“Once Upon a Deadpool” is an interesting thing because I do not remember a time when a movie was re-cut and re-released with a rating lower on the MPAA scale. In this case, “Deadpool 2” is given the PG-13 treatment and is told by Deadpool to actor Fred Savage in the style (down to the Cheeto bag in the background) of Savage’s classic film “The Princess Bride”. Granted, in this case Savage is tied to the bed via duct tape, but he is there nonetheless. (I am not going to re-review “Deadpool 2” here, but you can check out our archive for that.)
Still keeping the story, I felt this “cut down” version was a letdown for me. A lot of good scenes were taken out, which makes this version very incohesive. It just doesn’t have the pizazz of the original theatrical cut, although some of the added scenes with Savage and Ryan Reynolds had some good comedic moments. I did like how Deadpool had the “beep button” that he pushed to edit out foul language to keep the PG-13 intact, but the filmmakers seemed to rely on it a lot more than they should have. They even go so far as to bleep out the word “fight” as Savage says it so it seems like he is saying the world that would get them the original “R” rating, which I think is done better by Jimmy Kimmel each Thursday night on his “This Week in Unnecessary Censorship” segment.
Please be aware again that this is not a new “Deadpool” film, and by looking it up on IMDb, it will simply come up as “Deadpool 2”. I understand the theory out there that this is intended to help keep the franchise alive after the Disney merger to show them that it may not HAVE to be “R,” but I think they did not have to do that. I also respect the fact that part of the reason here is as a fundraiser with one dollar of each ticket sold going to “Fudge” Cancer (remember, PG-13), so that alone would be a good idea to buy a ticket. Whether you actually go or not is more up to you. (There IS a new extra tag scene at the end, but I thought it also fell flat.) Given all of this, I will give “Once Upon a Deadpool” the “Cricket Noise” ranking so it is barely on this side of seeing it again.