Superhero sequels are always more of the same, and “Deadpool 2” continues the practice smoothly, transitioning into something more gory, bizarre, offbeat and even obscenely funny than the original, which opened in 2016 to quite justified acclaim and stratospheric profits. While the protagonist, a smart-mouthed, obnoxious, unkillable mutant assassin, is a runt of the Marvel litter, his absurdly violent comedies know how to bark and bite and wag a tail for attention. 
 
 This is a very self-aware bag of tricks. Most films are self-aware, but they work hard to keep that out of sight. “Deadpool 2” revels in its self-referential perspective, relishing jabs at old John Hughes movies, “The Passion of the Christ” and, most of all, its own “lazy writing.” 
 
 It stays true to the mission of lampooning earnest comic-book action movies with enormous creative chutzpah. It embraces everything that should make it lousy, calling out itself for aping the genre’s bad ideas and then shattering the fourth wall with meta precision. We’ve seen superhero satire before in films like “The Mask” and “Guardians of the Galaxy,” but this is different, cross-the-line material by shock jocks and provocateurs. 
 
 It delivers so much over-the-top mayhem that we wonder if the crew was rising to a dare, and the title character’s fast, cheeky, very funny commentary covers every inch of the convoluted plot. A refresher course on old Marvel comics isn’t needed to sharpen your appreciation of what’s happening on-screen. When the fertilizer hits the fan, as it frequently does, it’s pretty clear what’s happening. 
 
 Ryan Reynolds plays Deadpool, whose special power is quickly healing to cartoonish effect when he’s sliced, diced, shot or subdivided by a hand grenade. Reynolds introduces us to his character’s typical day, traveling from Japan, across Europe, to his nameless Hometown to jump down buildings, crash through windows and relentlessly lay carnage on evildoers like a steamroller in overdrive. 
 
 Wearing scar makeup to hide his typical pretty-boy looks, Reynolds radiates a bizarre charisma. Throwing his impish Alfred E. Neuman smile at the camera to make us feel weird, he sails through each nonstop raunchy verbal riff. He is like a swizzle stick continually stirring up a double Mickey Finn. 
 
 Ryan Reynolds in a scene from "Deadpool 2." 
 
 The story at hand is breathtakingly simple, yet complicated to the point of lunacy. Bad guys separate Deadpool from his love, Vanessa (Morena Baccarin), putting him in a suicidal funk. At least very briefly, because of that instant healing, remember? Trying to construct a substitute family, Deadpool becomes a trainee at the X-Men academy, where almost every studio-valuable character hides from him and the gallery of heroic portraits on the wall includes an impressive image of Karl Marx. 
 
 Deadpool tries to mentor another mutant academy’s defiant teen fire starter, Firefist (delightfully played by Julian Dennison, so fine in the charmingly odd “Hunt for the Wilderpeople”). Grappling with orphanhood, 14-year-old angst and a chubby physique, he hasn’t found a mentor to help him control his abilities because, as he says, there’s no demand for plus-size superheroes. 
 
 They wind up side by side in a Supermax prison where a Terminator-like soldier from the future, Cable (Josh Brolin), arrives to eliminate Firefist before he reaches his destiny as a supervillain. And then things begin to get a bit complicated. Joining the mess is Domino (Zazie Beetz), whose superpower is, basically, luck. She adds such a delightful performance that you feel the movie was lucky for getting her. 
 
 On the surface, “Deadpool 2” follows the antihero’s crime-fighting antics. One layer down, there’s a lot more going on. It launches an indictment of pop culture and its addicted fans. The film mocks sincere good taste, showing us terrifying things we should not feel comfortable about while sophomorically asking, “Are you enjoying this?” and scoffing, “Of course you are!” The movie addresses topics as diverse as rampant gun violence and how gloomy DC superhero movies have become. 
 
 There are perhaps two believable human moments in the script. Otherwise, most of it is focused on samurai sword slicing, putting dirty lyrics in a Carmina Burana-style doomsday choral piece and “how did they afford him?” celebrity cameos. If you love films that keep you guessing, laughing and surprised on the edge of your seat, this is a must-see. ||||| Ryan Reynold’s “Deadpool 2” is set to take the No. 1 box office crown from “Avengers: Infinity War” this weekend, with $133.5 million from 4,349 North American locations. 
 
 The third R-rated superhero film from Fox took in $53.3 million Friday, including a record-setting $18.6 million from Thursday previews, the highest Thursday tally for an R-rated film (“It” had previously held the title with $13.5 million). “Deadpool 2’s” 4,349 theaters also mark Fox’s widest launch ever. 
 
 The “Deadpool” sequel will break its own predecessor’s record as the highest opening weekend for an R-rated film — “Deadpool” stunned the industry two years ago with $132.4 million. The original’s unique take on the superhero genre, with Reynolds breaking the fourth wall to address the audience directly, made the film a must-see, and it went on to earn $363 million in North America and $783 worldwide, making it the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time. 
 
 Reynolds returns as the wisecracking mercenary in the 11th title in the X-Men franchise. David Leitch replaced Tim Miller as director, helming from a script by Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, and Reynolds. The story sees Deadpool forming the X-Force — comprised of Zazie Beetz’s Domino, T.J. Miller’s Weasel, Terry Crews’ Bedlam, Bill Skarsgard’s Zeitgeist, and Rob Delaney’s Peter — to protect a young mutant from Josh Brolin’s Cable. 
 
 Related Ryan Reynolds Wants to Explore Deadpool's Bisexuality in Future Films North American Box Office Hits Record $3.33 Billion in Second Quarter 
 
 “Infinity War” will drop down to the second place slot in its fourth weekend with $27 million from 4,002 domestic sites, down 472 from last weekend. The Disney-Marvel tentpole has become the fourth-highest grossing film at the worldwide box office with $1.710 billion, topping “Jurassic World’s” $1.671 billion. The film has earned $566.3 million domestically in its first 21 days, along with $1.136 billion internationally. 
 
 In third is the debut of Paramount’s “Book Club,” starring Jane Fonda, Candace Bergen, Diane Keaton, and Mary Steenburgen. The film will top early estimates, which had pegged it in the $7 million to $10 million range, with $13 million from 2,781 cinemas. Fonda, Bergen, Keaton, and Steenbergen star as four women who read “Fifty Shades of Grey” in their book club and are inspired to spice up their lives. The film has received mixed reviews and carries a 59% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. 
 
 Melissa McCarthy’s Mother’s Day opener “Life of the Party” will reel in around $7 million in its second weekend from 3,656 sites to take the fourth place slot. McCarthy plays a mother who enrolls in the same college as her daughter to earn her degree after divorcing her husband. 
 
 “Show Dogs,” from Global Road, will take in $5 million from 3,212 sites for fifth. Directed by Raja Gosnell, the family film follows a rottweiler police dog and his owner going undercover at a prestigious dog show to stop a crime. Will Arnett stars alongside the voice cast of Ludacris, Jordin Sparks, Gabriel Iglesias, Shaquille O’Neal, Stanley Tucci, and Alan Cumming. 
 
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 Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) pauses during a life-and-death battle. The R-rated 'Deadpool' opened with a record-setting $135 million weekend. (Photo: 20th Century Fox) 
 
 Time to crack open the celebratory cheap wine for Deadpool, which soared to a head-turning, historic opening weekend at the box office with $135 million, according to studio estimates. 
 
 The R-rated superhero movie, featuring Ryan Reynolds as Marvel's foul-mouthed, irreverent Deadpool, set a slew of new records: the biggest R-rated opening (beating 2003's The Matrix Reloaded, which opened with $91.8 million), the biggest February weekend and biggest President's Day four-day weekend (beating 2015's Fifty Shades of Grey,with $85.2 million for the former and $93 million for the latter). 
 
 Deadpool is expected to take an overwhelming $150 million over the full four-day holiday weekend. 
 
 It's all shocking given the movie's restrictive R-rating and top-end projection of $90 million going into the weekend, says Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for comScore tracking service. 
 
 Skip in Skip x Embed x Share CLOSE Ryan Reynolds stars as a masked antihero in 'Deadpool.' 20th Century Fox 
 
 "Deadpool just kept going up and up. Obliterating expectations just doesn't cover this," he says. "And rather than hurting, the R-rating actually helped. It made the film an edgy, must-see superhero event." 
 
 The victory is especially sweet for Reynolds, who worked for 11 years to bring the wisecracking character to the big screen and suffered a superhero setback with his 2011 flop Green Lantern, a portrayal even Reynolds mocked in Deadpool. 
 
 Deadpool was a hit on every level, scoring 84% critical approval on review aggregate site RottenTomatoes.com and an A from audiences on CinemaScore. Producer Simon Kinberg told USA TODAY Friday that he sent a special gift to Reynolds and his co-stars to celebrate: boxed white wine. 
 
 "It's more in keeping with Deadpool, who is not going to drink champagne," Kinberg said. "So we had (terrible) boxed wine sent to these guys for the weekend. It was either that or wine coolers. Keeping it classy." 
 
 (Photo: Joe Lederer) 
 
 Deadpool laid waste to the other major film openings, which included Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson's Zoolander 2 and Rebel Wilson and Dakota Johnson's How to Be Single. 
 
 Second place for the weekend went to Jack Black's family-friendly animated Kung Fu Panda 3,which made $19.7 million ($93.9 million total after three weeks of release). Panda 3 is projected to pass the $100 million mark at the end of the four-day weekend. 
 
 How to Be Single took third with $18.8 million. The story of New Yorkers dealing with single life scored a low 47% critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a B on CinemaScore. 
 
 Skip in Skip x Embed x Share CLOSE Ryan Reynolds is back in superhero mode with the clearly R-rated 'Deadpool.' He's a wisecracking, foul-mouthed mutant wearing a red suit and kicking butt. Martin E. Klimek, USA TODAY 
 
 Zoolander 2, which brought back Stiller and Wilson's famed male models from 2001's Zoolander, ended in a catwalk stumble and a disappointing fourth with $15.7 million. Jeff Bock, box office analyst for Exhibitor Relations, says the other new movies were run over by the runaway Deadpool train. 
 
 "There wasn't any room in the media or the national conversation for anything other than Deadpool," Bock says. 
 
 Zoolander 2 didn't help matters by landing a paltry 23% critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a C-plus grade on CinemaScore. 
 
 Leonardo DiCaprio's starring turn in the awards contender The Revenant rounded out the top five with $6.9 million for $159.2 million total after eight weeks. 
 
 Final numbers are expected Tuesday. 
 
 (Photo: Philippe Antonello) 
 
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– Now pondering fatherhood, Deadpool is back to kick butt and crack jokes in Marvel's Deadpool 2, featuring Ryan Reynolds and more than a few F-bombs. Its predecessor ruled the box office in 2016, but does this sequel from David Leitch—which cost a stuntwoman her life—have the power to do the same? It seems so, with the movie getting a solid 85% positive rating from critics and audiences alike at Rotten Tomatoes. Here's what critics are saying: "If you love films that keep you guessing, laughing and surprised on the edge of your seat, this is a must-see," writes Colin Covert at the Minneapolis Star Tribune. "More gory, bizarre, offbeat and even obscenely funny than the original," the film "revels in its self-referential perspective" while Reynolds "radiates a bizarre charisma," Covert writes. Not to be outdone is a "delightful" Zazie Beetz as lucky superhero Domino. "There's no way it could equal the freshness and irreverence of the 2016 original. Fortunately, the sequel comes off as much more than a cash grab," writes Calvin Wilson at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He mostly credits Reynolds. In "the role of his dreams," the actor "totally sells the character's blend of reckless self-absorption and reluctant heroics." Even so, "another sequel really isn't necessary, but it's in the works anyway." Jen Yamato wasn't as impressed. "While the sequel benefits from Reynolds' superhuman charisma," it "merely rehashes and recycles the same wink-wink barbs that worked the first time around" and offers "uninspired plotting," she writes at the Los Angeles Times. Thank goodness for Celine Dion. Her music brings "new life, emotion and a winking, self-aware wit into the action," Yamato says. The movie "comes blazing out of the shoot, but dips in its second hour, like a stretched-out piece of taffy," writes Adam Graham at Detroit News. "Still, there is a lot left to like here, and Reynolds and company crank out better, more outrageous laughs than most pure comedies. You'll laugh loud and you'll laugh hard."