You’re gonna to want to see this movie.

It only takes one hit movie to turn a career around, and DEADPOOL (2016) the R rated superhero movie by Marvel may have done just that for star Ryan Reynolds.

I’ve seen Reynolds in a bunch of movies, and unfortunately most of them have not been very good— remember GREEN LANTERN (2011)?  All that has changed with DEADPOOL.

DEADPOOL is a wildly insane, laugh-out-loud funny and nonstop entertaining movie that tells the story of a man in a superhero suit who wants no part of being a hero.  He’s not hero, he says.  He’s a self-proclaimed bad guy who hurts other bad guys who have hurt good people.

But before he dons his red suit and mask, he’s Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) a former Special Forces operative who now spends his day roughing up those bad guys who hurt good people.  As luck would have it, he meets and falls in love with a stripper named Vanessa (Morena Baccarin), who is every bit as zany and crazy as he is, and so they hit it off beautifully.

However,  Wade is diagnosed with cancer, and unable to face putting Vanessa through the pain of watching him die, he agrees to allow a secret organization experiment on his body.  This shadow group promises to cure him of his cancer while unlocking his secret mutant abilities in order to turn him into a superhero.

But this group isn’t what they seem.  They actually turn people into mutant slaves.  The experiment gives Wade unheard of healing powers- his wounds heal immediately-, but it also leaves him terribly disfigured. He escapes from the lab and then sets his sights on hunting down the man who did this to him, Ajax (Ed Skrein)  in the hope that the villain can restore his looks so he can face his girlfriend Vanessa again.

In terms of plot, DEADPOOL is nothing we haven’t seen before.  The story is not the reason to see this movie.  That honor belongs to Ryan Reynolds and his insane performance as Deadpool, as well as the incredibly hilarious script.

DEADPOOL is the movie and the role Ryan Reynolds has been waiting for.  He truly knocks it out of the park with his performance.  He plays the role so effortlessly, so naturally, and at the end of the day, DEADPOOL soars because of Ryan Reynolds.

Morena Baccarin is also very good as Vanessa.  She’s beautiful and sexy, and she and Reynolds share fine chemistry together.

T. J. Miller who was so memorable as Hud, the camera-toting friend in CLOVERFIELD (2008), in his film debut, adds fine support here as Wade’s best buddy Weasel.  He has some of the film’s best lines, especially in the scene where he reacts to seeing Deadpool’s face for the first time.

For some reason, the Marvel superhero movies, as good as they are, always seems to struggle with their villains, and unfortunately DEADPOOL is no exception.  Neither Ajax (Ed Skrein) nor Angel Dust (Gina Carano) did much for me, as neither one had any agenda other than to defend themselves against Deadpool.

Likewise, the fellow X-Men superheroes Colossus (a CGI creation voiced by Stefan Kapicic) and Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand) didn’t do much for me either, other than to remind me of the parts of the X-MEN movies that I didn’t like.

Again, DEADPOOL is all about Ryan Reynolds, and as such he gets the bulk of the good lines in the movie, and there are tons of them as there are more jokes in this movie than many comedies.  Better yet, most of them work.  There are also plenty of “in-jokes,” my favorites being the ones about Wolverine, and also Deadpool’s line about which actor would be playing Professor Xavier in this movie, Patrick Stewart or James McAvoy? The film breaks the fourth wall frequently with very funny results.

It’s a hilarious script by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, the same two guys who wrote the humorous zombie flick ZOMBIELAND (2009), so their sharp writing here comes as no surprise.  Of course, the humor is very adult, and in spite of this being a superhero film, it earns its R rating and then some, mostly for language, but also for some violence as well.  It reminded me a lot of KICK-ASS (2010) or of an R-rated GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (2014).

Director Tim Miller makes his directorial debut with DEADPOOL, and it’s a good one.  In addition to imbuing the film with a manic style and quick pace, Miller also handles the action scenes with ease.  There are several enjoyable action sequences, even though none of them are overly memorable.

Where does DEADPOOL rank among Marvel’s best superhero movies?  Well, I would still put THE AVENGERS (2012), IRON MAN (2008) GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, and X-MEN:  FIRST CLASS (2011) ahead of it, but after that, who knows?  It might make it into my top 5 Marvel Movies list.  It’s definitely in the Top Ten.

Ever wonder what a superhero movie made strictly for adults would be like?  Wonder no more.  DEADPOOL provides the answer.

Who knew superheroes could be so much fun?