The Suicide Squad 

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• Photo Courtesy Of Atlas Entertainment And Dc Comics
• SUICIDAL A team of criminals—including (left to right) Polka Dot Man (David Dastmalchian), Peacemaker (John Cena), Bloodsport (Idris Elba), and Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior)—are recruited for an impossible mission, in The Suicide Squad.

What's it rated? R

When? 2021

Where's it showing? Downtown Centre, Galaxy, Park, Stadium 10, and HBO Max

Writer-director James Gunn (Super, Guardians of the Galaxy) helms this outrageous new installment of the Suicide Squad franchise. I can almost imagine Gunn's pitch to Hollywood's money people: "We airdrop a bunch of homicidal reprobates into an island jungle for a gory, bloody battle, and they have to fight their way to a secret installation where for 30 years an alien starfish has been experimented on, and it gets loose and rampages like a giant kaiju across the island amassing a zombie army of people whose brains are controlled by smaller starfish."

Yeah, OK! Sounds great! This time around, unscrupulous U.S. government stooge Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) recruits super villains Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Bloodsport (Idris Elba), Peacemaker (John Cena), and other Belle Reve Prison convicts to join Col. Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) and Task Force X on a mission to Corto Maltese to face the starfish.

It's violent, funny, wicked, madcap, subversive, and occasionally emotionally resonant, and it has Sylvester Stallone voicing King Shark, a dumb but lovable anthropomorphized great white with a taste for human flesh. The flick's sort of wonderful and ridiculous, and it's much better than earlier incarnations. (132 min.) Δ