Leitch/Reese/Wernick/Reynolds' DEADPOOL 2 proves every bit as much fun as you've hoped

So, is it as good -- funny, nasty, satirical, and ridiculous -- as the original? Yep. It is even better? Maybe. It depends. By the time you've reached the finale of DEADPOOL 2, which boasts, among other things, one of the funniest and lengthiest comedic death scenes on film (or digital), it you have not laughed yourself silly, TrustMovies will be very surprised. Manohla Dargis probably won't appreciate the sequel any more than she did the original, but that's OK. Many of us indeed will.

If you're old enough, or movie-fan enough, to recall those Mel Brooks comedies of a half-century ago, this is the experience of which Deadpool 2 may most remind you: joke after joke after joke, coming so fast and furious that even if half of them don't hit the mark, are too obvious/repetitive or simply deflate, the other half work. So you won't quite have finished laughing at one before the next bulls eye is hit.

As ably directed for pacing, action and fun by David Leitch (above, of Atomic Blond, which provided similar things, but not nearly to this level) and written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick (both of Zombieland and the under-rated Life), with some writing assistance from the film's star Ryan Reynolds (below), the movie is scattershot, all right, but so filled with delight at how much fun there is to be made of super-hero movies, that both the many folk who love 'em and the less number (like me) who hate 'em, will be able to fully enjoy it.

As for the plot, don't worry: there will be no spoilers here. In fact, it would almost impossible to spoil this movie, plot-wise, since it practically has none. Oh, there's something about an angry kid with super-powers, and the bad guy from the future who comes to kill him, but all this is simply a bone tossed to mainstream audiences so that the movie can get on with its real purpose: to make fun of super-heroes and the movies about them, as well as about the kind of culture -- political, social and otherwise -- in which we reside today.

I doubt you will have heard so many "in" jokes about movies since, well, the original Deadpool. And while some of these jokes are already past their sell-by date, some of them still draw laughs. More important, the satire of and comic references to the times we live in are often on the nose. Simply for the jokes about Jared Kushner and Fox and Friends (and, yes, Green Lantern: do stick around through the end credits to savor every one), I'd be willing to watch the movie all over again.

In the large and very game cast, in addition to Mr. Reynolds, who keeps proving himself worthy over and over again, we also have Josh Brolin (above, looking both beefy and buoyant and having the time of his life), the delectable Zazie Beetz (below, who plays a character named Domino with more pizazz and pleasure than just about anyone in the entire recent Black Panther nonsense. This character, whose superpower is simply being excessively lucky, is a keeper, and so is the luscious and lively Ms Beetz.

That angry super-powered kid is played with nasty relish by Julian Dennison (below, from the over-rated Hunt for the Wilderpeople), and the rest of the cast is game and fun, while the movie itself is fun and games.

Do watch for a terrific new character call the Vanisher (shown below, just left of center), and then pay attention to the actor who plays him (listed in the end credits), giving certainly the greatest, most moving performance of his entire career. Oh -- and, yes, the film is very violent, but in such a jokey, silly manner that I know my grandkids will be more than up for it.

There's less sexual references this time around, because our hero's girl friend, played by Morena Baccarin (below), is sidelined early on. A shame.

The audience with whom I viewed the movie (scattered press but mostly a typically mainstream crowd) seemed to relish every last joke, character and situation, most of them staying through the very long end-credit roll. Can't blame them. We did, too. Who'd want to miss that final laugh?

From 20th Century Fox and running one minute short of two full hours, Deadpool 2 opens in theaters nationwide this Friday, May 18. Click here to find the probably many theaters near you.

Marjane Satrapi jumps genres, Ryan Reynolds grows ever more versatile with THE VOICES

"Have you been taking your medicine?" This question--asked of Jerry (Ryan Reynolds in yet another of his many excellent, versatile, and likely-to-be-overlooked performances) by his therapist (Jacki Weaver)--hangs over the new movie THE VOICES like a shroud. The answer is always no, and the result, while pretty awful, is also the reason the film exists. Jerry, you see, is one of those borderline personalities kept in check by medication but capable of who-knows-what when he goes off it. Who-knows-what is exactly what we get in this very funny, bizarre, surprising, alternately gory and subdued genre-jumper that looks at mental illness from a variety of angles -- most of them nothing quite like we've previously seen. Sure, we've had a number of comic killer/slasher/thriller movies, but this one's something else. It takes a look at insanity from a different perspective.

Director Marjane Satrapi (shown at left, who gave us the animated Persepolis and the even better Chicken With Plums) usually has a hand in the screen-writing. That she did not in this case may have something to do with the movie's jarring notes, and yet this jarring may be what enables the whole thing to work as well as it does. How the fantasy of insanity knocks up against reality is part of the movie's point, and Ms Satrapi shows it to us via some interesting visual and audial counterpointing. It isn't simply that Jerry converses with his pets -- a kindly dog and a nasty cat -- when he's off his meds; notice the look and the cleanliness of his home with and without those pills, particularly once the carnage begins. Satrapi doesn't push things, but she does enable them. And the screenplay, from Michael R. Perry, keeps the plot on point with decent dialog and an arc that goes where we dearly wish it wouldn't, though we know it must.

That the movie succeeds as well as it does rests on the broad-enough shoulders of Mr. Reynolds (above and below), who, with his cutie-pie face and great body, makes a very appealing hero who can then turn scary on a dime. Further, he does all the animal voices -- quite a range! -- and even sings and dances, too. Move over, Hugh Jackman.

In the supporting cast are a number of good actress, from Ms Weaver to Gemma Arterton (the head being fed, above, as the co-worker on whom Jerry has a crush) and Anna Kendrick (below, as another co-worker who has a crush on him).

Reynolds keeps us rooting for Jerry beyond all wisdom and hope, even as events turn darker and nastier. The filmmaker manages to hold things together, sometimes shakily, but that is also part of the bizarre fun. Perhaps it takes someone who grew up in Iran to show us America so bluntly -- in day-glo pastels for the way we imagine and/or want things to be, and then earth, blood and shit tones as reality sets in.

As I say, as many so-called comedy shockers as you may have already encountered, you'll probably not have seen something comparable to The Voices -- which seems to spin near-gold out of the very straw of its occasional missteps.

The movie, from Lionsgate and running 104 minutes, opens this Friday, February 6, at an AMC theater in ten cities: Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Miami, Philadelphia and Phoenix. Here in NYC, it will play the AMC Empire 25, and in the L.A. area, look for it at AMC's Citywalk Stadium 19. Simultaneously, it will be available via VOD, as well.