Deadpool & Wolverine (2024, directed by Shawn Levy)

Posted on October 31, 2026 by Jedadiah Leland

Having been rejected for membership in the Avengers, the merc with a mouth is no longer a merc. Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) has broken up with Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) and he now sells used cars. What he really wants is to be a member of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but Blind Al (Leslie Uggams) keeps doing cocaine even though Kevin Feige has forbidden it. Things aren’t going well for Deadpool until he’s contacted by Mr. Paradox (Matthew Macfadyen), who explains that Deadpool’s timeline is decaying because of the death of Logan (Hugh Jackman), the character who was holding everything together. Paradox is willing to send Deadpool over to the main “Sacred Timeline,” but when Deadpool realizes that his current universe is going to end and all of his friends are going to die, Deadpool decides to resurrect Logan and save the day.

Deadpool & Wolverine answers the question of what happened to all of those characters from the Marvel movies that weren’t produced by Disney. It turns out that they’re all in the Void, where they’re ruled over by Professor X’s twin sister, Cassandra (Emma Corrin). Jennifer Garner shows up as Elektra. Wesley Snipes proves once again that he’s the only actor who should ever play Blade. Chris Evans plays not Captain America but instead a useless Johnny Storm. This being a Deadpool film, our hero can’t resist expressing his disappointment over not getting Evans as Cap. Deadpool & Wolverine becomes a commentary on just how many Marvel films there were before Robert Downey, Jr. declared “I am Iron Man,” and how most of them, with the exception of the X-Men films, were swept under the rug once the MCU became a cultural juggernaut.

Of course, Logan eventually returns. There are many different versions of Logan, just as there are many different versions of Deadpool, but eventually the right Deadpool finds the right Logan. Reynolds and Jackman bring an interesting dichotomy to the film. If Ryan Reynolds spends the entire movie commenting on how the MCU has become, even in decline, an unstoppable beast, Jackman reminds us that he was one of the first actors to prove that a comic book character can be played with real emotion.

Violent, profane, and very funny, Deadpool & Wolverine was a hit at a time when the MCU seemed to be really struggling. Rewatching it, I was reminded that the success of Deadpool really is a reflection of just how cynical a lot of us have gotten about comic books and the MCU. Deadpool exists to point out all of the things that we’ve noticed, and sometimes it feels like Disney is expecting too much credit for acknowledging its problems without actually fixing them. Fortunately, the team of Reynolds and Jackman is so strong that it’s hard not to just go with them. (You only have to watch the She-Hulk series to see how bad an attempt at meta commentary can be when you don’t have the right people.) With this film, Deadpool and Logan announce their arrival in the MCU, and it’ll be interesting to see where this all leads.

Guilty Pleasure #120: The Internship (dir by Shawn Levy)

Posted on July 1, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

In 2o13’s The Internship, Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn play Nick and Billy, two longtime salesman who, having lost their jobs, apply for an internship at Google. Despite there not being any logical reason for either one of them to be given a spot, Nick and Billy are accepted. Suddenly, these two middle-aged guys who know next to nothing about programming or the Internet find themselves at the Google campus. Teaming up with a group of much younger outcasts (albeit very smart outcasts), Nick and Billy compete for a job at Google.

(Personally, the only job I would want at Google would be designing the Google Doodle.)

At first, no one is happy about having to work with Nick and Billy. Nick and Billy are adults, the type who still use landline phones and wonder why the kids are so obsessed with looking at a little screen. They’re loud. They make crude jokes and they don’t understand stuff like safe spaces. They fall for obvious pranks, like being sent to a college campus to track down “Professor Charles Xavier.” This leads to them both getting knocked out by a bald man in a wheelchair. “Professor Xavier’s a total dick!” Billy gasps.

Eventually, though, Nick and Billy start to win everyone over. Their old school competitiveness comes in handy during a game of Quidditch. They know how to talk to women at bars. They know how to appeal to someone running an old-fashioned business. But will that be enough to win them a job at Google?

Back when the Onion was funny, one of their best headlines was ‘The Internship’ Poised To Be Biggest Comedy Of 2005! The joke, of course, was that the film was coming out in 2013. The headline worked because it was true. The film felt very much out-of-place in the world of 2013. The majority of the film’s humor came from Nick and Billy not really knowing what Google was but, by 2013, even the most cranky of boomer grandparents were using Google to search for their Facebook password. Nick and Billy were not boomers. They may have been older than the other interns but still, it’s hard to believe that two guys in their mid-40s would be that clueless about everything from the Internet to the identity of Charles Xavier. I mean, the X-Men movies were kind of a big deal.

The other thig that dated the film was its portrayal of Google as essentially just being a fun playground full of nerdy prodigies who just needed someone to teach them how to party. By 2013, everyone knew that Google was a powerful and somewhat intimidating company. Indeed, at its weakest, the film basically feels like a 2-hour commercial for Google. Never mind that, by 2013, Google was so big and omnipresent that it really didn’t need to advertise.

So, with all that in mind, why do I find myself watching this movie whenever I happen to come across it? First off, as uneven as the movie is, it is funny. The Quidditch scene did make me laugh. John Goodman’s and Will Ferrell’s unhinged cameos made me laugh, almost despite myself. The scene where Nick and Billy annoy the group by misinterpreting what is meant by “coding” made me laugh, if just because of how bizarrely enthusiastic Nick and Billy were when they convinced themselves that their internship director was a Jeff Goldblum fan. (It makes no sense but just go with it.) Most importantly, Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn made me laugh. There was absolutely no way to make it plausible that Nick and Billy would be that clueless about technology but Wilson and Vaughn really threw themselves into their roles and, as a result, I’m always willing to forgive some of the film’s missteps. The mix of Vaughn’s overage frat boy goofiness and Wilson’s mellow spaciness always makes me laugh more than it probably should. They’re a good comedic team and they’re both just so damn earnest in this movie that it works a lot better than it really should. In the end, you do find yourself rooting for them. They’re two hard-workers who like to play hard and who have the courage to reinvent themselves. What’s more American than that?

(Even more importantly, when you come across the film on cable, you’re free to pretend that it actually came out in 2005, back when the plot would have actually made more sense.)

If any film lives up to the term guilty pleasure, it’s The Internship.

Previous Guilty Pleasures

Wild Thing (1987, directed by Max Reid)

Posted on August 7, 2025 by Jedadiah Leland

After his hippie parents are murdered by a drug dealer named Cutter (Robert Davi!), a young boy is taken in and raised by a homeless woman (Betty Buckley). The boy eventually grows up to be Wild Thing (Robert Knepper), an urban Tarzan who jumps from rooftop to rooftop at night and who protects the neighborhood for evil doers (like Cutter). A social worker (Kathleen Quinlan) hears the legend of Wild Thing and eventually finds him. She continues his education, explaining to him why people do the “body bump.” Carrying a bow and arrow and accompanied by a surprisingly loyal cat, Wild Thing fights the bad guys and seeks revenge for his parents.

Wild Thing is one of those movies that should be incredibly bad but somehow it isn’t. John Sayles was one of three writers to work on the script (Sayles was the only one to get credit) and the film has a self-aware sense of humor similar to the scripts that Sayles wrote for films like Alligator, Battle Beyond The Stars, and Piranha. A young Robert Knepper is probably about as convincing as anyone could be as an urban Tarzan who speaks broken English and who carries a bow and arrow as he makes his way across the rooftops of his neighborhood. As always, Robert Davi is a good villain. Davi knows that he’s appearing in a live action comic book and he gives an appropriate performance.

Wild Thing is a surprisingly enjoyable movie and yes, the song Wild Thing is heard in the movie but not as much as you might think. There’s a few scenes where the song starts to play and is then cut off, as if the movie is teasing our expectations. I just wish Sam Kinison had been invited to perform his version.

Ryan Reynolds improves his game in the Free Guy Trailer

Posted on December 7, 2019 by Leonard Wilson

You have to hand it to Ryan Reynolds, he knows how to market his projects. In the course of a few days, he made an advertisement for a TV that linked to a new film and his gin company, Aviation Gin. He also made a separate commercial for Aviation Gin starring Monica Ruiz, who everyone knows as the wife in the Peleton ads. Now, 20th Century Fox reunites Reynolds and his Green Lantern co-star, Taika Waititi in Free Guy.

Free Guy has Reynolds playing an NPC (Non-Playable Character) in a Video Game that is due to be shut down. Using classic video game items like power ups, guns and dance emotes, Reynolds’ character decides it’s time to level up. While we’re not sure of where this all goes, it’s good to see Ryan bring some of that Deadpool flair under the Disney umbrella.

Free Guy, Directed by Shawn Levy (Date Night), is set to release on July 3, 2020.

Here Are The Producers Guild Nominations!

Posted on January 10, 2017 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The Producer’s Guild of America, who are traditionally one of the most reliable of the Oscar precursors, announced their ten nominees for the best film of 2016 earlier today!

Not on the list: Martin Scorsese’s Silence. Last year, at this time, Silence was the most anticipated of the potential Oscar nominees. Now, 12 months later, whatever momentum that Silence had seems to have fizzled.

You know what film was on the list?

Deadpool!

Somehow, Deadpool has emerged as a legitimate Oscar contender. That doesn’t mean that it’s going to be nominated, of course. Last year, a lot of people made the mistake of getting excited when both Carol and Straight Outta Compton showed up among the Producers Guild’s nominations.

Here’s what we have to remember — every years, the PGA nominates 10 films. However, the Academy never nominates a full slate of 10 films. While the best picture nominees probably will all have received a PGA nomination, that doesn’t mean that every PGA nominee is going to be nominated for best picture.

Still, Deadpool is coming on strong with the guilds. It has some support among the industry.

A best picture nomination for Deadpool? Normally, I’d laugh that off. Then again, at one time, I also laughed off the idea that Mad Max: Fury Road would get a nomination, despite the fact that I thought Mad Max was one of the best films of 2015.

In the end, anything can happen. That’s one reason why Oscar watchers like me are always a little disappointed when the Oscar nominations are announced and the precursor season ends. During the precursor season, anything is possible.

Anyway, here are the PGA nominations:

The Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures:

Arrival

Producers: Dan Levine, Shawn Levy, Aaron Ryder, David Linde

Deadpool

Producers: Simon Kinberg, Ryan Reynolds, Lauren Shuler Donner

Fences

Producers: Scott Rudin, Denzel Washington, Todd Black

Hacksaw Ridge

Producers: Bill Mechanic, David Permut

Hell or High Water

Producers: Carla Hacken, Julie Yorn

Hidden Figures

Producers: Donna Gigliotti, Peter Chernin & Jenno Topping, Pharrell Williams, Theodore Melfi

La La Land

Producers: Fred Berger, Jordan Horowitz, Marc Platt

Lion

Producers: Emile Sherman & Iain Canning, Angie Fielder

Manchester By the Sea

Producers: Matt Damon, Kimberly Steward, Chris Moore, Lauren Beck, Kevin Walsh

Moonlight

Producers: Adele Romanski, Dede Gardner & Jeremy Kleiner

The Award for Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures:

Finding Dory

Producer: Lindsey Collins

Kubo and the Two Strings

Producers: Arianne Sutner, Travis Knight

Moana

Producer: Osnat Shurer

The Secret Life of Pets

Producers: Chris Meledandri, Janet Healy

Zootopia

Producer: Clark Spencer

The Award for Outstanding Producer of Documentary Theatrical Motion Pictures:

* The PGA previously announced the nominations in this category on November 22, 2016. The list below has been updated to include eligible producers.

Dancer

Producer: Gabrielle Tana

The Eagle Huntress

Producers: Stacey Reiss, Otto Bell

Life, Animated

Producers: Julie Goldman, Roger Ross Williams

O.J.: Made in America

Producers: Ezra Edelman, Caroline Waterlow

Tower

Producers: Keith Maitland, Susan Thomson, Megan Gilbride

Trailer: Real Steel

Posted on May 10, 2011 by Arleigh

I’ve been hearing about this film called Real Steel for some time now and a trailer had even come out a couple months earlier, but it’s only with today’s release of the latest trailer that I’ve stopped to actually check it out.

From what I can see in the trailer this looks like a live-action, big-budget adaptation of that classic toy called “Rock’em, Sock’em Robots”. This being Dreamworks who have already turned one classic toy franchise into a major blockbuster film franchise then why not another toy. It stars Hugh Jackman who looks much slimmer and not as bulky as his former Wolverine self. Real Steel looks to be a father-son story that has been done so many times before, but this time with big giant boxing robots.

Further research on this film had me discovering that it’s actually based on a Richard Matheson short story called “Steel”. That story was actually a much darker, colder dystopia tale. Script changes since the screenplay and project was bought by Dreamworks in 2003 has toned down the dystopia and instead the project going more for a form of Americana nostalgia. I’m not sure if those changes were necessary. In fact, I wouldn’t have minded seeing this film go the original Matheson route.

I have feeling that despite my doubts about this film it will do quite well in the box-office. It’s a heartwarming tale with fighting robots and fathers will be taking their young sons to see this in droves. Well, except those fathers who happen to also be on-line film bloggers who may think this film not the kind of drivel and tripe to be showing to their young boys.

Real Steel is set for an October 7, 2011 release date.