Reviews

Like so many of today's "action" movies, millions of dollars are spent on CGI explosions, people beating each other up, and highly realistic renditions of bullets and swords ripping apart human flesh and bone. If these are the kinds of movies you like, you might like Deadpool since there is PLENTY of that going on.

Many Hollywood movies today also have a highly simplistic moral plot which boils down to getting the audience to sympathize with "good people" hurting "bad people" in horrific ways because the bad people hurt the good people first in equally horrific ways. Essentially it is all about justified violence and hatred, or an eye for an eye if you will. Beneath this simplistic moralism, the writers usually try to throw in a love story to make you feel good about killing all those bad people because there is romance going on. In this sense Deadpool is exactly like every other big budget action movie coming out of Hollywood these days, especially the Marvel comic variety - endless fights, brutal killings, non-stop explosions and car crashes all done in hyper-realistic fashion with the audience rooting to kill the evil-doers.

Where Deadpool differs somewhat from this formula is that it seems more like it was written by the cast of Mad magazine, with more clever, if still childish jokes that do make you laugh more than a few times. In fact virtually every line delivered in this movie is either a hyper-sarcastic joke or a clever put down. While often funny, the dialog is too contrived for me and polished to give it any soul or sense of believability, despite the many laughs.

You can probably tell that I am not a big fan of these kinds of action movies, and that is true. Many people will probably like this movie but I found it totally formulaic and it seemed like the writers were trying too hard. On top of that, too much CGI and too little soul. Still it was a fun movie to watch even if I kept rolling my eyes throughout most of the movie.

Actually this is my favorite Almodóvar film because he wasn't trying to please or appease anyone with this movie, he just says what he wants to say and does it in a very original and (at the time) provocative way. A bit dated now but still a brilliant deconstruction of Spanish culture with zany characters taken straight out of a John Waters movie. It's also the only one of his movies where Almodóvar (looking VERY young) makes an appearance himself (as the judge of a penis size competition no less).

Considering that this movie was made in less than a week with a budget of around $5,000, it's actually quite well done. The cinematography is probably the weak point but the story is great and the characters a parody of everything good and bad about Spain in the 80's. It is full of in-your-face-irreverent kind of humor as well as great little cultural bits and references that only native Spanish speakers or people familiar with Spanish culture will get. One of my favorites is the song "Murciana Marrana" that Alaska and her punk rock band sing as an ode to her new found lesbian lover and repressed house wife - hilarious lyrics and pure 80s punk rock at its best. The movie itself is really genius and despite some technical shortcomings, it's a real gem.