A lot of parents are up in arms because apparently "Deadpool" is not a movie intended for children.
As a film lover, a filmmaker and a very liberal dad, I am here to answer the question, once and for all: Is this a movie you should take your children to see?
NO! HELL NO! ARE YOU KIDDING ME? ABSOLUTELY NOT!
Frankly, this article could just end with those proceeding words. But I'll go on.
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Listen, I really am as liberal as anyone you'd meet. I'm all for pushing boundaries. For goodness sake, my mother took me to see "Trading Places," "Porky's" and "Police Academy" well before I should ever have been allowed to see them. (Note to my mom if she's reading this: Mom, if you didn't want me to call you out on your bad parenting, you should have used a little more common sense there).
Anyway, the fact that this superhero movie is not intended for children should not come to a shock to anyone. This is not "Captain America" or "Thor" or "Antman" or "Guardians of the Galaxy," which your young kids may or may not have suffered through scenes rated appropriate for children 13 and older. But "Deadpool" is a movie that has been carefully advertised as an R-RATED MOVIE NOT INTENDED FOR CHILDREN. Ryan Reynolds himself has been very public on twitter and other social media sites telling you not to take your kids to see this movie. Getting an R rating and doing this film as it was intended (graphic, and I mean GRAPHIC violence, sex and language that almost made me blush) was a big fight for the filmmakers.
It's an awesome, super, fantastic, fun, innovative, thrilling, adventurous film. You should totally add it to a list of films that your kid will enjoy when he or she is much older.
Still, parents of young kids don't have a lot of time to dig into details (though apparently they have time to start a petition for a PG-13 release of the film). I get the fact that many (if not almost all) of you are not too in tune with what movies are about and what might be intended for children. I get that you see Ryan Reynolds on a poster and see that it's a superhero film and might think "Family movie night!"
Trust me, no. It's not intended for children.
I saw it on Sunday with a buddy of mine. As we sat down with our popcorn and drinks, he said to me, "Man, my son (12) is really angry that I'm seeing this without him." He said, "do you think I made a mistake? Should I have taken him?" Two hours later, he texted his son as soon as the movie was over and said, "You're not seeing this film for five more years. And you'll love it when you see it."
It's an awesome, super, fantastic, fun, innovative, thrilling, adventurous film. You should totally add it to a list of films that your kid will enjoy when he or she is much older.
It really is simple: if you take your kid to see this film and then you get totally outraged that it is super violent and not intended for children, it is akin to driving onto a street that is clearly marked "DO NOT ENTER! DANGER! ROAD CLOSED!" and then wrecking your car and then blaming everyone else for your accident.
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Go see "Kung Fu Panda 3." It might not be as good as "Deadpool," but at least you'll save your children from watching scenes of torture, decapitation and massive amounts of blood.
