Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)

My finger hovered over the OFF button right the way through the first half hour of this umpteenth Deadpool movie, one with long-dead Wolverine brought back to life and injected into the story for what proves very little reason, but then something Ryan Reynolds says made me laugh despite my wariness of wanton pop-song-accompanied violence and all of a sudden the credits were rolling, I'd laughed out loud multiple times and enjoyed what felt most like an extended comedy skit rather than a superhero movie full of nerdy superhero details to geek out on (it is that, but it is possible to ignore it)..

★★★☆☆

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The Wolverine (2013)

The Wolverine slices and dices his way through Japan where it turns out he is best friends since WWII with a Japanese industrialist, in this superhero movie far superior to 2009's X-men Origins: Wolverine, with humorous lines and nicely choreographed action including a spectacular sequence on the roof of a bullet train.

★★★☆☆

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Scoop (2006)

A journalist, a magician, and a ghost investigate the possibility a killer-on-the-loose is well-to-do man-about-town Peter Lyman in this very minor Woody Allen comedy mystery that gives the distinct impression of having too quickly made the transition from Allen's notebook to the screen because none of the elements of the story hold together very tightly (and you feel with a bit more trouble things like tarot cards, fortunes, magic, death and careers would) and everyone is ad-libbing really badly.

★★☆☆☆

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Logan (2017)

Superhero movie franchises get stuck rebooting and telling the same story over and over again but the Marvel X-men franchise's new solution to this problem seems to be not telling any story at all, as in 'Logan', the mostly joyless, ultra violent (really violent - perhaps the most violent movie ever made) Terminator 2-like Wolverine episode which offers up the barest sliver of plot that can be summarised, "Weapon X/James Howlett/Wolverine/Logan, Professor Xavier and a mutant kid drive for two hours...to be continued."

★★★☆☆

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X2: X-men United (2003)

The best of all the X-men movies, this sequel of the original has it all - a thrilling non-stop action plot, moments of laugh-out-loud humour mostly thanks to Wolverine, and the best thing of all — alone, worth the price of admission — is the invasion scene at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters in which audiences are treated to a fast-paced and exhilarating showcase of the mutants' weird and wonderful gifts.

★★★★☆

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Movie 43 (2013)

Perhaps compiled from footage recovered from the SNL cutting room floor, this laugh-free sketch comedy compilation is remarkable only for the incredible number of A-list Hollywood stars who were willing to appear in its appalling skits about excrement, sperm, grubby sex practices, incest...

☆☆☆☆☆

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X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

This movie makes the mistake of stripping away too much of the mystery of the brooding Wolverine character, in a more cheaply made film than usual X-men instalments, with less impressive effects and a far too simple and often cornball origin story, disappointing for a series which is usually so stylish and complex.

★☆☆☆☆

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X-men: Days of Future Past (2014)

What the X-men franchise probably didn't need, with all its humans and mutants and feuding subfactions of each, was the added complication of time travel because this instalment involving a Terminator-style battle across time to stop assassin robots, is almost too convoluted to enjoy.

★★★☆☆

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Prisoners (2013)

Elaborately detailed, harrowing child abduction thriller with points of difference that rise it above other thrillers of its kind, but like another of Denis Villeneuve's movies, Incendies, this one, once it is over, leaves you wondering about the purpose of such a grandly staged but grim little world.

★★★☆☆

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X-men: First Class (2011)

This episode of the X-men franchise goes back to 1962 to explain Professor Xavier's love-hate relationship with Magneto (they used to be buddies) and calms down the fever-pitch energy attained over the course of the original three X-men movies while still delivering the themes and set-pieces expected of the series.

★★★★☆

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X-men: The Last Stand (2006)

The third installment of the X-men series dutifully upholds the superhero filmmaking law which states a third installment superhero movie must be so unrestrained it collapses from its own bombast.

★★☆☆☆

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