Tag: Rhett Reese

Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) | REVIEW

Deadpool looking up at the Wolverine in Shawn Levy’s DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE — PHOTO: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

Directed by Shawn Levy (Free Guy; The Adam Project) — Screenplay by Ryan Reynolds, Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, Zeb Wells, and Shawn Levy.

Later this year, it’ll have been 7 years since Disney’s acquisition of Fox was announced. Included in the Fox acquisition were its assets including ‘their’ portion of Marvel characters, which had long been unable to be a part of Disney’s immensely popular Marvel Cinematic Universe of stories. I think a lot of fans out there will have, at that time, thought that years later they would have all been integrated into the Disney-Marvel-connected universe of live-action films, but, in actuality, it’s been quite slow. Certain characters have popped up in relatively insignificant ways, the classic X-Men theme song has played once or twice, and, sure, Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) did have some non-committal fun with the characters that Marvel fans have been desperate to have alongside the Avengers. Now, though, a significant part of that wait is over. Shawn Levy’s Deadpool and Wolverine is the first Marvel Studios film to be explicitly about a Marvel-Fox character and his integration into Marvel Studios. And, as if that wasn’t enough, it’s the one character that is the least audience-safe Disney character of them all: Deadpool, who is known for his R-rated violence and crude humor. Going into this film the big question for many fans was whether or not Disney, through Marvel Studios, would allow Deadpool to actually be the character that fans have come to know and love. The answer, which I can now give after having seen the much-anticipated film, is a resounding ‘yes.’

Continue reading “Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) | REVIEW” →

REVIEW: Ghosted (2023)

Ana de Armas and Chris Evans in “Ghosted,” now streaming on Apple TV+.

Directed by Dexter Fletcher — Screenplay by Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, Chris McKenna, and Erik Sommers.

A romantic action-comedy from the director of Rocketman, with a screenplay from the writers of Deadpool and Spider-Man: No Way Home, and starring Captain America himself and the Oscar-nominated star of Blonde and Knives Out (who, notably, proved her action chops with a memorable appearance in the James Bond flick No Time to Die) sure sounds like a winning combination. Apple TV+’s Ghosted is a film with so much marketable talent that it has several major cameos that almost feel crammed in there. However, even though this is a project that has attracted a lot of talent, Ghosted is a largely ineffective romantic action comedy where neither the romantic, action, nor comedic elements work all that well. 

Continue reading “REVIEW: Ghosted (2023)” →

REVIEW: Spiderhead (2022)

Chris Hemsworth as the charismatic antagonist, Steve Abnesti, in Joseph Kosinski’s SPIDERHEAD — Photo: Netflix.

Directed by Joseph Kosinski — Screenplay by Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick.

No, my fellow cineastes, your eyes are not deceiving you. This adaptation of the George Saunders short story Escape from Spiderhead was indeed directed by Joseph Kosinski whose film Top Gun: Maverick — a charming, thrilling, and crowd-pleasing legacy sequel — invigorated the film and movie theater industries by being a huge hit just this very month, and its screenplay was indeed written by the writers of Zombieland, Deadpool, and Life — Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. When you add the fact that Spiderhead is spearheaded by acting talents like Marvel Studios’ God of Thunder, Chris Hemsworth, and Whiplash lead, Miles Teller (who also starred in Top Gun: Maverick), then it starts to sound like the kind of film that ought to have been released in theaters or, at the very least, been given a larger marketing push than it has gotten thus far. You’d be right in thinking that. Even though it has some issues, it deserves far better than falling into obscurity as one of the many overlooked entries in Netflix’s vast content library.

Continue reading “REVIEW: Spiderhead (2022)” →

REVIEW: 6 Underground (2019)

Release Poster – Netflix

The following is a review of 6 Underground — Directed by Michael Bay.

If you think the Netflix film-catalog merely consists of Oscar bait and shoddy romantic-comedies, then Michael Bay’s 6 Underground is here to disprove that notion. While Netflix is releasing this year’s batch of awards-worthy dramas — like Marriage Story and The Irishman — they also have their complete antithesis, 6 Underground, ready for quick consumption. Its star, Ryan Reynolds, has been seen in marketing describing the film as the ‘most Michael Bay movie in the history of Michael Bay,’ thus promising an explosion-heavy, no-holds-barred modern action movie from one of the most commercially successful filmmakers in history. Reynolds’ description is apt, however, 6 Underground just isn’t a very good movie. Continue reading “REVIEW: 6 Underground (2019)” →

REVIEW: Zombieland: Double Tap (2019)

Theatrical Release Poster – Columbia Pictures

The following is a review of Zombieland: Double Tap — Directed by Ruben Fleischer.

Belated comedy sequels scare me. They certainly don’t scare me as much as the flesh-eating living dead can, but whenever I hear about a sequel to a comedy that came out a decade ago, or longer, I get a chill down my spine. I watch these trailers with a concerned look on my face, and I’m always ready to cover my forehead with my palm if the trailer frustrates me. 2014’s Dumb and Dumber To was a terribly disappointing belated sequel to Peter Farrelly’s 1994 comedy classic, and Ben Stiller’s 2016 sequel to Zoolander might be one of the worst comedy sequels that I’ve ever seen. So when I pressed play on the first trailer for Zombieland: Double Tap, which has been released ten years after the original comedy hit came out, I was more worried than I was excited. To tell you the truth, I absolutely hated that trailer, which is exactly why I was so pleasantly surprised to see that Zombieland: Double Tap is one of the rare belated comedy sequels that actually works. Continue reading “REVIEW: Zombieland: Double Tap (2019)” →

REVIEW: Life (2017)

Theatrical Release Poster – Columbia Pictures

The following is a review of Life – Directed by Daniel Espinosa

Life, written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick (the writers of Deadpool and Zombieland), is an intense science fiction thriller. The film follows the International Space Station’s crew, which captures a space probe that holds an organism that proofs the existence of extraterrestrial life. The organism is named ‘Calvin,’ after an elementary school named after Calvin Coolidge, but the astronauts soon discover that the organism isn’t as harmless and friendly as they expected. Continue reading “REVIEW: Life (2017)” →