I go to the vault to unearth a vintage interview I did with Wolverine himself, Hugh Jackman. We don’t talk superheroes, instead, the actor gets personal, talking about the projects that worked, the ones that didn’t and what drives him. “When I started acting I was the dunce of the class,” he says.
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
I join Shane Hewitt on “The Night Shift” to talk about helping to unveil a stamp commemorating the late, great Norman Jewison at the Canadian Film Center.
Listen to the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 30:36)
Listen to Shane and Richard talk about “Deadpool & Wolverine” HERE! (Starts at 30:49)
SYNOPSIS: Six years after the events of “Deadpool 2” comes “Deadpool & Wolverine,” a new superhero movie starring Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, and now playing in theatres.
Now working as a used car salesman, Wade Wilson (Reynolds) has retired his wisecracking mercenary Deadpool persona. His life is up-ended when the Time Variance Authority (TVA) enlists him to undertake a new mission with another reluctant superhero Wolverine (Jackman).
“Wade, you are special,” says TVA agent Mr. Paradox (Macfadyen). “This is your chance to be a hero among heroes.”
CAST: Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Rhett Reese, Emma Corrin, Matthew Macfadyen, Paul Wernick, Zeb Wells. Directed by Shawn Levy.
REVIEW: If the word bombastic took steroids it might come close to describing the R-rated “Deadpool & Wolverine.” Vulgar, gory with a “whiff of necrophilia” and irreverence to burn, it’s a showcase for the bromance stylings of its stars, who pull out all the stops to lovingly put a cap on Fox’s Marvel movies. “Disney bought Fox,” Deadpool explains, “[so there’s] that whole boring rights issue.”
At the film’s start, it takes some doing to explain Wolverine/Logan’s return from the dead—“Nothing will bring you back to life faster than a big bag of Marvel cash,” Deadpool says to Wolverine’s remains.—but once that convoluted (but action-packed) set-up is out of the way, the film barrels through plot with both fists flailing.
Before, during and after the big, bloody action sequences the movie cheekily blurs the line between on-screen and off-screen life. Deadpool obnoxiously calls Logan “Hugh,” and even takes a jab at jackman’s recent divorce. Later he leeringly mentions “Gossip Girl,” the show that made Reynolds’s wife, Blake Lively, famous.
That fourth-wall-breaking riffing suits Reynolds’s trademark delivery, and sets the self-aware “Deadpool” movies apart from other superhero films. ““Fox killed him,” Deadpool says of Wolverine. “Disney brought him back. They’re gonna make him do this till he’s 90!”
Humor has a place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), in Tony Stark’s one-liners, in Taika Waititi era “Thor” movies and “Guardians of the Galaxy” to name a handful of examples, but none of those subversively poke fun at superhero movies and themselves in the way “Deadpool & Wolverine” does. What other MCU movie would self-deprecatingly admit that the characters are entering the multiverse “at a bit of a low point”?
Jackman mostly plays it straight, acting as a soundboard for “the Merc with the Mouth’s” one liners. Filled with regret over past events, the self-loathing Wolverine is a hard drinking mutant, in full comic book costume, who reluctantly embraces heroism.
Wolverine provides the story’s heart as a counterpoint to Deadpool’s constant quipping.
Both characters may be physically indestructible, but their psyches aren’t. Both are tortured, and when the movie isn’t gushing blood or cracking wise, it’s about lost souls and their search for redemption. That story chord is a grace note that often gets lost amid the film’s cacophonic action, but is a welcome relief from the constant clatter.
A love letter to the now by-gone Fox era of superhero films, “Deadpool & Wolverine” ushers in a new epoch overstuffed with overkill, cameos, Easter eggs, juvenile humour and a villain who reads minds by thrusting their fingers into their victim’s heads. It’s fun fan service, and a good time at the movies, even if the experience of watching it sometimes feels like being on the inside of a blender set to puree.
Jason Mamoa returns as the universe’s most famous merman in “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom,” the last film of the DCEU, now playing in theatres.
“I’m the King of Atlantis,” says Arthur Curry / Aquaman (Mamoa). “Half a billion from every known species in the sea call this place home. But that doesn’t mean they all like me.”
Angriest of all the seafarers is David Kane / Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), a pirate and high-seas mercenary who holds Arthur responsible for the death of his father. Jesse Kane perished when his hijacked Russian nuclear submarine flooded with water. Aquaman could have saved him, but refused. Now, Black Manta wants revenge and is prepared to use the dark magic of the cursed Black Trident to get it.
“I’m going to kill Aquaman,” he says, “and destroy everything he holds dear. I’m going to murder his family and burn his kingdom to ash. Even if I have to make a deal with the devil to do it.”
Like I said, he’s angry.
To stop Black Manta from destroying everything important in his life, Aquaman decides to join forces with his estranged half-brother Orm Marius / Ocean Master (Patrick Wilson). Trouble is, the former King of Atlantis is being held in a desert jail for crimes against his old kingdom. Wearing a camouflage suit, Aquaman liberates Orm, and reluctantly, the former king agrees to battle Black Manta.
“I don’t know what lies ahead,” says Aquaman as they begin their adventure. “But we can’t leave our children in a world without hope.”
“Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” has the vibe of an episode of the Saturday morning cartoon “Super Friends.” A mix of goofy humour and action, it delivers spectacle, but ultimately feels like it is hobbled by too much exposition, too much muddy CGI, not enough character development and not enough Black Manta. After a messy first hour of set-up, it catches a wave in the second half, but even when it picks up, the stakes are never high enough to match the first drama of the first film.
Mamoa is game. He understands that Aquaman is a mix of kitsch, charm and action chops, (“There are those who think I’m ridiculous,” he says.), a mighty underwater superhero who rides around the sea courtesy of a giant sea monkey, but the tonal shifts, whether because of reshoots or rewrites or just jerky editing, often make for disjointed viewing. The fine balance of humour and emotion isn’t as carefully calibrated here as it was in the first movie, and the character’s sudden temperament swings, from beast mode to jokester, are jarring.
Abdul-Mateen II is underused. He’s a villain with relatively little screen time whose thirst for retribution is matched only by his ability to make the silly, retro-sci fi Black Manta suit look cool.
Many movies have been fuelled by revenge, but here it quickly becomes a McGuffin, the thing that gets the movie in motion, but is soon forgotten as other plotlines crowd it out of the picture. His scheme to speed the warming of the planet by detonating his store of orichalcum fuel, is the work of a supervillain for sure, but is underdeveloped. “It has to be stopped,” says Atlanna (Nicole Kidman) in a textbook definition of understatement.
Of the supporting characters Wilson is given the only character arc. From disgraced leader to unlikely hero (no spoilers here), he’s as stoic as Aquaman is playful, but, nonetheless, delivers the film’s funniest scene (again no spoilers here, but it would not be out of place on the icky reality show “Fear Factor”). His presence, however, allows the film to explore a redemption storyline that gives the otherwise generic plot a bit of juice.
Amber Heard fans, and haters, may be divided by her appearance. Supporters will think she is underused, while the haters will think she takes up too much screen time. Suffice to say, she is a supporting character who appears throughout, but has little to do with the main action.
“Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” has its moments (stick around for the amusing mid-credit scene), but the script’s choppy waters, and a low stakes storyline offer a low reward.
It seems to be an unwritten rule that the best superheroes are birthed from troubled family backstories. Bruce Wayne witnessed the brutal killing of his parents, Spider-Man was orphaned at an early age and Superman was exiled from his home planet of Krypton and never met his parents. The big screen adaptation of “Blue Beetle,” a DC superhero movie now playing in theatres, breaks with tradition. “My family? That’s what makes me strong,” says Jaime Reyes a.k.a. Blue Beetle.
When we first meet Reyes, played by “Cobra Kai” star Xolo Maridueña, he is an ambitious recent college grad on the hunt for a job. Back home in Palmera City his family is in financial trouble and Jaime wants to help out.
His job search puts him in contact with a sentient ancient alien relic known as the Scarab, which kind of looks like a fancy broach my mother may have worn in 1978. The powerful, parasitical piece of biotechnology chooses Jaime as its symbiotic host, transforming the young man into the superhero Blue Beetle. Grafted together, Jaime and the Scarab now possess a glowing armor-clad blue suit and powerhouse abilities like flying through space, the manifestation of weapons and more.
“The universe has sent you a gift,” says Uncle Rudy Reyes (George Lopez), “and you have to figure out what to do with it. Maybe this time we get our own superhero.”
Trouble is, Jaime doesn’t want to be a superhero, despite being chosen by the Scarab. “How do we get it to un-choose me?” he asks.
Victoria Kord (Susan Sarandon), the super villainous CEO of Kord Industries, understands the power of the Scarab and Jaime’s Blue Beetle, and knows how to take control of it. “Target the [Reyes] family!” she says.
“Blue Beetle” makes history as the first Latino DC superhero to lead a film, but the freshness that comes along with that is overwhelmed by the usual superhero dross. The emphasis on family gives the movie a nice vibe that sets it apart from other DC movies, but the strength Jaime garners from his family and culture does not strengthen the plot as a whole. It still a superhero origin story. That means it comes weighted down with details, exposition and the usual getting’ to know you, getting’ to know all about you, tropes.
It does attempt to go deep with subplots about marginalization, resistance and even a little body horror woven into the story, but again, those elements are overshadowed by the accompanying bombast.
Maridueña cuts a swathe through the CGI noise and fight scenes with considerable charm and kind of an “aw-shucks” sensibility that grounds his high-flying character. As the comic relief, Lopez gets a few laughs and Sarandon is deliciously amoral as the billionaire villain, but this is Maridueña’s show.
Culturally “Blue Beetle” breaks ground in its depiction of Latino culture but as a superhero movie, it is the same old.
“The Flash,” the long-awaited DC origin story of Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) a.k.a. The Flash, echoes all the all the stuff we expect from a big superhero tentpole movie. There are multiple universes, multiple superheroes and, once again, the world is in danger but it is the title character’s emotional life that sets this movie apart from the pack.
Loosely based on the “Flashpoint” comics, the movie sees Barry still grieving the death of his mother (Maribel Verdú) and his father’s (Ron Livingston) wrongful incarceration for her murder. Fueled by pain and rage, he finds a way to potentially ease his anguish when he discovers his superspeed gives him the ability to create a “chronobowl” and travel back to the day his mother was killed.
“I could save people,” he says. “I could save my mom.”
Before setting off to right the wrongs of the past, he consults with Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) who warns him against messing with the fabric of time. “You could destroy everything.”
Ignoring Batman’s advice, Barry travels to the past and soon pays the price for his impulsive actions. Caught in an alternate universe where a younger version of himself doesn’t yet have superpowers—“This is my face,” his doppelganger says. “You stole my face.”—Barry soon realizes he is in uncharted territory. “This can’t be happening,” he says. “I completely broke the universe.”
Things go from bad to worse when Kryptonian supervillain General Zod (Michael Shannon) makes the scene, loaded with ill will for all of humanity. “This world must die,” he says.
Having changed the past and potentially the future, Barry teams with alternate universe Batman (Michael Keaton) and Kara Zor-El, a.k.a. Supergirl (Sasha Calle) to restore order. “If I can’t undo what I did, if I can’t get back” he says, “there may not be a future.”
“The Flash” finds a balance between fan service and a story for general audiences. Origin stories can be nightmares, filled with endless exposition and scene setting, but, for the most part, director Andy Muschietti keeps things moving along. Perhaps not with his star’s superspeed, but at a good clip. You don’t need a roadmap to follow the multiverse aspect, so ever-present in superhero movies nowadays, and Barry’s personal story is both entertaining and emotional.
Part of that is the casting. Miller is wonderfully cast as the title character. He brings both a well-defined silliness and deep inner life to his dual portrayal of Barry as both an adult and a teenager. I can’t tell whether a crack he delivers early on to a victim of a large scale disaster—”You should seek the help of a mental professional,” he says. “The Justice League is not very good at that… trust me.”—is meta, given Miller’s recent, very public issues, or if it is wildly inappropriate. Either way, it is the film’s only reference to Miller’s well-reported off-screen behavior, and a rare misstep in the film’s carefully crafted first half.
It’s when the movie becomes larger and louder that it loses some of its charm. The appearance of Zod, complete with some dodgy CGI, raises the stakes but shifts focus from the film’s heart and soul, which is Barry’s quest to save his mother. The big showdown is a staple in superhero movies, but “The Flash” works best when it is character driven. In this case, bigger is not always better.
Oversized or not, “The Flash” is entertaining with nice little details, like how Barry has to eat high calorie food to fuel his superspeed and a wild baby shower. Literally, a shower of babies falling from the sky. As a buddy movie—Barry and Barry are an odd couple of a sort—it gets dark without surrendering to the ennui that has cast its shade over so many of the other DC movies.
The result is a film that provides action, warmth and nostalgia—It’s worth the price of admission to hear Keaton say, “Yup. I’m Batman.”—and a few genuine surprises (NO SPOILERS HERE!).
“Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” now playing on theatres, kicks off Marvel’s phase five with a talky sci fi story, heavy on the scientific blather. Instead of “Quantumania,” a more appropriate subtitle could have been: More Fun Than Physics Class!
“It’s a pretty good world,” says Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), a.k.a. Ant-Man. He’s a member of the Avengers, gifted with the power of size manipulation and some funny dialogue. “I’m glad I saved it.” Basking in the glow of his heroic contributions to mankind, he’s written a book titled “Look Out for the Little Guy,” and shamelessly drinks in the praise of his friends and fans.
His family, however, thinks he is resting on his laurels, and, in secret, are still working on ways to help the planet. His romantic partner Hope van Dyne, a.k.a. Wasp (Evangeline Lilly), daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton) and the original Ant-Man Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), have created a sort of satellite for deep space, except it connects them to the Quantum Realm, a subatomic level where the realities of space and time don’t exist.
Having spent 30 years trapped in the subatomic world, Hope’s mother Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer) is horrified by their experiments. “Do you know how dangerous the Quantum Realm is? Turn it off now.”
Of course, Cassie and Co learn too late that the connection to the Quantum Realm goes both ways, and they are all sucked into the satellite and transported to the strange world, a place that looks like a Yes album cover from 1973 come to life.
Separated into two groups, Scott and Cassie are captured by freedom fighters led by Jentorra (Katy O’Brian), while Hope, Hank and Janet are cut loose, on the run from Janet’s old nemesis, a destroyer of worlds called Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors).
Kang needs the Pym Particles, the subatomic particles developed by Hank which can increase or reduce mass as well as density and strength, to exit the Quantum Realm and travel through time and bring havoc to the real world.
Only Ant-Man and his ragtag gang can stop him and his interdimensional threat, but only if they can navigate the Quantum Realm and come together as a group.
There is a lightness of touch to “Quantumania.” Rudd’s charisma sees to that, and he provides some genuinely funny moments in the film. Majors brings the secret sauce as a great cartoon villain, but the talky script and messy action scenes suck away much of the fun.
You may be thinking, “But Michael Douglas talks to a giant ant. How can that be bad?” True enough, it is something I never would have expected to see, and I got a kick out of it, but for every nifty moment like that, there is sea of exposition, as if the filmmakers don’t trust the audience to understand what is happening unless it is spelled out for them.
The loud, CGI-overload climax fills the screen but doesn’t grab the imagination. There are cool creatures and action enough for any two movies, but it all feels thrown at the screen, willy-nilly. There is a lot of it, but none of it is memorable or particularly original.
“Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” is a let-down, a movie that feels more like an introduction to the next batch of MCU movies than a standalone.
Black Adam, the titular character of the new Dwayne Johnson movie, walks like a superhero, but doesn’t talk like one. He has super speed, incredible physical strength, extraordinary stamina, unflinching courage and a skin-tight suit like goody-two-shoes Superman, but he’s also got an attitude. “My powers are not a gift,” the DC Comics character says, “but a curse. Born out of rage.”
The character’s origin story dates back thousands of years to ancient Kahndaq, a tyrannical kingdom where a power-hungry, despotic king has enslaved his people to mine a rare substance called Eternium that will help him attain God-like powers.
(POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD)
When one young worker fights back, his bravery is rewarded by the Council of Wizards, and before you can say the word “Shazam,” the child is imbued with mystical powers. When the youngster’s family is targeted for death, he makes the ultimate sacrifice and transfers his powers to his father Teth-Adam (Johnson). Stripped of his mystical energy, the boy is now human again, and is soon killed.
Filled with rage, Teth-Adam uses his powers to unleash demons, a crime that sees him imprisoned for 5000 years of dreamless sleep. “The world needed a hero,” he says. “Instead, it got me.”
(END OF SPOILER ZONE)
Awoken in modern day by university professor and resistance fighter Adrianna Tomaz (Sarah Shahi), he emerges as a vengeful entity with a twisted sense of integrity. “I was a slave until I died,” he says. “Then I was reborn a god. My son sacrificed his life to save me. Now, I kneel before no one.”
His old home of Kahndaq is now under military occupation by an organization called Intergang who set their sights on finding the ancient Eternium Crown of Sabbac at any cost. But with Teth-Adam back on the scene, that cost come with a huge, bloody price tag.
A larger-than-life justice machine, his violent curbing of Intergang soldiers brings him on a collision course with the Justice Society of America, Cyclone (Quintessa Swindell), Doctor Fate (Pierce Brosnan), Atom Smasher (Noah Centineo) and the winged Hawkman (Aldis Hodge), a group of superheroes who enforce global stability.
“Heroes don’t kill people,” says Hawkman. “Well,” says Teth-Adam, now renamed Black Adam, “I do.”
It’s about time Dwayne Johnson played a superhero, or mystical anti-hero, or whatever the heck Black Adam is supposed to be, right? A real-life, larger-than-life character, he physically fits the bill—no padding required in his tight spandex suit—and his heroic bona fides are well defined. He’s a natural, but here he’s saddled with a reluctant hero’s journey. His morose character works against the very traits that have made The Rock beloved. He’s all pumped up, that is for sure, but the charisma that usually flows so effortlessly out of him has narrowed to a trickle. Even though he is omni-powerful, Black Adam, the character, is about as interesting as a glass of tepid water. It’ll quench your thirst, but isn’t all that fun.
It doesn’t help that Johnson is surrounded by Dollar Store versions of more established superheroes. The Justice Society of America are generic brand world-savers, but do add a bit of zip to the proceedings, even if they put you in the mind of Dr. Strange, Storm, Ant-Man and Falcon while doing so.
“Black Adam” is one big kaboom. The plentiful action scenes are CGI orgies, large-scale land and air battles meant to distract from the clunky, exposition heavy story. As an origin story there are lots of moving parts as we get to know Teth-Adam and Justice Society members. Layer in historical perspective and a theme of freedom over tyranny and you have a movie that feels, simultaneously, over-stuffed and yet, because nothing is explored in any depth, undercooked.
I’m sure “Black Adam” will be the beginning of a new franchise for Johnson, and it should fill the hole felt by DC fans aching for more Zach Snyder-esque slo-mo (even though the film was directed by Jaume Collet-Serra) but I found the cluttered, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” story more forgettable than fun.
There was a time when, to be a hero, all Sylvester Stallone had to do was go a few rounds with Ivan Drago.
How times have changed.
In “Samaritan,” Stallone is a hero of the super variety. He has exceptional strength, is able to jump through walls, bound over lakes of fire and absorb high octane gun fire.
He even has a catchphrase, “Have a blast,” but Marvel, this ain’t.
“Samaritan” is the kind of off-brand superhero flick that used to decorate the shelves at Blockbuster. These days, you’ll find it streaming on Amazon Prime.
Set in Granite City, the movie takes place twenty-five years after the city’s protector, Samaritan, disappeared in the wake of the fight with his enemy Nemesis, opening the door for baddies like Cyrus (Pilou Asbæk), who could pass for “Lost Boys” era Kiefer Sutherland, and his gang of ultraviolent goons to take over.
Imagine “The Warriors” but with masked heroes and supervillains.
Unemployment and poverty are on the rise. “It’s only a matter of time until the city implodes,” screams one newscast.
Granite City is also home to teenager Sam (Javon ‘Wanna’ Walton), described by his single mom (Dascha Polanco) as “good, but a little lost.” Sam is obsessed with the story of Samaritan, and is convinced his neighbor, a garbage man named Joe Smith (Stallone), is the superhero in hiding.
Joe denies any connection to the missing crime fighter. “Samaritan is dead,” he grunts. “I just pick up garbage.” But when Sam witnesses Joe survive almost getting snapped in half by a brutal car attack, he is more convinced than ever that his neighbour has special powers.
Over time a father-son bond develops between them and when Cyrus calls for a violent revolution—actually just rioting and looting—Sam pleads with Joe, “You’re the only one who can help.”
Question is, will Joe be able to clean the streets of crime or just pick up trash?
“Samaritan” has a distinct early 90s vibe. There is an undeniable nostalgic rush to the movie’s low-tech effects, villains who cackle with glee at every evil deed and city on the edge vibe. It’s the stuff of George H. W. Bush era direct to video flicks and put me in the mind of the days when I watched movies, rented for a day or two, on rickety old videotapes.
That being aid, “Samaritan” is set-your-expectations-low enjoyable. It is a hoot to hear Stallone explain the biometrics of his superhero body, and even as a lumbering superhero who eats his morning cereal with apple juice, and is afraid to jump off a building out of concern for his knees, the man formerly known as Rocky is a fun watch.
