The Suicide Squad

Yum, yum. This Suicide Squad adaptation was excellently done and yes, it’s all thanks to the errant director, James Gunn, whose brief dismissal from Disney was a real godsend for Warner Bros. The guy who phoned Gunn back then should get a fat bonus, a new Ferrari and a beach house too. The mission to the island of Corto Maltese is presented non-linearly (but still consistently) with dispassion, humor and with respect for the comic book original. The new team with just a few familiar faces is bristling with diverse characters (but I can do anything that they can!) and each of them gets their moment to shine. Harley plays the princess (flowers and all) and Idris as a replacement for Will ends up destroying him in a rough punch-up. John Cena rocks even with that toilet on his head and so I’m really looking forward to his solo series. But the heart of the movie is the King Shark and Ratcatcher 2 duo. It’s easy to make a man-eating shark in shorts into the cutest of them all - just give him the mentality of a two-year-old. I look forward to watching it again. (05/08/2021)

This feature-length version of the Starro Attacks sketch from Robot Chicken is garnering rave reviews thanks to the fact that a big-budget comic-book movie has finally dispensed with both seriousness and sophistication and instead gone the route of juvenile trash (which was an essential characteristic of comic books for many decades before they were taken over by nerds who had the need to justify their childish obsessions by faking profundity). But on the other hand, compared to the unapologetic futility of the best and funniest comic-book movies like Batman: The Movie (1966), Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987) and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2011), the new Suicide Squad feels too forced and made-to-order – like products from The Asylum that try too hard to be camp, but can never elicit pure enthusiasm like pure trash can. (28/08/2021)

Is the new Suicide Squad that much better than the first one? Ordinary audiences despair about what the movie theaters have to offer, but an educated audience familiar with films from the palette of the seasoned viewer will be satisfied. Everyone else can safely consider it a slightly different comedy from the comic book blockbuster family. It's a lot of great fun for well-read comic book people, but for people with other media backgrounds, there's something extra in it. For example, the great Harley Quinn escape scene backed by the classic hit "Just a Gigolo." She didn't have the courage to do something like this before. It's fun to watch that development. (14/08/2021)

Nothing for the faint hearted. I didn't expect to see anything like this in these politically correct times. The world of comic book movies, which today languishes under the reign of Marvel's childish colouring books, needed someone like James Gunn, a Troma alum, an original in his own right, which is strongly evident in his work. His film is incredibly daring, with a lethal cadence of over-the-top humour, without being a chaotic mess. Gunn has a clear vision, he's fantastic at timing politically incorrect visual jokes, and many of his screenwriting ideas are surprising; he has a God-given talent. And at times, in the barrage of this snarling R-rated gorefest, I felt like I was watching an expensive midnight movie in some grindhouse cinema in the deep 70s. And last but not least, the most original kaiju monster of all time. Hats off to Warner Bros. for not being afraid to give Gunn a wide theatrical release. (07/08/2021)

It's nice to have a pleasant surprise once in a while, because while I was secretly hoping for a lot, I wasn't really expecting much. James Gunn, however, pulled it off much better than I would have guessed. His Suicide Squad is more colourful and wilder, which was more or less expected, except that my fears that too much freedom wouldn't suit him and the film would end up being nothing but bizarre mess were not borne out. Gunn knows when he can afford subtle bizarreness or creepiness, and when to surprise the viewer with an unexpected death or a scene so badass that you're a little embarrassed to laugh at it. But at the same time, his film also works in dramatic situations, and it's far from just an exhibition of more or less weird characters doing more or less weird things. The new crew is really good and the acting is really great (those who can't act know it and, ironically, can take advantage of it), the gradual building of relationships between the murderous sociopaths works unexpectedly well and Gunn isn't afraid to be surprisingly adult at times, only to knock it down a few minutes later with some harsh joke. Above all, though, the whole thing is incredibly fun. This is a good one. (04/08/2021)