Once Upon a Deadpool - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Once Upon a Deadpool

Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score: ​

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Movie

Once upon a time there was a group of Marvel fans who DESPERATELY wanted a Deadpool movie. These fans begged and begged 20th Century Fox to release an R-rated film of their favorite hero, but the evil studio just wouldn’t listen. Ryan Reynolds even asked the big cheeses to know avail, and was summarily sent packing. But low and behold, a magical fairy leaded some test footage that Fox was contemplating on and the little magic short lit the internet world on fire, prompting Fox to get off their butts and actually give fans what they wanted. With a hefty sigh, and a heavy heart the studio said “As you wish”, and we were given Deadpool. Realizing that maybe, just MAYBE, this was money in the bank, the studio heads rushed a sequel out the door as fast as their eager little hands could shove it and we were gifted Deadpool 2. Now, released as a Christmas miracle, Fox has once more pushed that little money maker that could into doing it again, releasing a THIRD Deadpool movie in two years! Well, kinda.

All jokes aside, Once Upon a Deadpool was actually a something that most hardcore fans looked at with trepidation and fear, as it looked like Fox was releasing a PG-13 Deadpool for Christmas, and everyone was worried that the hard R rated comic book hero would never see that hard R rating again once Fox got a taste of PG-13 money coming in. Luckily for us I hypothesize that this may never be, as the film itself even jokes about that particular fear, and pretty much proves through the comedic use of “wink wink” bleeping, that the movie THRIVES off of being as rude, crude and foul as it can. The real reason that Once Upon a Deadpool may be the last PG-13 Deadpool is simply due to the fact that it’s a sub par (slightly) alternate cut of Deadpool 2, just with Fred Savage interjected for comedic humor.

Well, since I’ve already gone over the plot of Deadpool 2 HERE I won’t regurgitate it all, but the basis of Once Upon a Deadpool is that Deadpool himself (Ryan Reynolds) has kidnapped Fred Savage (yes, Fred Savage himself) and has taped him to the bed form The Princess Bride and is forcing him to listen to the story of Deadpool 2. The thing is, since it’s Christmas time he can’t be as vile and foul voiced as he always is, so good uncle Deadpool is going to bleep out all the R-rated dialog and violence from this little fairy tale, keeping it JUUUUUST under that MPAA line (wink, wink, nudge nudge).

The result of this is an alternate cut that has been redubbed for a good chunk of its run time to accommodate the less R-rated dialog, as well as toss in some new jokes for the fans with the Fred Savage/Deadpool material. Other than that, it’s just a slightly different cut of Deadpool 2, which means not much is really NEW if you look at it collectively over the course of the 2 hours. It’s also the weakest cut of the movie simply due to the fact that the neutered language gimmick is clever at first, but it cuts out some of the more gleefully violent action sequences as well as the better jokes and gags of the film. It isn’t bad by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s easily the weakest of the three available Deadpool 2 cuts, and neat as a curio, but not something I’d pump out $25 for. Since it features weaker audio, and NO extras whatsoever, I’d put it in the “rental” category until it’s cheap enough to justify picking up as an add-on if you’re a fan of Deadpool 2.




Rating:

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of action, crude sexual content, language and thematic elements




Video:

On to the nitty gritty details. Being that they’re taken from the same source and basically the same movie with some twisted scenes, Once Upon a Deadpool looks every bit as good as the actual Deadpool 2 disc itself. Shot on the Arri Alexa cameras, the digital movie looks amazing. Colors are sharp and strongly represented (although there’s a bit of a blue tinge to the color grading), and fine details are more than exemplary throughout. The Fred Savage scenes look the most neutral of the movie (as thew were added in outside of the original shoot), and blacks are deep and inky with plenty of revealing details. Black crush pops up now and again, and some of the darker shots aren’t as detailed as I would LIKE, but overall this is a very strong Blu-ray that is near perfect outside of those minor imperfections.







Audio:

Now here’s where the specs take a slight turn. I remember Deadpool 2 having a KILLER audio mix on Blu-ray and 4K UHD (the 4K sported the Atmos mix), but this feels a bit neutered in the dynamics and bass response. I actually went back and popped in my Deadpool 2 disc and the bass response difference is enormous. With Once Upon a Deadpool having the same 7.1 mix as the Blu-ray I was expecting the same mix with a few tweaks, but it’s much less bass heavy, and the actual dynamic range of the film is much narrower as well. It’s obviously recorded a few DB’s lower than the actual movie was, but even when level matching you can’t bring back the LFE and wider scope of Deadpool 2’s track. That’s not to say it’s a BAD mix. The rest of the mix is very nice, with good vocals and great surround usage. It’s just a flatter and less punchy mix than what I was expecting.





Extras:

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Final Score:
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Once Upon a Deadpool is a fun alternate cut of Deadpool 2, with some obvious lampooning of itself (even more than Deadpool does IN the movie itself), but it’s sadly the weakest of the three cuts out there. Personally, I’m a big fan of the theatrical cut and found that the Super Duper cut really didn’t make it better. This cut is funny in places, but really is just an alternate cut, so as a standalone movie it slightly disappoints. There’s some fun parts, the video is great, but it sports weaker audio and ZERO extras. Worth renting though if you’re a fan of the film.



Technical Specifications:

Starring: Fred Savage, Ryan Reynolds, Terry Crews, Josh Brolin, T.J. Miller, Julian Dennison, Morena Baccarin
Directed by: David Leitch
Written by: Ryan Reynolds, Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1, AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 7.1, Spanish DD 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 119 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: December 15th, 2018

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• Michael Scott
• May 11, 2017

Recommendation: Solid Watch

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. Loved Loved the original and the sequel. Will check this one out.

 

[Travis Ballstadt]

I loved both Deadpools. I wish I had looked for more details about this release. We went on opening night, we were the only 3 people in the theater. About 15 minutes in, I realized that it was really just a sanitized version of the second film. I thought there would at least maybe be some extra footage that didn't make the original cut or something, but no, it was really just a cleaned up version with a few vignettes added in, which you've already seen most of, and the best of, if you watched the trailers.

But the Stan Lee tribute after the credits was worth it. And my 12yo finally got to see a Deadpool movie.

 

[Todd Anderson]

I think I'm going to stick with the originals... ;-)

 

[jdubs75]

I think I'm going to stick with the originals... ;-)

I'm with you Todd!