Up until Deadpool a lot of people gave Ryan Reynolds heat for his movies every now and then (mostly for Green Lantern and Wolverine Episode I), but surprisingly few people realize that Ryan Reynolds isn’t afraid to get weird with his roles often resulting in interesting and memorable movies. Take Buried for example, the movie that literally takes place inside of a box. Pretty unique and brave to go for it like they did and it turned out to be a decently solid film (depending on who you talk to).
Right now there are two incredible movies with two distinct styles starring Ryan Reynolds that you can (and should) stream for free with Amazon Prime. Mississippi Grind & The Voices, two fantastic but very different movies that are both dark with surprising bursts of optimism. These movies have their own unique sense of humor as well as a unique sense of danger, and Reynolds gets to play two wildly different characters in each movie.
Mississippi Grind (2015) stars Ryan Reynolds and the always incredible soon to be Star Wars villain Vader buddy Ben Mendelsohn as two degenerate gamblers making their way across the American South. Ben plays a super down and out gambler who stumbles into fast talking mythically carefree Ryan Reynolds and on a whim the two of them trek from card table to card table in the hopes of helping Mendelsohn pay off his hefty gambling debts to Mariah Dillard from Luke Cage. Its a fun movie with the edge of your seat stresses that gambling movies often have, and in the end you’ll be praying that Mendelsohn and Reynolds don’t lose everything they have.
The Voices (2014) once again stars Reynolds as Jerry, a shy loner who just wants to bond with someone, maybe even fall in love, only problem is he has severe schizophrenia that results in hallucinations and violent outbursts, so its not so easy for Jerry. The Voices also stars the always adorable Anna Kendrick as the girl from Jerry’s office who he hopes to woo, surprisingly Lisa (Kendrick) seems to like Jerry too, will his talking cat and dog and some potential murder charges ruin his chance to fall in love and find happiness? You’ll have to watch to find out, but you be happy you did, as dark as The Voices gets it still has a happy ending (sort of).
The Voices is a weird movie that is as hilarious as it is hallucinatory and just like Mississippi Grind, you’ll care about what happens in the end because Reynolds makes the characters interesting enough for us to care about them even when they might be violent schizo’s or degenerate gamblers. He really is a great actor, just look at his performance in Ted, barely even said a word, arguably had the best moment of the movie.
So if you’re looking to kill and afternoon and you have Amazon Prime you can stream Mississippi Grind & The Voices right now. If you like these movies, or if you’ve got thoughts or concerns about the news surrounding Deadpool 2, please leave a comment, and thanks for reading.
Photo Credit: Snagged from observer.com
dusty DVD 