Deadpool

Right from the get-go, Deadpool lets you know that it's not going to be like any other superhero movie that you have ever watched. The opening credits themselves break the fourth wall by not even naming any of the people who are in the film and just given descriptions by Deadpool. I fit into the target audience of this movie perfectly, so I'm going to try and give it as fair a review as possible, but that might be a little difficult.

Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) is a mercenary with a reckless abandon for life that soon settles down once he begins a relationship with prostitute Vanessa (Morena Baccarin). Soon he discovers that he has incurable lung cancer and is preparing to die until he is offered the chance at a new life if he participates in a super soldier program led by mutant Ajax (Ed Skrein). After being tortured at the hands of Ajax, Wade is mutated into an ugly man who has the ability to heal himself constantly. Driven by revenge he embarks on a mission to find Ajax and be returned to his old handsome self.

Normally a film told entirely in flashback would be hack and boring to watch, but in the case of Deadpool it suits the character perfectly because he is given the opportunity to comment on events to the audience as they happen. This fourth wall breaking sometimes extends beyond the limits of the film with references to Reynolds former appearance as Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, his co-star Hugh Jackman in that movie or his much maligned performance as the Green Lantern. These jokes all cement Reynolds perfect casting as the character, primarily because he has the charm and wit needed to carry it off.

Although Reynolds is the main attraction in the movie, the supporting cast are also fantastic. Morena Baccarin carries the emotional core of the movie and there are some surprisingly sad moments that she pulls off that seem out of place in a regular superhero movie. TJ Miller's comedy also makes him the perfect fit for his role as Weasel, Deadpool's sort of sidekick. The movie makes no qualms about having Ed Skrein as the generic interchangeable British villain and to me he faded into the background, solely because of his similarity to Nicolas Hoult, who plays Beast in 20th Century Fox's other superhero franchise X-Men. The rest of the supporting cast do just that, with no comedic standouts apart from classic actress Leslie Uggams who is just delightfully charming.

Because it isn't aiming to be a generic superhero movie, Deadpool elevates itself to become a truly original and enjoyable film that bounces around genres as much as its manic protagonist's personality.

Self/less

I think at some stage this movie must have had the alternate title of Sense/less because this movie doesn't really make any. I think the process stopped at the stage of finding an interesting premise and just throwing together whatever they could in after to make it a narrative that they think would work.

Damian (Ben Kingsley) is an extremely wealthy real estate who is dying from cancer. He hears about a new technology called shedding, which will put his mind into a healthy, young host body. When he is transferred into his new body, Damian (Ryan Reynolds) begins to relive the memories of his new body and is compelled to find his wife Maddy (Natalie Martinez). On his trail however, is Albright (Matthew Goode), the specialist who conducted the procedure and who doesn't want the secret of how the bodies came to his possession.

The body-switching genre is really nothing new and there's only so many variations that you can try. This one follows the voluntary method of switching, but it seems very anticlimactic. Old cancer patient gets new body: roll credits. It was very predictable in how everything was going to turn out, even the ending wasn't very surprising. I think it had to do with the rather slow pacing of the film. The film devotes a large chunk of time to when Damian first wakes up in his new body, but this is shown in a series of montages one after the other (different montages, not one big one). Even the action sequences seem to take a long time and there is no real feeling of suspense being built up.

Every single actor in this film did it just for the money, I'm sure. Ryan Reynolds is not even trying as hard as he would in his other films, dramatic or comedic. Hell, this isn't even his first body swap movie (see The Change-up). Matthew Goode is a very talented screen actor who can do menacing and scary, but doesn't attempt that here. Natalie Martinez is just trying to get her face on cinema screens after a lengthy television career. That brings us to Ben Kingsley. I kind of expect this kind of thing from him, he needs these smaller little roles to take up his time between the bigger films, although you could almost call his role a cameo.

Another working title for this movie must have been Paycheck but unfortunately that was taken by the Ben Affleck vehicle that is a much better movie worth your time.

Woman In Gold

Films about the Holocaust come out every year, so when a film about the modern impact that dark time in history is made, you would get quite excited to see how this event still affects so many people to this day. And while I'm not at all adverse to seeing an intense legal drama (both To Kill a Mockingbird and A Time to Kill are great legal dramas), that backdrop may not work as well here.

Woman In Gold takes place in 1998, when young, struggling lawyer Randy Schoenberg (Ryan Reynolds) is introduced to his mother's Austrian friend Maria Altmann (Helen Mirren). Maria's sister has recently died and she has found some letters that her sister sent to the Austrian government asking about the restitution of her family's paintings that were stolen from her family by the Nazis, namely the famous Gustav Klimt portrait of her aunt, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I. Maria enlists Randy's help in the legal case and while at first he is reluctant, he soon decides to help. The pair travel to Vienna, where a symbolic conference is being held on the restitution of these types of artworks and they begin their case. Whilst in Austria, they meet investigative journalist Hubertus Czernin (Daniel Brühl) who helps them with their research.

This movie staggers along at an odd pace. At times you are being swept up in the progress that Randy is making with the case and at other times it slows right down, as Maria and Randy share a tender moment of understanding and while that sounds completely normal of a drama, it happens at odd and inopportune times. Randy's wife Pam also shows up, but only at times when Randy is having a crisis of faith and needs some outside direction. The film makes a big effort to not have to use subtitles the whole time as Maria does not wish to speak German whilst in Austria, but then this extends to the other non-American characters speaking to each other in English, even on Austrian TV. I feel like this was a bit lazy and could have been changed.

The film also features flashbacks to Maria's youth in Vienna, both before and during the Nazi occupation. Here she is played by Canadian actress Tatiana Maslany and her husband Frederick is portrayed by Max Irons. These sequences show how serene her home life was before the Nazis, but are also quite open in showing the brutality of the Nazis. Also when the couple are fleeing Austria, the tension and fear they felt comes through.

Ryan Reynolds carries most of the acting in this film and has really been showing his dramatic range in the past few years (presumably to drop the stigma attached with The Green Lantern). Even in shots that aren't particularly focused on his character, he shines with his subtle performance. Helen Mirren on the other hand, plays the character similarly to the ones she has over the last couple of years, especially her role in The Hundred Foot Journey. Tatiana Maslany does a much better job playing the younger version of Maria and is full of emotion. Daniel Brühl brings incredible emotion to the role of Hubertus and Katie Holmes supports the main cast well.

Woman In Gold offers enjoyable viewing, but doesn't try too hard to make a splash. There are some emotional scenes, but not enough to make the entire film one that you will cry the whole way through. Just like in Dumb and Dumber there is a joke about the confusion between Austria and Australia.

The Captive

Atom Egoyan's latest film The Captive, takes a while to find its ground. The first twenty or so minutes are preoccupied with establishing the different time periods that dominate the film. But once the general plot becomes clear, it proves to be a relatively interesting, if not entirely captivating thriller.

Matthew (Ryan Reynolds) is a landscaper who has a young daughter, accomplished skater, Cass (Peyton Kennedy), with Tina (Mireille Enos). One day, when Matthew goes to buy a pie, Cass is kidnapped by Mika (Kevin Durand), a creepy presumed paedophile. Jump forward six years and Matthew and a small team of detectives are still searching for Cass. Mika has lost interest in her, but he uses her to lure other children, whilst in favour, allowing her to watch her parents through a surveillance system.

The Captive is in some ways, quite similar to Egoyan's previous film Devils Knot. The bleak imagery and slow camera movements both raise the tension and create a powerful, dismal setting. The plots both hold similar themes, with the disappearance of children, however The Captive proves more challenging with its paedophilic nature. At times it is quite difficult tocwatch, but unfortunately, towards the end it reverts more to a generic thriller, rather than pushing the envelope and grapple with the issues that it uses to frame the story.

Ryan Reynolds is fine as Matthew, although he spends most of the movie frustrated and confused. Mireille Enos is strong in some scenes, but does tend to overreact. The most powerful performance comes from Kevin Durand, who is bone-chilling and down-right creepy as Mika. The supporting characters generally don't bring much to the film, although Peyton Kennedy is quite good as the young Cass.

The Captive has a decent cast and some challenging themes, but unfortunately it fails to address those themes and simply becomes a typical thriller.

The Deadpool movie we've all been waiting for

Listen up true believers, the Deadpool movie that we've been waiting for since his first appearance in 2009's X-Men Origins: Wolverine is finally happening. Well we have a release date anyway. February 12, 2016 to be exact.

Whether or not Ryan Reynolds will return as the merc with a mouth is up for debate, but we can only hope. What we do know is that the film will be directed by Tim Miller (who previously worked on Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo in a visual effects capacity) and will be written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick (Zombieland).

Don't go expecting any crossovers with the main Marvel heroes any time soon. The rights are owned by two separate studios who would rather just make a bad movie than give up the chance to make any money. What we can hope to expect from Deadpool is a lot of breaking the fourth wall and addressing the audience, something he does regularly in the comics, along with a lot of violence.