Deadpool definitely isn’t for kids… (but older teens and grown-ups will love it…)

 

In case you’ve missed the posters and trailers, Deadpool – based on the Marvel comic character of the same name – opened in cinemas last week. It’s already a blockbuster hit, making $150 million in the US for its first four days of release, so I bet you’re wondering why I haven’t reviewed it at the main Movies4Kids website. After all, I have covered all the other comic book adaptations, from Ant-Man to X-Men, so why have I missed out on this megahit?

 

If you’ve seen the movie you may already know the answer. Yes, Deadpool is a comic book character (he’s appeared in the X-Men comics). But unlike the Avengers movies, Iron Man, Spider-Man and even recent, darker Batman movies (like The Dark Knight), Deadpool has been given a 15 certificate and it really deserves it. While I have featured movies with this rating on the site before (for example, the teen horror comedy The Cabin In The Woods), this rude, crude, often outrageously funny movie was never aimed at kids, and the BBFC’s description that it contains ‘strong bloody violence, strong language, sex references’ gives you a hint as to what appears on screen. (And you can add ‘decapitation, X-rated hand gestures, and reference to dildoes, blow jobs and masturbation to the list, too).

 

Deadpool (as played by Ryan Reynolds) is a reluctant hero – a mercenary who falls for a hooker, discovers he has cancer and agrees to undergo a suspicious-sounding experimental treatment that won’t only save his life, it will give him superhuman powers. However, while he finds this means he can recover from all wounds (his hand ever re-grows when it’s chopped off), it also leaves him disfigured and bent on revenge.

 

We first meet Deadpool when he’s on the path of the man who turned him into a monster, and within 10 minutes of the movie’s start a severed head has flown across the screen, you’ll have lost count of the number of swear words uttered, and there will have been more sex references than you’re likely to get in the average issue of Playboy. And we haven’t even mentioned what Deadpool gets up to a few minutes later with an unfortunate stuffed unicorn toy (luckily, off camera). Yup, a kids’ movie this ain’t. In fact, there’s so much crude or violent stuff going on in this 15 certificate film that you start to wonder just what a filmmaker has to do nowadays to gain an 18 certificate (maybe actually show what happens with the unicorn?)

 

While there isn’t much of a plot to speak of, this is a really funny movie if coarse humour and a sarcastic central character give you the chuckles. Reynolds delivers all the jokes and snarky lines perfectly, the action moves along at a frenetic pace, and there’s a sly knowingness throughout that makes it all really likeable.

 

If you like dumb, crude laughs, you’ll love Deadpool… just don’t let the kids know you went to see it.

 

NOTE – Deadpool has a 15 certificate in the UK which does mean that no one under that age should be allowed to see the movie in cinemas anyway. For more information, the BBFC page explaining the 15 classification can be read HERE. The movie has an R rating in the US and you can read more about the American rating system HERE.