ONCE UPON A DEADPOOL:
PG-13 RE-EDIT OF DEADPOOL 2 IS SURPRISINGLY FUNNY!
By Nico Beland
Movie Review: *** out of 4
20TH CENTURY FOX AND MARVEL ENTERTAINMENT
The Merc with a Mouth loses his hysterically foul mouth as well as his over-the-top violent edge in the superhero movie event for the entire family, Once Upon a Deadpool (and that’s not at all a joke). The film is actually a re-edited version ofDeadpool 2 with zero “F’s” to give, no gore, and brand-new footage shot featuring former child actor, Fred Savage (The Princess Bride, The Wizard, The Wonder Years) as himself.
Obviously, Deadpool and PG-13 should never be in the same sentence and had this been a completely original movie, it would have crashed and burned. Most of the fun of Deadpool comes from the fact that it is Rrated and intended for mature audiences, with extreme violence, raunchy humor, and a gleefully profane parody of superhero conventions, so I was very concerned about this re-release, would it still have sparks of Deadpool’s cynical edge or would he be eating shawarma with Mickey and the Avengers?
I’m happy to say Once Upon a Deadpool manages to embrace its PG-13 rating and has fun with it in classic Deadpool fashion, but it’s far from being a replacement for its much superior R-rated predecessors. It’s an interesting experiment but not how I would want viewers under 17 to be introduced to the character.
The film follows Wade Wilson/Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds-National Lampoon’s Van Wilder, The Hitman’s Bodyguard, Pokémon: Detective Pikachu) as he kidnaps former child star, Fred Savage, recreates the bedroom set from The Princess Bride, and tells him the story of a family-friendly version of Deadpool 2 against his will. You know what? Because I’m a lazy f, I’ll just go ahead and slap on the plot synopsis from my original Deadpool 2 review!
Anyway, after a successful two years of working as the mercenary, Deadpool, Wade Wilson finds himself being roped into becoming an X-Men trainee by Colossus (voiced by Stefan Kapičić-Larin izbor, The Brothers Bloom, Big Miracle) in hopes of turning him from a vulgar, wise-cracking, killing machine (You know, everything that made him cool) to a real hero (And by that I mean a spandex wearing tool, what’s next, are you gonna give Deadpool a f*cking shield or something?). Unfortunately, Wade’s first day as a trainee doesn’t quite go over well as he must protect a mysterious young mutant named Russell/Firefist (Julian Dennison-Paper Planes, Hunt for the Wilderpeople) from the time-travelling mutant soldier, Thanos, er, I mean Cable (Josh Brolin-True Grit (2010), Men in Black 3, Marvel Cinematic Universe) who is out to hunt him down.
To even be able to stand a chance against Cable, Wade must put together a team (and I ain’t talking about those Avengers d-bags!) of people with extraordinary gifts…and the ability to hold a franchise. I am of course talking…about the X-Force consisting of luck manipulating, Domino (Zazie Beetz-Atlanta, Easy, Wolves), brain scrambling, Bedlam (Terry Crews-Starsky & Hutch, The Boondocks, Sorry to Bother You), alien from Mojoworld (I would make a Powerpuff Girls joke there but…I don’t want to!), Shatterstar (Lewis Tan-NCIS: Los Angeles, Mortal Kombat: Legacy, Iron Fist), acidic vomit spitting, Zeitgeist (Bill Skarsgård-The Divergent Series: Allegiant, Atomic Blonde, It), The Invisible…Vanisher (Brad Pitt-Fight Club, Inglourious Basterds, Moneyball), and...some guy named Peter (Rob Delaney-The Smoking Gun Presents: World’s Dumbest, Key & Peele, Catastrophe), and with the help of Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand-First Girl I Loved, Tragedy Girls, The Exorcist (TV series)) Deadpool will be ready to face Cable and give him a good T-bag.
The film also stars Morena Baccarin (Firefly, Stargate SG-1, V) as Vanessa, T.J. Miller (Silicon Valley, How to Train Your Dragon, Big Hero 6) as Weasel, singer, Leslie Uggams as Blind Al, Karan Soni (Safety Not Guaranteed, Other Space, Ghostbusters (2016)) as Dopinder, Shiori Kutsuna (Unforgiven (2013), Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV, The Outsider) as Yukio, and Reynolds as the voice of X-Men 3: The Last Stand villain, Juggernaut.
Overall, Once Upon a Deadpool is funny for those who have seen the previous two Deadpool movies and are able to run along with the joke. It’s intentionally played safe and some of the profanity replacements do get a few good laughs, but other times they don’t quite land, which is why I consider this more as an interesting experiment rather than a movie you rush out to see in the theater.
In my opinion, the highlights are the homages to The Princess Bride with Deadpool telling the story to a grown Fred Savage in bed. These scenes lead to some of the best jokes in the entire film with a bizarre but surprisingly amusing team-up.
When it’s just edited scenes from Deadpool 2, they range from being funny to almost like you’re watching a butchered version of it on cable TV (and I’m sure nobody else has ever made a joke about cable TV and Cable). I probably would be more onboard with the idea if it was something like a special version of the movie for its Blu-Ray release, kind of like the Unrated Super Duper Cut of the movie rather than something I need to buy a ticket to see.
Imagine if they re-edited South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut to a PG-13 and re-released it in theaters. You had to purchase a ticket to watch an edited version of South Park in a movie theater when you can get that exact same result on TV for free, and it probably won’t be as funny.
If you’re really curious to see how a PG-13 version of Deadpool would play out, then I’d say Once Upon a Deadpool is worth at least a viewing. However, if you’re looking to introduce the character to people under 17, I guarantee you’ll have a much better time just showing them the original R-rated movies.
From the blog www.moviewatchinpsychopath.blogspot.com
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