Golden Globes surprise with selection of R-rated superhero film 'Deadpool'

'Deadpool' earned surprise nominations for awards including the Golden Globe for best comedy or musical. It's just the newest way the superhero movie has defied expectations.

|
Joe Lederer/20th Century Fox/AP
'Deadpool' stars Ryan Reynolds.

When the Golden Globe nominees were announced, the contenders for the best comedy or musical prize included Oscar Best Picture frontrunner “La La Land,” the Annette Bening film “20th Century Women,” the Meryl Streep movie “Florence Foster Jenkins,” the acclaimed indie movie “Sing Street”… and the "merc with a mouth." 

The superhero movie “Deadpool” earned multiple Golden Globe nominations this year, receiving the best comedy or musical nomination and a nod for actor Ryan Reynolds in the best actor in a comedy or musical category. 

The nominations seemed to come as a big surprise to Hollywood. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which distributes the Golden Globes, has never nominated a superhero movie for a Best Picture prize (either the best drama category or the best comedy or musical prize) before, and in doing so, it went with a superhero movie that is far from run-of-the-mill – “Deadpool” not only pokes fun at superhero film conventions, it also very much earns its R rating (for strong violence and language throughout, sexual content and graphic nudity).

It’s just the latest way the “Deadpool” movie has surprised the industry. When it was released in February, the film had the best February opening of all time and had the biggest opening ever for an R-rated movie. It also became the best opening weekend ever for “Deadpool” studio 20th Century Fox. 

The Christian Science Monitor's film critic, Peter Rainer, wasn't a big fan of the film

"Weirdly funny at best, it’s just exhaustingly weird most of the time...," Mr. Rainer writes. "Reynolds brings a lewd flippancy to the role, and director Tim Miller and his writers, Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, have some fun at Marvel’s expense. But this fun is a essentially a rebranding of the brand; it seems less irreverent than self-congratulatory."

The movie is now the second-highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time domestically, behind only the 2004 movie “The Passion of the Christ.” “Deadpool” is currently the fifth-highest-grossing film of the year domestically and is only a bit behind that for the highest-grossing 2016 movies worldwide, coming in at No. 7 ahead of such fellow superhero blockbusters as “Suicide Squad” and “Doctor Strange.” 

A sequel is planned and director David Leitch, co-director of the 2015 film “John Wick,” will be helming. Mr. Reynolds will reprise his now-Golden Globe-nominated role.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Golden Globes surprise with selection of R-rated superhero film 'Deadpool'
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Movies/2016/1213/Golden-Globes-surprise-with-selection-of-R-rated-superhero-film-Deadpool
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe