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R, 1:59, action
Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds), at left, is emotionally blackmailed into serving as guardian of orphaned teenage mutant Russell (Julian Dennison). He’s being hunted by Cable (Josh Brolin), a cyborg from the future and a tough adversary. Deadpool responds by assembling a group, including Domino (Zazie Beetz), Bedlam (Terry Crews), Shatterstar (Lewis Tan), Zeitgeist (Bill Skarsgard) and a stunningly ordinary fellow named Peter (Rob Delaney). “Deadpool 2” isn’t for your kids. It’s for the jaded, arrested-development adolescent lurking inside your adult self.
PG-13, 2:40, action
Titan Thanos (Josh Brolin), at left, is after the precious infinity stones, which will grant him control over the universe. Our favorite superheroes must join together to put an end to Thanos’ evil plan. Numerous Marvel characters appear, including Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Spider-Man (Tom Holland), Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson). The nervy fatalism of its climax might actually count for something if you didn’t know in your bones that the “Avengers” movie coming out a year from now will very likely undo what we’re left with.
PG-13, 2:23, sci-fi
What was Han Solo’s life before he became a rogue for hire at the helm of the freighter known as the Millennium Falcon? We spend some time in the prologue running with Han (Alden Ehrenreich), at left, on the mean streets of Corellia, ruled by gangland factions in the time of the Galactic Civil War. How did Han and Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover), gambler and scoundrel, come to know each other? We get that as well. Director Ron Howard’s efficient, confident, slightly square direction does the job. It’s his best film in a decade
PG-13, 1:43, comedy
Jane Fonda, Diane Keaton, Candice Bergen and Mary Steenburgen, at left, play four friends in a book club reading the “Fifty Shades of Grey” trilogy by E.L. James. The books simply serve as stimuli for the women to explore their own sexuality, in a world that often wants to deny them that. The ultimate message of “Book Club,” beyond asserting the vitality, sexual appetite and humanity of older people, is that everyone, of any age, who feels stagnant or stuck in their ways has the opportunity, nay, the responsibility to shake it up and put themselves out there — a heavily sanitized riff on “Fifty Shades.” “Book Club” just might be the best adaptation of that book series yet.
PG-13, 1:45, comedy
Melissa McCarthy, at left, stars in the ramshackle, amiable “Life of the Party,” about a woman, freshly dumped by her husband, heading back to college 20 years after she dropped out with a kid on the way. Now a college senior, Maddie (Molly Gordon) runs a gamut of emotions when faced with sharing the same campus, and graduating class, with her unfailingly upbeat and smother-prone mother. But one of the better aspects of “Life of the Party” is the baseline affection these two have for each other. The movie’s not as slapstick-dependent as advertised.
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