knowing digs at the industry that spawned him and sex jokes.

(“I’m going to show you something.

Something huge.

” “That’s what Scoutmaster Kevin used to say.

”) Occasionally, it’s both: “Pegging isn’t new for me, but it is for Disney,” he says when he first sees a bunch of TVA soldiers and thinks they’re a gang of male prostitutes someone rented out for his birthday.

These are funny the first few times, but after a while, you wonder if maybe he should attempt some new material.

But that would go against the ethos of the character, who is supposed to be annoying and one-note.

Indeed, that’s sort of why Wolverine wants to beat his ass, and Jackman, to his credit, can still make that character’s rage palpable.

In their second, far more entertaining fight, which happens entirely within the confines of a Honda Odyssey, the stakes suddenly feel genuine, because Jackman briefly brings something resembling gravitas to this silly lark of a movie.

He acts circles around his co-star, whose lack of range was a handicap during the decade-plus that Hollywood was trying to turn him into a leading man.

Reynolds never could convince us of his characters’ sincerity in those dry years—which is why the snarky Deadpool wound up being his biggest, and probably best, role.

And this movie seems to recognize that what it’s really doing, aside from bringing together two of Fox’s biggest assets under the Disney banner, is colliding the cheekiest Marvel hero with the most unsmiling.

The cheekiness, of course, wins.

“Want to talk about what’s haunting you, or should we wait for a third-act flashback?” Deadpool asks the grim Wolverine.

It’s no spoiler to reveal that we get exactly that in the movie’s third act.

Speaking of spoilers, the picture is replete with some welcome cameos that Disney has done an exceptional job of hiding.

I won’t ruin those, but I will reiterate that when the TVA sends our heroes to the Void, they wind up in a world of useless things.

Even the cameos are digs at the superhero industry.

Watching them, I did wonder if I was reacting to the actual performances and incidents on screen—which are, by and large, totally indifferent—or if I was just responding to the surprise of seeing them.

In other words, is it the movie or the marketing? For better or worse, we live in a world where that question has ceased to matter.

Deadpool probably would have a joke to make about that.

Oh, wait, he does.

It’s this film.