Reel-View Ratings: The Bigger The Beard, The Better The Movie

DEADPOOL

The best thing aboutDeadpool is that, well, this is really Deadpool. Ryan Reynolds has lifted the Merc with a Mouth from the comic pages and made him into exactly who he should be — a joke-spouting machine of gratuitous violence and questionable morals. So that’s great. The movie itself is slightly less great, mostly because it tries very hard, despite itself, to squish Deadpool into a more conventional superhero origin formula — which is, like, fine and all, but it’s a little disappointing that he couldn’t have a story that lived up to his rule-bending, proudly antiheroic irreverence. But hey, it’s a Deadpool movie that doesn’t suck. That’s the real victory here.

Opens Feb. 12 in wide release

THE LADY IN THE VAN

This may very well be the most British of British films playing at the box office this weekend. In this based-loosely-on-real-life story, playwright Alan Bennett (Alex Jennings) contends with the irascible transient Miss Shepherd (Maggie Smith) who has taken up residence in his driveway in her dilapidated old van. What could have been a rather quaint and amusing story about class is muddled by forced questions of authorship and truth, with two Bennetts (both played by Alex Jennings) debating with one another throughout. It works on stage but comes off poorly in film. Smith gives a pitch-perfect performance as always in her regal-yet-addled old bird, but the film doesn’t deserve her.

Opens Feb. 12 at Kahala Theatre

WHERE TO INVADE NEXT

Michael Moore is downright perky in his latest venture into the myriad reasons why the U.S. kind of sucks. The normally incendiary, this-time-just-cheerful filmmaker visits a smattering of European countries to learn about their best policies and compare them with America’s lackluster offerings. Certainly, we would love vacation policies like the Italians — but Moore ignores the counterarguments to his exaltation of Europe. Yes, it would be nice if we had free universities and awesome school lunches, but Moore isn’t interested in asking why it is that such policies wouldn’t work as well in America. But he raises excellent points and gets viewers thinking — it’s the start America needs.

Opens Feb. 12 at Kahala Theatre