Movies: Deadpool & Wolverine is big, fun, violent & still disappoints

Maybe it's the Olympics. Maybe it's that one movie this week has got the lead by far. Whatever it is, there aren't many new films opening today. They're staying away it seems.

I cover three today and start with the big one, Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool, cracking jokes and talking directly to us as he so often does.

Deadpool & Wolverine: 3 stars

Crossing: 4 stars

The Fabulous Four: 2 stars

DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE: For months this has been the movie most anticipated by fans. That means it's going to be huge, with them for sure, not so much with people who like logical stories and full characterizations. A lot to ask of a film with comic book ancestry sure, but a little more than this would be welcomed. And hey, didn't Wolverine die a few films back? Yes but invoke the multiverse and you can bring him back. Deadpool played again with wisecracking humor and this time with much more rough language by Ryan Reynolds does the job. He's under orders of the Time Variance Authority for fear that his world will fall apart and disappear if he doesn't succeed. He's also anxious to prove that he “matters”.

Wolverine, on the other hand, played by Hugh Jackman, comes back full of self-loathing and regrets. In a scene late in the film he explains why and it's a display of fine acting. Most of the film doesn't bother with that. It just breezes through a story that sends characters to what is called The Void, presided over by Cassandra (Emma Corrin), the evil twin of Dr. Xavier from the X-Men movies. You can see a couple of corporate drives there. Those movies were made at 20th Century Fox and Disney, which bought that studio, wants to integrate the characters with the Marvel films they're making. There are several gags about that in this film including a collapsed Fox neon sign in a wasteland and this by Deadpool about reviving Wolverine: “Fox killed him, Disney brought him back; they’re gonna make him do this till he’s ninety.”

It helps, is maybe essential, to know the background and what happened in the previous films. Deadpool is in four, and some shorts. Wolverine in 10. They fought each other in one. A couple of plot points came from a TV spin-off series. Fans know much of this and they're rewarded with easter eggs and several characters returning in cameos. Other viewers? Well, you're on your own. And notice that this one, though fun, is quite violent. Also notice that unlike the first and second, it wasn't filmed in Vancouver where Reynolds used to live but in England where he owns a soccer team. Shawn Levy of Montreal directed. (In theaters everywhere) 3 out of 5

CROSSING: It's an appeal for acceptance, in this case of trans people, but not as you might expect. Not up front and obvious, with grand pronouncements, but subtly woven into a search story that'll keep you engrossed. Imagine exploring a new city on a vacation trip. It's a bit like that. Istanbul, Turkey is the city and where a young trans woman named Tekla is said to have escaped to, from neighboring Georgia where her father threw her out of his house. Her aunt Lia (Mzia Arabuli), a stern former schoolteacher, sets out to find her and, insisting he come along, is a young man named Achi (Lucas Kankava). He claims he has the address where they can find Tekla.

Nothing as simple as that, though. There are twists and surprises and then a highly emotional and still open-ended resolution. The pair fear Tekla has become a prostitute and they wander the seedier parts of town looking for her, asking streetwalkers for information and connecting with a legal aid woman (Deniz Dumanli) who, as a former sex-worker herself, knows the area. Also a helpful “pirate” taxi driver. They get around much of the city and we get a good tour.

We also get many small reminders of the discrimination trans people feel every day in conservative societies like that. The director, Levan Akin, also dealt with that in a previous film about a gay ballerina. Both films have won awards and Akin who is from Georgia, now living in Sweden, is gay himself. Here he delivers authenticity, a call for compassion and very good acting. (Theaters in Toronto, Ottawa, Halifax and Edmonton now and streaming on MUBI late next month) 4 out of 5

THE FABULOUS FOUR: Some movies avoid the obvious. Not this one. It does what you expect. You can figure out early on where it's going and then it goes there. If you like that, go, but accept that it's a time waster and even trivial. That a odd considering the power of the cast: Susan Sarandon (Oscar winner), Bette Midler, Megan Mullally (see Will & Grace), Bruce Greenwood and even Michael Bolton in a song-cameo. And the director, Jocelyn Moorhouse, who has a fine resume back in Australia where she is from and where this was filmed. It's set in Key West, Florida, though and shows enough of it and so nicely that it could double as a tourism ad.

Four friends are there to relive the amity from their college days. The occasion? Midler's character is getting re-married. Problem: Sarandon's character hasn't spoken to her for years, angry that she took her boyfriend away and married him. Why then go and celebrate? Oh that's easily done. An affinity for Ernest Hemingway and a made-up contest that won her a special cat gets her to go down to join the fun. It's awfully contrived though, strained and riddled with references to old age. Also references to the other side: trying to act young: a love of Tik Tok for example or meeting new men, Bruce Greenwood and a sailboat captain. There are pot-laden edibles, a kegel ball, an unsavory place to hide your drugs on a plane trip and even a male stripper act of which the performer is not only gay but also known to one of these women. The script loads in too much hoping you'll get at least some of it but it doesn't amount to much. Best are Sarandon, dignified anyway, and Midler reving up her familiar exuberance. (In theaters) 2 out of 5