Deadpool & Wolverine (5 Stars)

Disney Wednesday #25

I was surprised to find out that "Deadpool & Wolverine" is already streaming on Disney Plus. I would have known if I'd occasionally logged in. As my readers know, I'm not much of a streaming fan. That doesn't mean I'm against streaming in principle. I have friends who boycott the streaming services. I wouldn't go that far. I need Netflix and the others to watch films that haven't been released on disc yet; or worse still, films like "Veneciafrenia" that will never be released on disc. Streaming services are also useful for me to watch films out of curiosity that I'm not sure I like.

I'm getting off topic. Concerning "Deadpool & Wolverine", I'm surprised that it's gone to streaming so soon. It's less than three months since it left the cinemas. Usually that's the sign that a film had performed badly at the box office, but that's hardly the case with "Deadpool & Wolverine". It's the second highest grossing film of the year so far, second only to "Inside Out 2".

It's a good film, though not up to the quality of the first two films. On the other hand, it's hilarious. There are non-stop in-jokes about the politics of the film studios behind the scenes. Not secret politics, of course. All Marvel fans have been reading what's going on with one company being bought by another.

I shan't write any more for now. I'll wait until I buy the film on Blu-ray, although I suspect that it'll only be a brief plot summary. The film isn't about the plot, it's about the jokes.

Success Rate:  + 4.7

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Deadpool & Wolverine (5 Stars)

It's good to be back in the cinema again, and what better film to watch than the new Deadpool film, "Deadpool & Wolverine"? I went to see the film with trepidation after reading that Ryan Reynolds had disagreements about the refilming of the film's third act. I feared the worst. Was it going to be another "Marvels"? I needn't have worried. I enjoyed the film from beginning to end.

It's a multiverse saga. That's another thing that made me groan when I read about the film in its early production days. Again, I was pleasantly surprised that the story succeeded. The multiverse was used as as a method of bringing back characters from old "forgotten" films. I shan't name them, because I don't want to rob you of the wow effect that I felt when they appeared on screen.

After watching the film I read reviews by critics who couldn't decide whether it's a good film or a bad film. The story is weak, which is obvious to me, but it's not about the story. The film jumps from one joke to the next, with only short pauses for action. The audience was laughing from beginning to end.

And Wunmi Mosaku is back! That's enough of a reason to watch the film!

"Deadpool & Wolverine" is my favourite film of the year so far.

X-Men (4½ Stars)

After Stan Lee's death I rewatched all of the Marvel films in which he appears, from "Spider-Man" to "Captain Marvel". For reasons unknown to me I omitted the X-Men films. I'll make up for it now.

Chronologically, "X-Men" was his first cameo. It was also his most subtle cameo. He appears without speaking for about ten seconds as a hot dog vendor on the beach. Of all his cameos, this is the easiest to miss. As the films progressed, his cameo roles became bigger and more prominent.

One criticism I have is that the film seems to have been made for comic book fans. What I mean is, many characters are barely introduced. I have a question to my readers. Are you someone who had never read the X-Men comics? If so, did you understand the film?

Success Rate:  + 2.0

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Free Guy (5 Stars)

Disney Wednesday #19

I like this poster. Guy is Free City's superhero. The only superhero. But what does his costume look like when he rips off his shirt? Exactly the same!

I've read that a sequel is planned. That gives me a funny feeling. If you've seen "Free Guy" you'll know that it's not the sort of film that needs a sequel. I hope they don't totally ruin it.

Success Rate:  + 1.3

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Wolverine (4½ Stars)

Disney Wednesday #16

The official name of this film is "The Wolverine", but most fans call it "Wolverine 2", without an article. I call it "Wolverine" as a compromise. It's  the second Wolverine film, following "X-Men Origins: Wolverine", but whether or not it's a sequel is a matter of debate.

My last review, six years ago, was very short because I was suffering from writer's block. This review is also short, but for a different reason: I'm short of time while I'm on holiday. That's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it!

Success Rate:  + 4.1

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X-Men Origins: Wolverine (3 Stars)

Disney Wednesday #15

The title of this film makes me think that Marvel intended to make a series of origin films about the different X-Men. Fourteen years have passed, and there still aren't any more films. There used to be origin stories in the early issues of the X-Men comics (X-Men #38 to #57). These stories could have been adapted for films. It was a missed chance.

Success Rate:  + 0.5

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Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (4 Stars)

This is a film that tidily completes the Night At The Museum trilogy. There should never have been a fourth film, even though the final scene leaves it open. Barely. And yet a fourth film was made last year as a Disney Plus exclusive. It's not even a live action film, it's an animated film. I swore I wouldn't watch it, but my grandson Oliver has found out about it, and he wants to watch it. So I'll have to grit my teeth and put up with it. It might be good, but somehow I doubt it.

The best scene in "Secret of the Tomb" is a fight between Sir Lancelot, Theodore Roosevelt and Larry Daley inside an M. C. Escher painting. It only lasts a minute, unfortunately. The fight could have lasted an hour, and it would never have got boring.

Success Rate:  + 0.9

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Free Guy (5 Stars)

Click here to read my first review of "Free Guy". I honestly don't have any more to say about it. All that's going through my mind today is a prostate test I had this morning. Nobody warned me that it would be so painful. I should have been put to sleep, or at the very least I should have had a local anaesthetic. It was torture, and not the sort of torture that I enjoy. I feel so bad about it that I don't want to visit the doctor again. There must be other doctors who handle their patients more gently.

But "Free Guy" is a great film. It was a good choice watching it this evening. I needed something to distract me, even if I feel unable to write about it afterwards.

Success Rate:  + 1.3

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Eddie the Eagle (5 Stars)

True Stories #16

Name: Michael Edwards

Lived: 5 December 1963 – still alive

Film dates: 1973 to 1988, mostly 1987 to 1988

Film made in 2016

Anything is possible if you don't give up.

Michael Edwards, usually called Eddie Edwards, had a dream from his childhood on. He wanted to be in the Olympic Games. For a young boy with no sporting abilities, this was a crazy dream. As he grew older he still didn't show any talent. He tried out sport after sport and failed at everything he did. There were always people much better at him. Finally, in 1987, he had an inspiration. He decided to learn ski jumping, because it was a sport that nobody in Britain practised. If he became a ski jumper nobody would be better than him, so he'd have to be picked for the British Olympics team.

Eddie travelled to Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Germany to learn how to jump. He was mocked by the experienced jumpers who were in Garmisch-Partenkirchen to prepare for the Olympics. Only the retired jumper Bronson Peary took him seriously and agreed to train him.

At his first contest Eddie set a new British record of 34 meters for a jump from a 70 meter slope. That might sound good, but it was only possible because of the lack of competition in Britain. The contest's winner jumped 110 meters. Eddie visited the Olympic Committee and demanded to be entered into the Olympic Games as the British champion. They told him that in order to qualify for the Olympic Games he would have to jump 61 meters. After hard training he managed this distance a few months later.

At the Olympic Games in Calgary Eddie finished last, but his eccentric victory celebration won him the nickname Eddie the Eagle. He spontaneously decided to enter the event for the 90 meter jump, which he had never attempted before. Bronson doubted Eddie would survive the jump, but he knew he couldn't talk him out of it. Eddie set a new British record of 71.5 meters from the 90 meter slope, but he finished last again.

Eddie returned home to a hero's welcome. The rules for qualifying for the Olympic Games were subsequently changed to stop anyone like Eddie ever taking part again.

This is a magnificently uplifting film with excellent performances by Taron Egerton as Eddie and Hugh Jackman as Bronson Peary. The actress Iris Berben also appears as the barkeeper Petra in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

Success Rate:  + 0.0

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Free Guy (5 Stars)

Disney Wednesday #1

I've finally taken the plunge. After 18 weeks of my Amazon Friday feature, I've decided to watch films from other streaming services. Every Wednesday I'll be watching a film that streams on Disney Plus. I'm not a member myself, but my son Benjamin subscribes to Disney Plus, and he kindly shares his account with me. I also intend to start a Netflix Thursday feature, probably next week. I wanted to start this week, but I'm going to the cinema tomorrow, so I (probably) won't have time. Do you want to know what I'm going to see tomorrow? I'm not telling you. Check my blog on Friday morning to see what it is.

My regular readers already know that I'm critical of streaming services. It's not because of what they show, it's because of what they don't show. I laugh when people claim that streaming will replace physical media. Maybe it will happen one day, but it's far in the future. My guess is that it'll be at least 30 years from now. Streaming services won't replace physical media until they offer at least 90% of all the films ever made. I'm not just talking about British and American films. It has to be 90% of all films from every country in the world.

At times I felt tempted to drop my Amazon Friday feature. I realised that the films I was watching were average to poor. I shan't have that problem with Disney Plus. There are a large number of great films in its catalogue. As for Netflix, I'm not sure. As far as I know, the really good films on Netflix are films that I already own on Blu-ray. It's possible that I'll run out of films that I want to watch on Netflix in a few months. I'll have to browse the selection.

"Free Guy" is a film that I was anxious to see in the cinema. It was finally shown in Stuttgart two months ago, but I skipped it because it was only being shown in German, i.e. with German dubbing. I don't mind German dubbing, it's usually high quality, but I find it irritating when an actor I know well has a different voice. It's the sound of the voice that bothers me, not the language spoken. The better I know an actor, the more the dubbing bothers me. I've never heard Ryan Reynolds' voice in German, and I don't want to.

After watching "Free Guy" today, I'm regretting my decision not to watch it in the cinema. It's the best new film I've seen this year, and it will probably stay top of the list, unless there's a surprise film at this year's Fantasy Film Festival. The film's quality would have made up for Ryan Reynolds having a Bavarian accent (Dennis Schmidt-Foss). Not having seen it in the cinema will distort my list of the top 10 films of 2021, because I only include films that I've seen in the cinema.

The film is about a man called Guy. He lives a dull life, doing the same things every day. He gets up, puts on a blue shirt and goes to work in a bank. Every day the bank is robbed. In the evening he shares a few beers with his friends. He goes home to bed, sleeps, wakes up, and the day repeats itself.

He accidentally discovers that he's a character in an online video game. To be precise, he's an NPC, a Non-Player Character. His whole world is fake, as in "The Matrix". The difference is that he too is fake.

I don't want to say any more. The film is too new for me to give away spoilers. I'll just talk about its similarity with other films. It's been compared with various films, such as "Ready Player One" and "Blade Runner", but I can only think of six films that deal with similar themes. Ordered by relevance:

1. "The Matrix" – People are unknowingly trapped in a computer simulation.

2. "Tag" – A girl is unknowingly trapped in a computer game.

3. "The Lego Movie" – People are Lego pieces and don't know there's an outside world.

4. "Dark City" – People are trapped on an artificial planet.

5. "Pleasantville" – People are unknowingly characters in a television show.

6. "The Truman Show" – The main character lives in an artificial city built just for him.

The feature that's common to all of these films is that a character or characters are unaware that they live in an artificial world. Maybe when I watch "Free Guy" again I'll compare it with these films in greater detail. Are there any other films that are relevant comparisons? Leave an answer in the Comments box. Don't forget to tick the "Notify me" box, which will tell you when I reply.

Success Rate:  + 1.2

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Deadpool 2 (5 Stars)

Dancer's Top Films #38

Stan Lee doesn't actually make a cameo in "Deadpool 2", but he appears briefly in one of the trailers. He's even addressed by name. Deadpool emerges from a phone booth after changing into his costume.

Stan Lee: "Wow, nice suit!"

Deadpool: "Zip it, Stan Lee!"

This is Marvel dialogue at its best!

The first Deadpool film was so good that I didn't think the sequel could possibly live up to it. I was wrong. I remember sitting wide-mouthed in the cinema on 20th May 2018. When the opening credits rolled (at the 15 minute mark) I already knew that it exceeded the quality of the first film. The humour is similar. The repeated breaking of the third wall is similar. But something is better. Maybe it's the tastefully inappropriate placing of music. I don't know. I just know it's better, and I have great hopes that "Deadpool 3" will be just as good, whenever it's finally released.

This is the second film in Marvel's X-Men franchise in which someone comes from the future to change the past. The first was "Days of Future Past". Cable, a super-soldier from the future, travels back in time to kill Firefist, the mutant who will be responsible for murdering his wife and daughter. When Cable arrives Firefist is still a 12-year-old boy called Russell Collins. Russell is at a turning point. He's a troubled youngster, due to being tortured by the staff of an orphanage run by the Essex Corporation, an organisation that trains mutants to become mercenaries, but he's not truly evil. Cable says that he'll turn evil after his first kill, which is due to happen soon. Deadpool sees the good in the boy and wants to persuade him not to kill anyone. This is ironic, because Deadpool himself is a killer.

Deadpool has contact with the X-Men, but the only team members he sees at the X-Men mansion are Colossus, Negasonic Teenage Warhead and Yukio. It's a running joke that the other X-Men are missing because the film had a limited budget.

Negasonic Teenage Warhead introduces Yukio as her girlfriend, making them the first openly lesbian couple in a Marvel movie. Yukio is possibly the same character as Yukio in "Wolverine", but it's not clear. Her role in "Deadpool 2" is too minor to make a comparison possible. Logically, they would have to be different characters, because "Wolverine" takes place shortly before "Deadpool 2", yet Yukio looks much younger in the latter film. But when has there ever been any logic in the X-Men continuity?

A bigger problem is a brief cameo by the other X-Men, who are in the mansion after all, though unseen by Deadpool. This was an outtake from "Dark Phoenix", which was being filmed at the same time. "Dark Phoenix" takes place in 1992, so the X-Men should look a lot older in "Deadpool 2", which takes place 25 years later. Even taking into account the rewriting of the timeline in "Days of Future Past", the scene still doesn't fit.

But don't worry about inconsistencies. Just accept the film for what it is. It doesn't take itself seriously, so neither should you.

Success Rate:  + 4.7

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Chappie (5 Stars)

Sometimes I don't understand myself. I've watched this film four times and only given it 4½ Stars each time. There's usually a reason why I deduct half a star from an otherwise perfect film. In this case, I don't remember what it was. This is a beautiful film about a robot that crossed over and became conscious. His artificial intelligence was advanced enough to be called real intelligence. Is that something that's possible in my lifetime? Maybe, maybe not. The goal is to create artificial intelligence that doesn't just imitate natural intelligence, it has to act, think and reason just like a human being. The example given by Chappie's creator is that an intelligent robot would be able to look at a painting and be able to say whether it likes it or not. My example is that an intelligent robot would be able to watch films and write my blog for me. That would be fascinating.

Chappie, the police robot that's given artificial intelligence, starts from the beginning. He has to learn how to talk. He has to learn moral values. He learns (as a necessity) what it is to have people lying to him. Yolandi loves Chappie as if she were his mother, and she wants him to grow up and live a decent life. Ninja wants Chappie to become a gangster and make lots of money. Which way will he develop?

The film should have been the first part of a trilogy. It's sad that the plans for the other two films have been abandoned. Several hooks were added for a sequel. "Chappie" has enough potential to lay the groundwork for first class sequels.

Success Rate:  + 0.1

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Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (4 Stars)

This is the third and final film in the Night At The Museum trilogy. It was made five years after the second film, and it brings the series to a close. Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) quits his job as night guard at the American Museum of Natural History and is replaced by Tilly (Rebel Wilson).

The film also offers closure in a sadder way. This is the last film made by the great Robin Williams before his suicide. He died after making the film but before it was released, so there's a brief dedication to him at the end.

The three films build a single piece of work, so I strongly advise that you watch them back to back in order. I almost watched them back to back, over a two month period, so I enjoyed them more than I did when I watched them in the past, not even in the correct order.

This is the film where Ben Stiller gets to kiss a monkey. Is that allowed on screen?

He's closing his eyes to lose himself in the passion.

Ben Stiller plays a second role as a Neanderthal called Laaa. This leads to him groping Rebel Wilson's chest. All men are animals, even if they don't show it in public. I'd like to grope Rebel Wilson as well, but I'm too much of a gentleman to give in to my urges.

You can read Rebel Wilson's mind. "That was disgusting! If I'd known what was expected of me I would have asked for more money!"

I've heard rumours that a fourth film is planned. Please don't do it. Leave it as it is.

Success Rate:  + 0.9

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Deadpool 2 (5 Stars)

This week I finally bought myself a 4K resolution television set. I've been using the standard 1080p resolution since December 2008. I had a 32" television from 2008 to 2012, a 42" television from 2012 to 2016 and a 40" television from 2016 to 2020, all with a 1080p resolution, The downgrade in 2016 was necessitated by moving to Germany. I couldn't take my television with me, so when I arrived in Germany I used the television that was already available.

My new television is 43". Ideally I would have preferred to buy a larger television with OLED technology, the current state of the art, but my space is limited. In my room I have to sit about 1.80 meters away from the screen, so a larger television set would be overkill.

After extensive research, I decided that this television was the best available at this size. At first I was disappointed that the frame is white. Every flatscreen television I've ever owned has a black frame. However, after a few hours sitting in front of it I've grown used to its appearance.

I bought the television from Amazon. I wanted to delay buying a 4K Blu-ray player, but once I had the television in front of me I was impatient. My old Blu-ray player wasn't good enough for me. I jumped on the bus and went to Saturn, an electronics store in Stuttgart city centre. I'd already decided on the Sony UBP-X700 Blu-ray player. It's not the best Blu-ray player on the market, but it's the best in its price range. At Saturn the Blu-ray player costs 25 Euros more than Amazon's price, but they offer a price match guarantee, so I bought it for Amazon's price.

After experimenting with snippets of films on Netflix and Amazon Prime, I finally sat down to watch my first full film with the new equipment. I picked "Deadpool 2", the theatrical version. It's a standard Blu-ray, so it was upscaled to 4K, and the picture was perfect. I currently only own one 4K Blu-ray, "John Wick 2", because the multi-format package (Blu-ray plus 4K) was the same price as the standard Blu-ray alone. I'll have to watch it some time in the next few days.

Success Rate:  + 4.7

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Logan (5 Stars)

"There are no more guns in the valley".

This film is based on the western "Shane". I can see the resemblance between the two films, but after watching the film today for the third time I had to ask why. The speech that Laura holds at Logan's grave isn't relevant to his life. Instead of quoting directly from the film she could have paraphrased it to make it more of a eulogy.

Nevertheless, this is a brilliant film. It's a shocking end to Logan's life, but it neatly rounds off his time in the nine X-Men films so far.

Success Rate:  + 4.4

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Logan (5 Stars)

"There are no more guns in the valley".

Success Rate:  + 4.4

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Deadpool 2 (5 Stars)

When I sat down to watch this film I realised it was an extended version, not the same version that I saw in the cinema earlier this year. The Blu-ray I've bought has both versions, so I'll have to compare them. The theatrical version (surprisingly) doesn't have an after-credits scene, but the extended cut does. Censorship? I remember reading that there was some controversy about the baby Hitler scene. It's a moral question that has been asked before. If you know that an innocent little baby will grow up to kill millions of people, does that make it right to kill him?

This film doesn't have a Stan Lee cameo, although his face does appear in artwork painted on a wall. It makes up for it by having a Stan Lee cameo in one of the trailers. Unfortunately, the trailers aren't included in the disc's extra features.

Success Rate:  + 4.7

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Prisoners (3 Stars)

They say that a good film can never be too long, but a bad film can never be too short. After watching this film I have to ask why it lasted two and a half hours. The story could have been told in 90 minutes.

Two young girls disappear while playing together. Shortly afterwards Alex Jones is arrested, because he was seen parked close to their house. Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) releases Alex after two days because he's convinced that he didn't commit the crime. Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman), the father of one of the girls, thinks differently. He captures Alex and keeps him tied up in an abandoned house where he tortures him to get a confession. However much he beats him Alex insists that he knows nothing about the girls.

Meanwhile Detective Loki is pursuing another suspect, Bob Taylor. Bob confesses to abducting the girls, but it's discovered that he's been creating elaborate fantasies, play-acting that he's a child killer. He buys children's clothes and covers them with pig's blood, then buries child mannequins in his garden. He might be crazy, but he's no killer.

The plot follows twists and turns, with repeated clues that lead to dead ends, just like a maze. I don't mind films that move slowly, as long as it intensifies the suspense, but in the case of "Prisoners" I was just frustrated that the plot didn't move along faster. After the first 90 minutes I was thinking to myself, "Not another hour! And the plot is still going nowhere!"

On the plus side, there's brilliant acting, especially from Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhall and Terrence Howard (the father of the other girl). The problems all lie with the director Denis Villeneuve, who has already proved that he's incapable of making a short film. See "Sicario", "Arrival" and "Blade Runner 2049".

During the film Detective Loki reads a news report online about the suicide of Keller Dover's father. There's nothing wrong with this article, but take a look at the other article on the page about health care. The first paragraph begins with the words, "The high cost of health care is why the needs of the country are not met". It's an interesting article with valid criticism of the current state of health care in the USA. You can click on the picture above to enlarge the article to make it easier to read. I could write a lengthy post on this subject itself, if it weren't irrelevant to the film. All I'll do here is point out that the same text is repeated in the second and fourth columns. That's sloppy.

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