If you wait long enough, anything can happen. Ryan Reynolds is about to have his first actual hit, and a well-reviewed one. “Deadpool” has already taken in $14 million abroad, and is set to be the number 1 movie of the weekend. Plus, it’s got an 82 on Rotten Tomatoes. For Reynolds, that’s a 100.
It’s not like he hasn’t tried. “The Green Lantern” made over $100 million, but the reviews were terrible, no one liked it. “Woman in Gold” was an arty movie with Helen Mirren, but it made $33 million, and it wasn’t so popular.
Reynolds tried a series movie with “Buried,” and it was buried alive. A bad idea, the confining film took in one million dollars. And that may have been by accident.
Reynolds’ only real hit was “The Proposal” with Sandra Bullock in 2009. It wasn’t well reviewed, but it was better than you thought, and made over $300 million worldwide. But it was a Sandra Bullock movie.
“Deadpool,” which I haven’t seen, expands on his “X Men: Wolverine” character also from 2009. Reviews and the trailers and clips suggest that director Tim Miller, and writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, have actually been able to capture Reynolds’ strong, sarcastic delivery and mix it with an action movie. He’s glib, and facile with smart-mouth dialogue. Mix that with leading man good looks, and Ryan Reynolds may be on to something at last.
He’s worked hard enough. He was even in a Julia Roberts movie no one’s ever heard of, called “Fireflies in the Garden.” This weekend belongs to Ryan Reynolds. Congrats.
