Deadpool

A mentally unstable mercenary (Ryan Reynolds) undergoes experimentalsurgery for his cancer; it leaves him with advanced healing abilities, but so hideously ugly that he goes underground, allowing his girlfriend (Morena Baccarin) to think he’s dead while he seeks revenge on his doctor (Ed Skrein). Oh, and for reasons too contrived to go into, he takes the name “Deadpool.” The jokes in this foul-mouthed super-anti-hero movie begin with the credits—instead of actors’ names we get “British Villain,” “CGI Character,” “Comic Relief,” etc. Some of the jokes in Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick’s script (from the Marvel comics by Rob Liefeld and Fabian Nicieza) are pretty funny, which helps compensate for the dreary familiarity of the CGI fight scenes. Tim Miller’s direction is flat, but he keeps things moving. J.L.