Holy sh*t! If you haven’t seen Deadpool, you really, really should. If you’re on the fence, wondering if it’s been overhyped and talked up to death: it hasn’t. The marketing campaign was aggressive— deservedly so— for this R-rated masterpiece, which has already broken box office records, pulling in over $140 million during its opening weekend.

The short of it is that Deadpool is a movie you need to make time to see— call in sick to work, duck out on a family dinner, do whatever you must to get your cute little butt into a movie theatre to witness this monumental film— it makes fun of Reynolds’ previous stint as a Green Lantern, gets frank about masturbation, and comes complete with a couple of sweet cameos.

The long of it is that Deadpool is everything it promised it would be and more. It’s wonderfully violent (including decapitation), fantastically foul-mouthed  (lots of F-bombs), the nudity is delicious (particularly the shot of Ryan Reynolds’ finely-toned gluteus maximus), and the  political incorrectness is so savage it gives us the warm and fuzzies. But this isn’t just a movie designed to your most crude, innate desires. It actually has a plot (you can check out the IMDB page for a summary).

The casting was spot-on for this movie. Ryan Reynolds was born to play Deadpool and Morena Baccarin as Vanessa is both the girl next door and the sensual sex bomb. She compliments Reynolds’ smart-mouthed, acerbic character perfectly; if there was ever a female lead worth a murdering spree, it’s Vanessa (given that the sequel has already been greenlit, hopefully, Baccarin will return).

Of course, no review of this movie would be complete without mentioning the performances that tied it together: sure, Wade and Vanessa made a perfectly screwed-up couple, but during their two-year-long separation, Leslie Uggams as sharp-tongued Blind Al and T.J. Miller as the painfully-honest Weasel kept Deadpool appropriately feisty. And let’s not forget Dopinder, the only man on the planet who takes Deadpool’s far-fetched romantic advice with more than a grain of salt (we hope he shows up in the sequel). Also, Colossus was amazing. And so was Negasonic Teenage Warhead, and… you know what? Everyone nailed it. The wild west has been won. Nobody felt miscast or awkward, and everyone who interacted with Deadpool only served to highlight the best and worst aspects of his character (sometimes simultaneously).

It’s an action movie, it’s an epic romance, it’s overtly sexy (spoiler ahoy, if you don’t want to know who makes an appearance where, skip to the end of the bracketed section: Stan Lee in a strip club gives me life), it’s a feel-good comedy fest, but most of all, it’s pure, unaltered, unhinged insanity.

There’s still plenty of debate over whether or not this is kiddo friendly, and after seeing the movie, we’re gonna go with a solid N-O. Not because kids are so impressionable, their heads will explode at the first hint of Wade and Vanessa having fun with a strap-on; the theatre will likely be packed with adults at the edge of their seats, waiting to lose themselves in a movie that has tipped the “superhero” genre on its self-righteous head. A crying baby or a kid running up and down the aisle or loudly talking completely breaks the movie’s immersion. As a sign of respect for everyone else, please either leave your child at home or, if Family Fun Night at the movies is a must-have, go see Kung-Fu Panda 3.
Deadpool has earned every bit of praise heaped upon it before, during and after its release, and it was worth the wait. We cannot recommend this highly enough, everything was driven by the details and by an honest love for the character and his source material. If you’re looking to be awed by something close to perfection (or if you want to see Ryan Reynolds’ butt) go see this movie. Seriously. Drop what you’re doing and go, you’ll be glad you did.

Rating: 5/5 stars.