shawn Levy
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin, Matthew Macfadyen
Marvel Studios' latest offering is more Cinematic Universe adjacent than lynchpin, which might be for the best considering how many hard knocks the brand took last year. Though you'd probably be better off if you've at least seen the Disney+ series Loki. Or have seen all of the Marvel films 20th Century Fox made. Look, MCU lore is heavy and complicated now, okay? Deadpool & Wolverine appears to have been made primarily as a rose-colored glasses love letter to Marvel's spotty history with film with other studios outside of their own MCU franchise. Paired with the equally entertaining Spider-Man: No Way Home, it's certainly an energizing nostalgia trip for those of us who kept up with the superhero movies of the 2000's.
The movie sees Deadpool (from the Fox movie series) taken by the Time Variance Authority (from the Loki TV series), who pluck him from his timeline and tell him that now that Wolverine is dead (from Logan), the X-universe timeline is now breaking apart. Forgiving the idea that the Deadpool movies and Logan running concurrent to each other is clearly insane, Deadpool is given the opportunity to join the MCU universe while his world dies. Why did they make this offer? I'm not sure. And the movie never clarifies. It's just an excuse to get Deadpool out into the multiverse to search for a new Wolverine to take back to his universe and stop the timeline from dissolving. Unfortunately, he finds one that is a horrible drunk and the TVA were just going to accelerate the pruning of the world anyway...for reasons. I'm not sure. None of this movie makes any sense.
Despite it never really coming together as a story, Deadpool is a character that thrives on chaos, so this film's chaotic, nonsensical narrative is something that doesn't hurt him. If you boil down a lot of elements of this film down, this movie is just Thor: Ragnarok again: a plotless road trip movie where worlds are dying but the people who are to save it are punted somewhere else and they have to find a way to get back by digressing through noise. I didn't find this type of story suited Thor that well (at least, not the haphazard way that Ragnarok told it), so I've never been that much of a Ragnarok fan. Deadpool is a character that you can just throw a bunch of noise at and he'll glide right through it. Wolverine is a different, more brooding character, but he's so based in blunt-force trauma that he can take the punches of this film's franticness. Deadpool & Wolverine lacks the fresh irreverence of the first Deadpool or the heart of the second, but it's delivers hefty laughs in its flashy nonsense to make it a must-watch for genre fans. And of course, as we've come to expect from these Marvel multiverse films, there are fun cameos to make our nerdy hearts melt, including ones from movies you won't expect and even movies that don't exist (you really need to be aware of a deep cut development hell to understand one of them, like Nicolas Cage Superman in The Flash). Deadpool & Wolverine is a fun ride, even if you won't understand it the next day.
The Fabulous Four
⭐️⭐️
Genre: Comedy
Director: Jocelyn Moorhouse
Starring: Susan Sarandon, Bette Midler, Megan Mullally, Sharyl Lee Ralph, Bruce Greenwood, Timothy V. Murphy, Michael Bolton
The hard counterprogramming pivot from the Marvel entertainment this weekend somehow feels titled like it was trying to get Marvel overflow by giving itself a title suspiciously similar to "Fantastic Four," though that mistake might lead to intense disappointment. Instead, The Fabulous Four is a movie that targets the older women demographic who adore it's main cast from back in its heyday, watching Big Business, Thelma & Louise, and reruns of Will & Grace every time they hit cable, and really enjoys Abbott Elementary. This movie sees Bette Midler getting married, with old friends Megan Mullally and Sharyl Lee Ralph tapped to be her bridesmaids, who then trick Susan Sarandon into tagging along, who fell out with Midler years prior. To be frank, the movie has little to recommend about it outside of it's cast. It's purely a play for people who enjoy these four talents and just want to see them again. The movie is more silly and pleasant than outright funny, which only makes it charm opportune for what little expectation one might have for it. They get into trouble, bond, have fun, find love, and look good doing it. Those who just want that will get it. Those hoping for ambition wandered into the wrong theater.
Movies Still Playing At My Theater
Despicable Me 4 ⭐️⭐️1/2
Fly Me to the Moon ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Inside Out 2 ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Longlegs ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Oddity ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Twisters ⭐️⭐️
New To Digital
Bad Boys: Ride or Die ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Dead Don't Hurt ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Tuesday ⭐️⭐️⭐️
New To Physical
Arcadian ⭐️1/2
Back to Black ⭐️⭐️1/2
Ezra ⭐️⭐️1/2
The Fall Guy ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Strangers: Chapter 1 ⭐️1/2
Coming Soon!
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