#OnTheBigScreen: Outrageous comedy and war drama

Deadpool 2

After breaking box office records, Ryan Reynolds returns as Deadpool and this time the Merc with the Mouth’s movie is bigger and more badass than ever. Deadpool 2 unleashes more outrageous comedy.

After surviving a near-fatal knee boarding accident, disfigured guidance counsellor Wade Wilson struggles to fulfil his dream of becoming Poughkeepsie’s most celebrated French Bulldog breeder while also learning to cope with an open relationship. Searching to regain his passion for life, as well as a newly stuffed unicorn, Wade must battle ninjas, tight-arsed metal men, and babysit a group stereotypical side characters as he journeys around the world to discover the importance of family, friendship, and creative outlets for his very open-minded sex life. He manages to find a new lust for being a do-gooder, a sparkly Hello Kitty backpack, all while earning the coveted coffee mug title of world’s best fourth wall breaking superhero.

The film is directed by David Leitch from a screenplay by Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, and Ryan Reynolds.

“Ryan is very much Deadpool in the sense that his sense of humour is in line with Deadpool’s,” says Reese. “It’s very raunchy and edgy and silly and immature. He was just the perfect fit for it and he knew that. He was in love with the character before we ever got the first movie going. Among the many things he brings to it is the physicality, making Deadpool funny behind his mask and suit. Ryan is very Chaplinesque. He can do a lot with his body and gestures to convey humour and personality so, despite the fact that you see his face only in about half the movie, he really is able to communicate comedy just through his voice and through his mannerisms.”

Life Of The Party

The powerhouse husband and wife team, Ben Falcone and Melissa McCarthy, team up for the comedy Life of the Party, with Falcone directing from a screenplay by him and McCarthy and produced through their production company, On the Day.

When her husband suddenly dumps her, longtime dedicated housewife Deanna (McCarthy) turns regret into re-set by going back to college, landing in the same class and school as her daughter, who’s not entirely sold on the idea. Plunging headlong into the campus experience, the increasingly outspoken Deanna - now Dee Rock - embraces freedom, fun and frat boys on her own terms, finding her true self in a senior year no one ever expected.

As parents of girls, McCarthy and Falcone were excited to make a film about the relationship between a mother and her daughter. As it turned out, it was the perfect blend of experiences, and lack thereof. McCarthy explains, “I have two daughters, and I wanted to show how good that relationship is, that you can roll your eyes at something your mom says but still get along. And I didn’t finish college, but I always thought that was something I would go back to do. In our story, we show both sides: a real girl freaking out that her mom’s moved onto her campus, and a grown woman surrounded by 21-year-old people and finding it intimidating but reinvigorating. It really does make Deanna shake off the cobwebs, all that palpable youthful energy.”

Journey's End

March, 1918. C-company arrives to take its turn in the front-line trenches in northern France led by the war-weary Captain Stanhope (Sam Claflin). A German offensive is imminent, and the officers (Paul Bettany, Stephen Graham Tom Sturridge) and their cook (Toby Jones) distract themselves in their dugout with talk of food and their past lives. Stanhope, meanwhile, soaks his fear in whisky, unable to deal with his dread of the inevitable. A young new officer, Raleigh (Asa Butterfield), has just arrived, fresh out of training and abuzz with the excitement of his first real posting – not least because he is to serve under Stanhope, his former schoolhouse monitor and the object of his sister’s affections. Each man is trapped, the days ticking by, the tension rising and the attack drawing ever closer.

Getting R.C. Sherriff’s celebrated 1928 play Journey’s End to the screen was a journey in itself. The play was previously adapted in 1930 – the feature debut of James Whale, no less – and remade in Germany the following year as Die Andere Seite (The Other Side).

“The idea to adapt the stage play came initially from our executive producer Sir Anthony Seldon,” says writer/producer Simon Reade. “He suggested it to Guy [de Beaujeu], my fellow producer after he had seen another First World War movie we made, Michael Morpurgo’s Private Peaceful. He believed Journey’s End could be a totemic First World War film.”

“It’s a real insight into war,” says Sam Claflin. “War is still happening; people are still losing their lives. This is hopefully an opportunity to channel some of that frustration. Captain Stanhope is someone who’s in war and is highly affected by what he’s seen and what he’s been through. We know it as PTSD, and it’s something that so many people suffer from, and so many people are afraid to talk about. Hopefully, it shines a light on that. Journey's End is much more like The Hurt Locker than a traditional blockbuster war movie, where we are talking about the authentic experience of war not glorifying it.”

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