artdirector@sfreporter.com
Movies
This is not Suicide Squad 2—this is The Suicide Squad. T-H-E. And rather than follow in director James Ayer’s too-dour Suicide Squad footsteps circa 2016, director James Gunn recycles characters from the non-T-H-E version for something that feels a little more new, even if it is a mid-summer comic book blockbuster kind of thing.
Other movies reside on its superblock—Deadpool and Guardians of the Galaxy live right next door. And like the proverbial milkman impregnating two neighboring rival housewives, Gunn wrote Guardians for Marvel (Disney) and this for DC (HBO, maybe? Warner? Both? Who cares?). He even brought his Guardians bag o’ tricks over to DC from the house of mouse (which fired him for old rapey tweets then re-hired him later). Squad’s soundtrack of indie, country and classic rock songs courtesy of bands like The Decemberists and Johnny Cash adds to the mood—or at least tells us how to feel—and its ensemble cast, which is practically a character-to-character overlay with Guardians, makes for fun interactions centering around the film’s ultimate selling point: it’s bold, brash and stupid funny. Not stupidly funny, but stupid, cartoonish, ridiculous funny.
In short, a small country revolts and, surprise, the US secret ops, led by Viola Davis (Fences), needs to intervene. She assembles a team of prisoners who must choose between more jail time or—get this—a suicide mission. Margot Robbie (Bombshell) performs her day job as psychotic hottie Harley Quinn and earns her paycheck, while Idris Elba drives the plot and John Cena plays the comic relief in beef. An unrecognizable Sylvester Stallone shocks as the sympathetic CGI King Shark, while Daniela Melchior (Parque Mayer) steals scenes as Ratcatcher 2, the only nuanced character in the movie. Pete Davidson is in there, too, for the youths.
But it’s a gratuitous penis and what it symbolizes that pushes this movie forward. For no reason but our pleasure, an extra gets shot to death while Porky Piggin’ it (that’s pants-free, folks). His penis represents childish humor brought to the big screen, not in a kids’ movie way, but in an R-rated one, and the over-the-top violence, terrible jokes and physical humor mix together to make a caricature for capital-A adults. Squad lacks some fundamentals, sure, but everything that crosses the line set by Deadpool helps put the comic back in comical.
8
+Gratuitous ridiculousness, stupid laughs
-Same superhero plot and characters
The Suicide Squad
Directed by Gunn
With Robbie, Cena, Davis, Stallone, Melchior, Elba, Davidson
Violet Crown, HBO Max, R, 132 min.
