F@#$ Deadpool

Movie review time!  It's the Merc with a Mouth's turn!


I tried to keep it spoiler free.  But continue at your own risk.

Final word first again!

Not my favorite super hero movie ever (Captain America: The Winter Soldier still wins), but it is way better than most.  It was atypical of the genre, it was action movie gorey and college sex comedy raunchy.

The Conception

The film started with this guy.

For those of you who blotted this out of your memory, this is Ryan Reynolds playing the same character 7 years ago.  Deadpool's nickname is the Merc with a Mouth.  WHOOPS.

There is absolutely no possible way to screw Deadpool up worse.  Not even if you're trying.

Anyways, I don't know how Ryan Reynolds became a fan of the comic book character, was he always one?  Did he read the source material before filming the Wolverine Prequel?  Doesn't matter.  What matters is after participating in this 2009 dumpster fire, he made it his mission to do Deadpool right.

and by right: I mean raunchy, gorey, and funny.

That's why it works.  Because it's unlike the rest of the genre.  Avengers: Age of Ultron was only 'meh' because we'd basically seen the movie before.  Protagonists who are the 'good guys', corny quips and big battles in the air.

The Writing

Done by the same guys who did Zombieland, which I believe is the only Zombie movie I like.  Excellent choice.  If Reese and Wernick can make the Zombie Apocalypse funny, they certainly can work with a genuinely crazy super powered anti-hero.

They break the 4th wall constantly, and sometimes in subtle ways.  Ok subtle is a bad description.  What's a word for less obvious than a brick to the head but more obvious than a typical movie Easter egg?

The Directing

Overall pretty good.  Tim Miller's debut.  I bet he finds more work.

The Cast

When people saw that RR was cast in the 2009 movie as Deadpool, nerdland congratulated Fox on 

getting something right!  And then they saw the movie.  This might be the part that Reynold's was born to play.

The rest of the cast was solid, playing off Deadpool. Yes I can list them and single them out, but this was the Ryan Reynold's Show from start to finish.  

The Sequel

Already been green lit.  It will have Cable, which isn't terribly exciting to me because I think Cable is pretty lame.  I mean, just look at him?

F@$ Life's Lessons in Gaming

1) People have different motivations, and sometimes several competing all at once.

Why do you play games?  Mike touched on it Jesus, 4 years ago?

Why do you play games the way you do?  Do you play some nights differently than others?

People are complex, and often have contradictory motivations.  In all aspects of life.  Gaming helps me understand that.


2) Losing is not failure.

Maybe it feels that way sometimes given a healthy supply of emotional investment.  But in a 4 player game, that's 4 players that want to win.  Which means 3 players are going to be at least a little disappointed.

Now apply that to life.  Not getting everything you want will happen, it's not failure.

3) Play for the long run.

If you're an asshole in the short term, that has long term repercussions.

I'm not talking about a backstabbing betraying move per se,  In plenty of games that's just to be expected.  I'm talking about the hypothetical instance of maybe clarifying a rules point to your benefit and everyone else's detriment and then insisting that the game be finished that way.

That's a dick move, and your table is going to remember that.

Again, apply that to life.  Life is long and people can carry grudges a long long time.

4) The best transactions are win/win.

This mostly comes from my 25+ years of card hockey.

No one wants your shitty players.  It doesn't matter if you list them alphabetically, by uniform number, in bold face font, or italicized.

No one wants your shitty players.

When making a deal, put some thought into how it helps the guy you're dealing with.  You'll get more deals done that way.

5) People have different tastes and that is ok.

Maybe a year ago, I played Twilight Struggle and didn't like it at all.  It was ranked #1 on BGG for years, and only has been recently displaced to #2.

So who's stupid, the thousands of voters who liked it or me?

Well the answer is neither.

Ok, I did some soul searching after I played this because 50 million Elvis fans can't be wrong.  And it has two game mechanics that I don't like at all.  Simplistic area control and ambush scoring.

There's a lot of area control games, and some I even like a little bit.  But when area control is a disproportionate amount of the game, and the method for placing them is simple (...like counting) I'm probably going to dislike that game.

When scoring is an unpleasant surprise for some players, I'm probably going to dislike that game.

But TS is well crafted, well balanced and has hard decisions throughout the game.  So I actually get why it's ranked so high and am glad I tried it.  It's just something I never have to play again.

F@#$ the NHL All Star Game

let's get this out of the way first.

All Star Games are not for me.

and while it sounds like this year's All Star Weekend was way way better than in recent years, that doesn't sway me at all.  It's still exhibition hockey; but at least they found a way to get players to try.

The ASG is mostly good for two things; marketing the game to little kids and giving about 40-50 players Atta Boys.

So the big story this year was John Scott, for a weekend, became the king of hockey.  I read his Player's Tribune article and it turned me around about his playing.  I went from indifferent to glad he suited up.  And he did nothing to disappoint!  Scoring 2 goals, winning the 3v3 tourney and the ASG MVP!

Now I happen to think this was his last NHL game.  Not because he's black balled, but because there's really no market for 33 year old enforcers.

It got me thinking.  Like I said, the ASG is great for giving Atta Boys.  Why can't John Scott be the standard bearer for a new type of All Star?  How about a well respected veteran player always makes the team?

One of my favorite players to never wear the Blue Note is Stephane Yelle.

Stephane Yelle was a checking forward, almost always on the 4th line and rarely above the 3rd.  His best offensive season was 13 goals and 14 assists.  He finished with less than 100 career goals and 300 points.

But the thing is, I think he was a great player.

He played fast, he played smart and he was an integral part to Colorado's two Stanley Cup wins.  Was he more important than Sakic or Forsberg?  Of course not.  But he anchored their penalty kill and shut down the opponents forwards.

Stephane Yelle is not going to the Hall of Fame, never played in an All Star Game.  But maybe on the home stretch of his career he deserved an Atta Boy.

So NHL, I know you're going to change the All Star voting so this write in campaign won't happen again.  But please consider giving David Legwand, Jay McClement, Michal Rozsival, Francois Beauchemin, Greg Campbell, Johnny Oduya, Willie Mitchell, Mike Fisher, Barret Jackman, Chris Phillips, Matt Cullen, Marc-Edouard Vlasic, or Dan Hamhuis an Atta Boy for long, productive careers.