Movie Review: Deadpool 2 (R – 119 minutes)

The second installment in the Deadpool franchise which is part of the Fox Marvel, but not Disney Marvel (so it’s with the X-Men, but not the Avengers), is more of the same as the first one. And honestly, that’s a good thing. 

The “merc with the mouth”, Wade Wilson, is traveling around the world, working as a contract killer – taking out bad guys and romancing his lady love, Vanessa.  He’s still horribly scarred from his “cancer-cure” last movie, and pretty much unkillable – the cure sort of worked.  He and Vanessa are living their own version of ‘happily ever after’, ready to start a family and have a baby.  A killer that Deadpool missed in his last epic takedown of a bad guy’s hideout comes by and takes out Vanessa.  Deadpool goes after him, but consumed by guilt and depression, attempts to off himself to no avail.  Collected by Colossus, he’s brought to the X-mansion to recover while Colossus tries to talk some sense into him.  He agrees to become an X-man Trainee.

Meanwhile, sometime in the Future, Cable (Nathan Summers – though never called that in this movie), is mourning the loss of his wife and daughter and pops back in time to off their killer before he gets to ‘full killer mode’.  To further the plot, currently the killer is a young kid named Russell, right on the brink of going full villain. Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead bring Deadpool to attempt to collect the kid as he’s raising hell at his boarding school.  Deadpool, swiftly realizing the kid was being abused, offs a couple of the ‘caretakers’, promptly landing himself and the kid in a mutant jail – complete with collars to dampen their powers.

From this point forward, it becomes a bit of a race between Deadpool and Cable to protect the kid (and ensure he doesn’t turn into a killer), or eliminate him (Cable is convinced he can’t be saved).  Along the way, Deadpool drops out of the trainee program and forms his own X-Force collection of folks to help try to save the kid.

If you liked the first one, you’ll like this one. Equally as funny, irreverent, and disgusting, it solidly delivers more of the same in the best possible way.  This one is directed by David Leitch, a former stuntman who has started building a strong reputation as an action director: John Wick, Atomic Blonde, and the upcoming Hobbs-n-Shaw movie (I can’t wait for that).  The movie is fast-paced, hilarious, fourth-wall breaking, and very R-rated.  The returning cast members are great, but the new cast members are even better.

• Ryan Reynolds continues to relish Wade Wilson as the role he was born to play. He’s the perfect sarcastic smartass, always pretending to be on top of the situation, even when he isn’t.

• Morena Baccarin plays Vanessa, who has a smaller role in this movie, as she is ‘killed’ early on and spends the rest of the movie ‘haunting’ Wade into doing the right thing.

• T.J. Miller plays Weasel, and if you can avoid thinking about the trouble he’s been having in his personal life lately, then you can enjoy the fact that Weasel is snarky and entertaining as he helps DP assemble his new group.

• Karan Soni returns as Dopinder, Deadpool’s buddy and cab driver.  He gets to step into a large, more active role this time around as he decides to become a ‘contract killer’, to mixed results.

• Josh Brolin plays Cable with less of a deft touch than he had in the previous movie this year based on Marvel comics.  Cable is fairly one-note – kill Russell as quickly and efficiently as possible.  Eventually he gets to turn slightly as DP gets him to realize he may be able to reach Russell.

• Zazie Beetz plays Domino, and she is easily one of the best additions to the roster. She proves that yes, good luck can be quite a superpower the way she uses it.  She’s a formidable warrior, and manages to stay fairly level-headed to DP’s crazy.

• Brianna Hildebrand returns as Negasonic Teenage Warhead.  She’s equally teenage angsty, but a little more self-assured in this movie.  Shioli Kutsuna joins as Yukio, another XMan and NTW’s girlfriend.

• Julian Dennison plays Russell, and he steals most of his scenes.  He’s remarkably natural and entertaining for a kid, and I love that they just let him be from New Zealand instead of trying to force him to do a different accent.

• Leslie Uggams returns as Deadpool’s ex-roommate, Blind Al.

• Rob Delaney plays Peter, another scene-stealer, as a regular guy who has no super-powers, but saw the ad and decides to join the team.

• In terms of the rest of the newly formed X-Force: Lewis Tan plays Shatterstar; Terry Crews plays Bedlam; Bill Skarsgard plays Zeitgeist; Brad Pitt plays the mysterious Vanisher. 

• Also – there’s a random cameo of Matt Damon and Alan Tudyk as two random rednecks.  No, I don't know why - but it's definitely entertaining.

Overall, the movie is tremendously entertaining, but again – please don’t take your kids. It’s rated R for a reason.  Hell, at one point, Deadpool is literally ripped in half.  In half!!

8 out of 10, gained points for all the cameos, and the overly dramatic Celine Dion song over the brilliant opening credits.