Deadpool 2

Yes, it's raunchy. Yes, it's ultra-violent. Yes, it has a lot of foul language in it. And yes, it's a sequel. Also, it's technically a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, albeit one featuring a corner of the MCU (the X-Men) that somehow escaped unscathed from the carnage of Avengers: Infinity War. But it was opening on a Thursday, which made it convenient for me to see it, and nothing else was showing that night in my current hometown, and whatever else was showing that weekend didn't seem worth waiting for, so there it is. Also, I had fun watching it.

This is, naturally, the sequel to Deadpool, featuring Ryan Reynolds as a non-stop chatterbox, victim of a disfiguring accident, and super-antihero with mutant self-healing powers and a complete lack of conscience with regard to taking human life. In this movie, he forms an unlikely alliance with obscure members of the X-Men, blows it up, gets sent to prison, and anoints himself as the protector of a chunky teen from New Zealand who is on his way to being a super-powered monster. Long story short, he and a non-Thanos (but still badass) Josh Brolin, with some help, end up demolishing an institution for kids with mutant powers down to the last blood-and-brains-spattered brick, in spite of or perhaps thanks to an entire scriptful of inappropriate jokes, incongruous musical selections, sexual references, and weapons-grade sarcasm. It's funnier than hell, in a dark-comedic way. I mean, it uses frequent and gruesome death as a source of comedy. So, take that for what it's worth.

Three scenes that made it for me: (1) Wade Wilson/Deadpool assembles an entire team of superheroes to join him on a mission (pointedly excluding the stereotyped Indian cab driver who has been trying to join his team), then promptly kills them all in a single scene of inadvertent carnage that is somehow simultaneously heartbreaking, nauseating and hilarious. (2) The fight on the armored prisoner transport, driven by a woman whose superpower is luck - one extended, hard-driving sequence of intense action, with this franchise's patent brand of grim yet comedic violence. (3) Any of the many fourth-wall breaks, such as the one in which Deadpool autographs a picture of himself as "Ryan Reynolds," the time he calls Brolin "Thanos," and my very favorite, his quip about a piece of X-Men technology smelling like Patrick Stewart.