Deadpool 2 (5 Stars)

"Deadpool 2"  has a difficult job. The first film was such a perfectly constructed showcase for Ryan Reynolds that simply doing the same thing again wouldn't have been enough. Fortunately, the sequel doesn't try to be a bigger version of the original. It is a different kind of Deadpool film, while retaining everything that made the first one so much fun.

Wade Wilson is still the same foul-mouthed, fourth-wall-breaking mercenary, but this time he's given a more conventional superhero problem to deal with. Cable, a time-travelling soldier from the future, arrives with a mission to kill a young mutant called Russell before he grows up to become a mass murderer. Deadpool decides that protecting the boy is more important than worrying about what he might become, and naturally things get increasingly chaotic from there.

Ryan Reynolds is still the heart of the film, and he hasn't lost any of his comic timing. What makes Deadpool work so well is that beneath all the wisecracks he's actually a surprisingly sentimental character. The film can move from an outrageous joke to genuine emotion without either side feeling out of place.

The supporting cast is excellent. Josh Brolin makes Cable a suitably intimidating opponent without turning him into a humourless villain, while Zazie Beetz is terrific as Domino. Her mutant ability, which amounts to being extraordinarily lucky, is used for some wonderfully inventive action sequences. Colossus is back too, still trying to persuade Deadpool to behave like a proper superhero, with very little success.

Then there's X-Force, which provides one of the film's funniest stretches. I won't say too much about it, because the joke works much better if you don't know exactly what's coming. It's a good example of the film's willingness to set up a conventional superhero sequence and then completely pull the rug out from under it.

There are plenty of other jokes, references and fourth-wall violations, and some of them are wonderfully ridiculous. The film knows that the audience is familiar with superhero conventions, so it can play with them rather than simply following them. At times it feels as though the writers are competing with each other to see who can get away with the most outrageous gag.

Deadpool 2 is bigger than the first film, but it doesn't lose its personality in the process. It has more characters, more action and a considerably more complicated plot, yet the central appeal remains the same. It's a very funny film with a surprisingly warm heart.

The first Deadpool is difficult to follow, but this is about as good a sequel as you could reasonably hope for. It isn't trying to replace the original. It's simply another opportunity to spend a couple of hours with one of the most entertaining idiots in superhero cinema.

Success Rate:  + 4.7

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Deadpool (5 Stars)

There are some films that you can watch many times over and still enjoy just as much as the first time. "Deadpool" is one of them.

The plot is almost beside the point. Wade Wilson is a wisecracking mercenary who falls in love with Vanessa, only to discover that he has cancer. An experimental treatment saves his life but leaves him horribly disfigured, so he reinvents himself as "Deadpool" and sets out to find the man responsible. Along the way there are superheroes, villains, enormous amounts of violence and an almost ridiculous number of jokes.

What makes it work is Ryan Reynolds. He was obviously born to play Deadpool, and the film understands exactly what to do with him. Wade can be funny, obnoxious, sentimental, violent and even vulnerable, sometimes in the same scene. Reynolds never seems to be taking the character seriously, but he does take the character seriously enough for us to care about him.

The film's greatest strength is its timing. It knows that a joke is funnier when you aren't expecting it, and it isn't afraid to interrupt its own story for a gag. The fourth-wall breaking could easily have become irritating, but it works because Deadpool's personality makes it feel like a natural part of the character rather than a gimmick imposed on the film.

It also helps that there's a genuine love story underneath all the wisecracks. Vanessa isn't simply there to give Wade something to rescue. Their relationship is one of the things that makes the more outrageous parts of the film work, because there's an emotional reason for everything Wade does.

The supporting cast is good too, particularly Morena Baccarin as Vanessa and Ed Skrein as Ajax. Colossus is an inspired addition, with his earnest superhero morality providing a perfect contrast to Deadpool's complete lack of restraint. Negasonic Teenage Warhead doesn't have a huge role, but she's memorable enough that it's hard to imagine the film without her.

"Deadpool" is crude, violent, self-aware and frequently ridiculous, but there's a warmth underneath all the cynicism. Most importantly, it's funny. Very funny.

There's really not much more to say. Sometimes a film simply gets everything right, and "Deadpool" is one of those films.

Success Rate:  + 11.5

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Tragedy Girls (5 Stars)

When "Tragedy Girls" was shown at the Fantasy Film Festival in 2017, the festival booklet wrote that it had the potential to become a cult film. But nothing happened. The film was never shown in cinemas, and it was forgotten. Until now, nine years later. Two months ago a mediabook was released by the German boutique label with four different covers.

This is a very strong indicator that Tragedy Girls (2017) has solidified its status as a cult film. While a limited-edition home video release alone isn't a formal scientific metric, the specific nature of Germany's physical media market, and the treatment of this movie by Indeed Film, perfectly aligns with how modern cult status is built and sustained.

Here is why this specific release deduces cult status:

1. The Target Audience of the "Mediabook" Format

In Germany, the mediabook (a premium, hardcover packaging blending a book portion with Blu-ray/DVD discs) is a format designed exclusively for dedicated collectors, cinephiles, and genre enthusiasts. Mainstream commercial hits get standard plastic cases or steelbooks, whereas niche movies with passionate, dedicated fanbases get the luxury mediabook treatment.

2. The Multiple-Cover Strategy

Releasing a movie with three or four different artwork variants (Covers A, B, C, and sometimes a shop-exclusive Cover D) is a marketing strategy tailored to a specific collector psychology. It relies on a loyal "cult" following willing to hunt down specific art, pre-order immediately, or even purchase multiple copies of the exact same movie to complete a set.

3. Extremely Strict Print Runs

The print runs for this specific release are highly limited, with each variant restricted to 444 units. Cult status is traditionally defined by a film that doesn't appeal to the widest possible demographic, but instead commands intense, dedicated devotion from a smaller, marginalized subculture. Selling out tiny, numbered batches of a premium product defines that dynamic perfectly.

4. Re-evaluation by the Horror Community

When Tyler MacIntyre’s Tragedy Girls initially premiered at SXSW in 2017, its pitch-black, neon-soaked social media satire was heavily compared to "Heathers" and the recent Scream films. Over the years, the film's commentary on influencer culture, pairing vibrant teen aesthetics with unapologetic gore, has aged remarkably well. This delayed, premium boutique physical release is the physical manifestation of the horror community embracing it as a modern genre classic.

Tragedy Girls (5 Stars)

Apparently "Tragedy Girls" is unoriginal. That's what critics wrote when it came out in 2017. It's supposedly just a knock-off of those 1990's teen slashers.

Well, yes. It does look remarkably like a 1990's teen slasher.

That's the point.

McKayla and Sadie are two teenage girls who're obsessed with social media, popularity and serial killers. When they get the opportunity to learn from a serial killer, they use him to improve their own murderous careers. Because apparently getting good grades and going to university isn't ambitious enough.

The clever thing is that the film doesn't tell the story from the point of view of the victims. McKayla and Sadie are the slashers. We follow their plans, their friendship, their arguments and their increasingly elaborate murders. We sympathise with the two girls, We want to see them get away with murder.

And they do.

Most slasher films have a Final Girl. Tragedy Girls has two Final Killers.

The film eventually builds towards a prom massacre in which 124 students are killed. That's quite a lot of dead teenagers, even by slasher standards. And while everyone else is having a terrible evening, McKayla and Sadie are having the time of their lives.

Then they escape.

It's a remarkably audacious reversal of the genre. The film takes virtually every familiar teen-slasher convention and uses it for the benefit of the people who would normally be trying to avoid it. The teenagers are there. The high school is there. The killer is there. The gruesome deaths are there. The prom is there. The social-media obsession is there.

It's just that we've somehow ended up supporting the wrong people.

And that's why I find the criticism that the film is "unoriginal" so strange. Of course it's copying the conventions of 1990's teen slashers. It's deliberately copying them. The originality comes from what it does with them. Rather than parodying the genre from the outside, it moves the protagonists to the other side of the knife.

It also works surprisingly well as a straight slasher. There are plenty of kills, the film has a good sense of pace and it uses music much more effectively than the recent Scream films. It doesn't have quite the soundtrack presence of Scream 1-3, but at least the film remembers that a slasher benefits from having some music.

And then there's that ending. McKayla and Sadie are heading off to college, ready to begin a new chapter. In other words, they're going to college to get an education in serial murder.

Unfortunately, that's where the story ends.

I was lucky enough to see "Tragedy Girls". It never really got the general cinema release it deserved. It went straight to video in most countries and only had a tiny theatrical release in the US. A sequel was clearly being contemplated, but it never happened.

Which is a genuine shame, because the college sequel could have been wonderful. Put these two completely amoral teenage serial killers into a new environment with hundreds of fresh victims and give them four years to work on their social-media strategy. What's the worst that could happen?

Quite a lot.

It's a brilliant film, in my opinion the best slasher film of the last 25 years.

And if you think it's just a knock-off of 1990's teen slashers, you should watch it again.

This time, pay attention.

Deadpool & Wolverine (5 Stars)

I've finally bought "Deadpool & Wolverine" on Blu-Ray. It took a while. I had to wait until the price dropped to something I was willing to pay. Yes, I know it's on Disney Plus, but that's not good enough for me. I need to hold the shiny metal disc in my hand. It was the best film of 2024, so it deserves a special place in my collection.

This is what we've been waiting for since 2000. The real Wolverine!

The film features the return of Wunmi Mosaku as Hunter B-15. She needs a better name. Can I call her B for short? But whatever her name is, she gets my vote for Miss Multiverse 2025.

That's all I'm writing today. What? Are you complaining? Be honest... what would you rather have? A thousand dull words from me or a sexy action photo of Hunter B-15?

My case rests.

Success Rate:  + 4.7

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Deadpool & Wolverine (5 Stars)

Disney Wednesday #25

I was surprised to find out that "Deadpool & Wolverine" is already streaming on Disney Plus. I would have known if I'd occasionally logged in. As my readers know, I'm not much of a streaming fan. That doesn't mean I'm against streaming in principle. I have friends who boycott the streaming services. I wouldn't go that far. I need Netflix and the others to watch films that haven't been released on disc yet; or worse still, films like "Veneciafrenia" that will never be released on disc. Streaming services are also useful for me to watch films out of curiosity that I'm not sure I like.

I'm getting off topic. Concerning "Deadpool & Wolverine", I'm surprised that it's gone to streaming so soon. It's less than three months since it left the cinemas. Usually that's the sign that a film had performed badly at the box office, but that's hardly the case with "Deadpool & Wolverine". It's the second highest grossing film of the year so far, second only to "Inside Out 2".

It's a good film, though not up to the quality of the first two films. On the other hand, it's hilarious. There are non-stop in-jokes about the politics of the film studios behind the scenes. Not secret politics, of course. All Marvel fans have been reading what's going on with one company being bought by another.

I shan't write any more for now. I'll wait until I buy the film on Blu-ray, although I suspect that it'll only be a brief plot summary. The film isn't about the plot, it's about the jokes.

Success Rate:  + 4.7

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Deadpool & Wolverine (5 Stars)

It's good to be back in the cinema again, and what better film to watch than the new Deadpool film, "Deadpool & Wolverine"? I went to see the film with trepidation after reading that Ryan Reynolds had disagreements about the refilming of the film's third act. I feared the worst. Was it going to be another "Marvels"? I needn't have worried. I enjoyed the film from beginning to end.

It's a multiverse saga. That's another thing that made me groan when I read about the film in its early production days. Again, I was pleasantly surprised that the story succeeded. The multiverse was used as as a method of bringing back characters from old "forgotten" films. I shan't name them, because I don't want to rob you of the wow effect that I felt when they appeared on screen.

After watching the film I read reviews by critics who couldn't decide whether it's a good film or a bad film. The story is weak, which is obvious to me, but it's not about the story. The film jumps from one joke to the next, with only short pauses for action. The audience was laughing from beginning to end.

And Wunmi Mosaku is back! That's enough of a reason to watch the film!

"Deadpool & Wolverine" is my favourite film of the year so far.

Deadpool (5 Stars)

Deadpool must be the coolest Marvel superhero. (Or call him an anti-hero if you prefer). When he's fighting he banters with the villains, and when he's not fighting her banters with the cinema audience. He gives public service announcements, like telling people not to leave rubbish on the seats when they leave. His costume actually looks like it does in the comics, which is a rarity. He only has one fault: he likes Wham! I mean Wham the 1980's boyband, not Wham the 1960's weekly British comic. Okay, I admit that Wham is better than the awful rap music from America, and I'll even concede that George Michael has a good voice, but I find their music so bland and soulless. Their music is like candy floss; you take a big mouthful, but when you start to chew you realise you have nothing in your mouth. Wham's music isn't unpleasant, but it's not pleasant either, it's just... nothing.

Brianna Hildebrand is such a cool character as Negasonic Teenage Warhead that I wish she could get her own spin-off film. Or better still, she should make a sequel to "Tragedy Girls". She's not quite as cool as Deadpool, but at least she doesn't like Wham. And she should take that metal out of her nose.

Success Rate:  + 11.5

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Tragedy Girls (5 Stars)

This is the ninth film in my high school marathon. Despite having a lot of other films I could add, I've decided to make it the last film. It's a film that ends with a high school prom, which brings me full circle after beginning the films with "Carrie".

It's a night to remember, especially for Jordan Welch and Sadie Cunningham, who're voted the prom king and prom queen. Jordan is the sheriff's son. Sadie is a serial killer.

But the film's title is girls in the plural. Sadie's best friend is McKayla Hooper. They sit together in class, they're in the cheerleading squad together, and they're on the prom committee together. They're inseparable. They even murder people together.

Sadie and McKayla have big plans, and they don't have much time. "We're about to graduate and go to college, and we haven't even started our first killing spree". McKayla's right. The big slasher films all start in high school years.

I've written about the film a few times, so I shan't add anything today. All I'll say is that it's one of the best slasher films of the 21st Century. It's an original film that breathes new life into the teen slasher genre.

Playing With Fire (4 Stars)

Amazon Friday #2

This is my second week of watching a film streamed on Amazon Prime. I bet you thought I wouldn't keep it up. Yes, I will. At least for another 10 weeks. That's how many films I have in my Amazon Watchlist, unless I add any more films.

The film stars John Cena as the fireman Jake Carson. I don't consider him to be a great actor. He isn't capable of portraying deep emotions, but somehow I like him. He's able to play tough, rugged characters, especially in comedy films.

Jake isn't a normal fireman, he's a smokejumper. That's a fireman who specialises in the fighting of forest fires. Teams of smokejumpers are usually situated on the edge of large forests, ready to be deployed immediately when fires break out. In America they're employed by the United States Forest Service.

After watching the trailer I expected there to be a lot of fire fighting action. I was wrong. It was yet another example of a deceptive trailer. There are only a few short fire scenes at the beginning to set up the film's background. Most of the film takes place in the fire station itself. Jake Carson and his team rescue three children from a burning hut. The children are badly behaved and cause problems for a strict fireman like Jake Carson. Initially he wants to keep them in the station overnight until their parents can pick them up, but he soon finds out that their parents are dead. They've run away from their foster home to stop themselves being separated.

Jake refers to them as eight-year-old children. Really? We find out that Zoey (on the left) is two years old, a few days away from her third birthday. We're not told the ages of the other two. Will (on the right) could possibly be eight, but what about Brynn (in the middle)?

Brynn is played by Brianna Hildebrand, best known for her role as one half of the "Tragedy Girls". She's also appeared as Negasonic Teenage Warhead in the Deadpool films. She was 22 when she made "Playing With Fire", but I'm guessing she was supposed to be 14-ish. But eight years old? I'd never make a mistake like that.

She's beautiful, isn't she? It's a very different role to the one she plays in her other films. She also looks different with her long hair. More girly. But she still doesn't look like she's eight.

"Playing With Fire" is a lightweight film with a lot of silly slapstick humour. It's classified as a family film, but in truth it's more suitable for young children. It's the sort of film that would appeal to mischievous small children. I wonder what my five-year-old grandson Oliver would think of it. I'm an adult, not the target audience, but I enjoyed watching it, once at least. It's not a film I would return to, except possibly with Oliver at my side.

Success Rate:  + 0.3

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Deadpool 2 (5 Stars)

Dancer's Top Films #38

Stan Lee doesn't actually make a cameo in "Deadpool 2", but he appears briefly in one of the trailers. He's even addressed by name. Deadpool emerges from a phone booth after changing into his costume.

Stan Lee: "Wow, nice suit!"

Deadpool: "Zip it, Stan Lee!"

This is Marvel dialogue at its best!

The first Deadpool film was so good that I didn't think the sequel could possibly live up to it. I was wrong. I remember sitting wide-mouthed in the cinema on 20th May 2018. When the opening credits rolled (at the 15 minute mark) I already knew that it exceeded the quality of the first film. The humour is similar. The repeated breaking of the third wall is similar. But something is better. Maybe it's the tastefully inappropriate placing of music. I don't know. I just know it's better, and I have great hopes that "Deadpool 3" will be just as good, whenever it's finally released.

This is the second film in Marvel's X-Men franchise in which someone comes from the future to change the past. The first was "Days of Future Past". Cable, a super-soldier from the future, travels back in time to kill Firefist, the mutant who will be responsible for murdering his wife and daughter. When Cable arrives Firefist is still a 12-year-old boy called Russell Collins. Russell is at a turning point. He's a troubled youngster, due to being tortured by the staff of an orphanage run by the Essex Corporation, an organisation that trains mutants to become mercenaries, but he's not truly evil. Cable says that he'll turn evil after his first kill, which is due to happen soon. Deadpool sees the good in the boy and wants to persuade him not to kill anyone. This is ironic, because Deadpool himself is a killer.

Deadpool has contact with the X-Men, but the only team members he sees at the X-Men mansion are Colossus, Negasonic Teenage Warhead and Yukio. It's a running joke that the other X-Men are missing because the film had a limited budget.

Negasonic Teenage Warhead introduces Yukio as her girlfriend, making them the first openly lesbian couple in a Marvel movie. Yukio is possibly the same character as Yukio in "Wolverine", but it's not clear. Her role in "Deadpool 2" is too minor to make a comparison possible. Logically, they would have to be different characters, because "Wolverine" takes place shortly before "Deadpool 2", yet Yukio looks much younger in the latter film. But when has there ever been any logic in the X-Men continuity?

A bigger problem is a brief cameo by the other X-Men, who are in the mansion after all, though unseen by Deadpool. This was an outtake from "Dark Phoenix", which was being filmed at the same time. "Dark Phoenix" takes place in 1992, so the X-Men should look a lot older in "Deadpool 2", which takes place 25 years later. Even taking into account the rewriting of the timeline in "Days of Future Past", the scene still doesn't fit.

But don't worry about inconsistencies. Just accept the film for what it is. It doesn't take itself seriously, so neither should you.

Success Rate:  + 4.7

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Deadpool (5 Stars)

Dancer's Top Films #39

I'm a big fan of Marvel comics. I'm also a fan of Marvel's films, though maybe not to the same extent. I silently curse whenever a comic book character is changed in the films, whether it's his clothes, his powers or his personality.

I own a lot of Marvel films on Blu-ray. I'm too lazy to count at the moment, but it must be about 40. Some are weak, like the Hulk films, while most are excellent. I'm quite surprised with myself, in retrospect, that I've only included five Marvel films in my top 100 film list. This is the first of the five in my countdown so far; I'll keep you in suspense what the other four are. Still, I think that more of the films should have been included, if only in the lower part of my list. I'll fix this mistake eventually. At my current speed I'll probably finish my countdown by September. I'll post a corrected list as soon as possible after that. I shan't let you down. I hope.

Deadpool is a character who was introduced to Marvel comics in 1991, which I consider to be the post-canon age. That means that the accuracy in his portrayal is less important to me. Nevertheless, judging from the few comics I've read with his adventures, the film seems to be an accurate portrayal of his character in the comics.

Stan Lee does a cameo as a disc jockey in the strip club where Deadpool's girlfriend Vanessa works. After Stan Lee died in 2018 I decided to rewatch all of the Marvel films, emphasising Stan Lee's cameo appearances. I started with the Spider-Man films, the Fantastic Four films and "Daredevil", after which I worked my way through the MCU films up to his death. I omitted the X-Men films initially, but I intended to come back to them later in 2019. Then I forgot them. I'll come back to them later this year, as long as I don't forget them again. "Deadpool" is considered to be an X-Men spin off film, as shown by the guest appearances of Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead.

Nuff said!

Success Rate:  + 11.5

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Tragedy Girls (5 Stars)

Dancer's Top Films #69

I can't help heaping praise on this film. It's the best teen slasher film for 20 years. It's the first teen slasher film of the social media generation. It's truly unique, bringing new ideas into the teen slasher genre. Added to that, the two actresses in the title roles, Alexandra Shipp and Brianna Hildebrand, are nothing short of stunning. They were born to be the Tragedy Girls.

I fear that not many people have seen the film. It was intended to be released direct-to-video, but the distribution rights were acquired by Gunpowder & Sky, a company that specialises in direct-to-streaming films. Have you never heard of the company? That's hardly surprising. It doesn't have a subscription-based website. It sells films individually to be streamed, primarily on mobile phones. Wow! Could standards sink any lower? Fortunately, the film is now available from Amazon as a Blu-ray manufactured-on-demand disc. That's better than nothing, although I've heard rumours that MOD Blu-rays only have an expected life of 10 years. I hope the rumours are false.

Like all good teen slasher films, the final scene takes place at the school prom. These romantic words whispered by Jordan Welch to his prom date sound like they came directly from an episode of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". The words are spoken too soon. He doesn't survive until the end of the evening. He should have known that his girlfriend is the serial killer that has been terrorising the town. Before the night is over there are 124 dead bodies. Who said that girls can't do it just as well as boys?

Sadie Cunningham (left) and McKayla Hooper (right) are the deadliest cheerleaders ever. But what sort of name is McKayla anyway? I'd never heard it as a Christian name before this film, but evidently it's a relatively popular name for girls in America.

The social media aspect is important in the film. The two girls have a Twitter page and a blog in which they write about serial killers. Their main motive for killing is to increase their popularity by writing exclusive reports about new murders. Should I do something like that to get more readers? I currently have 18,000 readers a month, which is nothing in the global scheme of things. What can I do to get 150,000 readers a month? Who do I need to kill?

That's just a dream. I've never killed anyone all my life, and I'm too old to start now. It's even less than a dream. I fantasise about being killed, not killing someone else. I guess my blog will never be a big success.

Deadpool 2 (5 Stars)

This week I finally bought myself a 4K resolution television set. I've been using the standard 1080p resolution since December 2008. I had a 32" television from 2008 to 2012, a 42" television from 2012 to 2016 and a 40" television from 2016 to 2020, all with a 1080p resolution, The downgrade in 2016 was necessitated by moving to Germany. I couldn't take my television with me, so when I arrived in Germany I used the television that was already available.

My new television is 43". Ideally I would have preferred to buy a larger television with OLED technology, the current state of the art, but my space is limited. In my room I have to sit about 1.80 meters away from the screen, so a larger television set would be overkill.

After extensive research, I decided that this television was the best available at this size. At first I was disappointed that the frame is white. Every flatscreen television I've ever owned has a black frame. However, after a few hours sitting in front of it I've grown used to its appearance.

I bought the television from Amazon. I wanted to delay buying a 4K Blu-ray player, but once I had the television in front of me I was impatient. My old Blu-ray player wasn't good enough for me. I jumped on the bus and went to Saturn, an electronics store in Stuttgart city centre. I'd already decided on the Sony UBP-X700 Blu-ray player. It's not the best Blu-ray player on the market, but it's the best in its price range. At Saturn the Blu-ray player costs 25 Euros more than Amazon's price, but they offer a price match guarantee, so I bought it for Amazon's price.

After experimenting with snippets of films on Netflix and Amazon Prime, I finally sat down to watch my first full film with the new equipment. I picked "Deadpool 2", the theatrical version. It's a standard Blu-ray, so it was upscaled to 4K, and the picture was perfect. I currently only own one 4K Blu-ray, "John Wick 2", because the multi-format package (Blu-ray plus 4K) was the same price as the standard Blu-ray alone. I'll have to watch it some time in the next few days.

Success Rate:  + 4.7

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Deadpool 2 (5 Stars)

When I sat down to watch this film I realised it was an extended version, not the same version that I saw in the cinema earlier this year. The Blu-ray I've bought has both versions, so I'll have to compare them. The theatrical version (surprisingly) doesn't have an after-credits scene, but the extended cut does. Censorship? I remember reading that there was some controversy about the baby Hitler scene. It's a moral question that has been asked before. If you know that an innocent little baby will grow up to kill millions of people, does that make it right to kill him?

This film doesn't have a Stan Lee cameo, although his face does appear in artwork painted on a wall. It makes up for it by having a Stan Lee cameo in one of the trailers. Unfortunately, the trailers aren't included in the disc's extra features.

Success Rate:  + 4.7

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Tragedy Girls (5 Stars)

This is a film that I can't watch too often. At the moment, anyway. Maybe I'll binge on it too much and get sick of it eventually, but that date is still far off. I wish there could be a "Tragedy Girls 2", but it wasn't successful enough to justify a sequel. Why not? It's the fault of the distributors. If more people had been given a chance to see it when it was released last year it would have been a box office smash.

Strangely enough, "Tragedy Girls" has a high rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I say strangely, because Rotten Tomatoes usually gives the best films poor ratings. The critics are out of touch with what film fans want to see. This time they got it right. "Tragedy Girls" is a special kind of film. It builds on the teen slasher films of the 1990's while injecting the genre with enough new ideas to please even the most cynical critics.

Don't Sadie and McKayla make a beautiful couple? One of the film's taglines is "Girls who slay together stay together". That's catchy. To make it true we need a series of films about their antics. The first film ends with them leaving high school, but they can go on killing at college.

In my previous reviews I've concentrated on Brianna Hildebrand, the actress who plays Sadie, because I know her from the Deadpool films. Today I was reminded that Alexandra Shipp contributes just as much to the film in her role as McKayla. She's an actress I hardly know, even though she appears in "X-Men: Apocalypse" as Storm. I wouldn't have recognised her if I hadn't been told first. I'd like to see her in other films to get a better feeling for her.

I don't approve of film piracy, I never have done, but in this case I want to spread the word about the film in any way I can. I feel tempted to make a dozen DVD copies of "Tragedy Girls" and hand them out to anyone who hasn't yet seen it. I know that would be wrong, but I'm tempted.