‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ bring great action, comedy and Disney’s restrained influence
(August 12, 2024) — After Disney bought Fox, things were never really the same for a lot of Fox properties. Disney forced changes upon longtime shows like “The Simpsons” and “Family Guy” and imposed a say on the final cut of some films. Sure, those shows poke fun at their “Disney overlords,” but they can’t really get away with lambasting Disney the way “South Park” still can. After the massive successes at Fox of the first two “Deadpool” movies, the primary question was how much Disney would let the third film in the series push the envelope. The answer is: we’ll never really know, but “Deadpool & Wolverine” is still rather good.
Ryan Reynolds’ “Deadpool” character might be the most perfect adaptation of any that began in comic books. Wearing a full costume and mask for the bulk of the film, Reynolds has to do a lot of body acting and voiceover work. It should not work as well as it does. He is at his true peak in “Deadpool & Wolverine.” His comic timing is impeccable; the script knows just what to do with this character.
The same cannot be said for Wolverine. While it is made clear this is not the same Wolverine we saw in any of the prior movies, this one spends the bulk of the film moping and delivering fan service. Hugh Jackman is terrific as usual. However, it is fair to say his performance in “Logan” was too hard to top, so he settled on portraying this Wolverine as lesser-than.
As far as the jokes go, it is impossible to know how much Disney forced them to cut or alter. There are many gags involving the previous regime of Fox and how different things are now with Disney. The next question to answer will be if Disney will allow an R-rated Deadpool character to show up alongside the kid-friendly superheroes like Thor and The Hulk?
Great action sequences, fun needle-drops, exceptional cameos, and the pairing of arguably the two most popular cinematic superheroes all make “Deadpool & Wolverine” well worth seeking out. A-
Longlegs
Nicolas Cage has made a smart late career move of ditching the ‘paycheck’ films with terrible scripts and picking off-the-wall ones to show off his range. The latest in good choices finds him playing the titular serial killer in “Longlegs.”
The cinema is supposed to be removed from reality. While those are real people up there on the screen, the image does not look ‘real.’ That is one reason you should always turn off the terrible motion-blur feature on TVs. When this effect is on, it creates a hyperreal look to whatever you’re watching. I wish movie studios would force that feature to not be automatically on by default. So many people end up watching movies in a way the director never intended. I bring all this up because the director of “Longlegs” does a tremendous job further removing his film from reality without resorting to any cheap tricks.
Have you noticed that light switches never work in dreams? The sun is also never shining bright in our dreams; any outdoor illumination always seems to come from some unknown place. Director Osgood Perkins (son of Anthony) gives “Longlegs” a dreamlike quality from start to finish. There is never any sun, but it is sometimes light out. Indoor lights are in strange places, casting strange glows. Immediately, it is hard to trust what we are seeing. Perkins also imbues main character FBI Special Agent Lee Harker (Maika Monroe) with a constant sense of unease. Harker has elite intuition bordering on the supernatural, but even when she is confident of her belief, she always feels something is a little off. Just like a dream.
Something is truly off with Longlegs. Cage gets to really bite into the role of this eccentric psychopath. As the film plays around in various times (as in a dream, we are never really sure when it is taking place), Longlegs plays different roles. Sometimes, he is just starting out; other times, he has disciples doing his work for him. Throughout, Cage remains scary and unpredictable.
“Longlegs” is a notable example of a director coming from a horror background and finding new life in an old genre. It would not be too far off to say that “Longlegs” is akin to a modern-day “Psycho.” Longlegs will not go down in the lore as did Norman Bates, but the character will get under your skin just the same. B+
Jeff Mellinger
Jeff Mellinger is a screen writer and film buff. He holds a BA in Film Studies and an MFA in film production. He lives in Concord.