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
Deadpool
and Fred Savage bringing some family-friendly superhero magic this holiday in Once Upon a Deadpool
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 of Deadpool 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 R rated 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 fudge, I’ll just go ahead
and slap on the plot synopsis from my original Deadpool 2 review except comedically censored for the PG-13 audience!
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 idiot, what’s next, are you gonna give Deadpool a frickin' 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-traveling mutant soldier, Thanos er, I mean
Cable (Josh Brolin-True Grit (2010), Men in Black 3, Marvel
Cinematic Universe) who is out to eliminate him for murdering his family.
To
even stand a chance against Cable, Wade must put together a team
(and I ain’t talking about those Avengers folks!) 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 butt kicking though maybe Cable might not be as bad as he initially thought as Wade attempts to rehabilitate Russell so he doesn't have to be killed...or some crap like that!
. The
film also stars Morena Baccarin (Firefly, Gotham, 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 the Juggernaut, female dog!
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 or sneak-watch them when your parents aren't around.
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