In Hawaii, many resorts pull out all the stops to create over-the-top poolside settings and experiences. Whether you’re lounging in an in-water chaise or being treated like Hollywood royalty in a private cabana, drifting in slow motion down a “lazy river” or floating at the edge of an infinity pool while soaking up a Hawaiian sunset, your pool experiences can be among the most memorable highlights of a Hawaiian vacation.

If you’re feeling the urge for some Hawaiian-style poolside pampering, here are some of my favorite resorts to check out in the Hawaiian islands. Whatever pool paradise you choose, remember that Hawaii’s magic extends far beyond the resorts. Make sure to take the time to explore the islands’ stunning beaches, hike through lush rainforests, experience the rich local culture and splash in some of the natural pools — you’ll find suggestions on that score below, too.

Kauai

Grand Hyatt Kauai’s massive pool complex of palm tree-lined terraces and lushly landscaped oases, has something for everyone, including a long lazy river and a large, wonderfully relaxing saline lagoon just feet from Shipwreck Beach and the ocean surf. Details: hyatt.com

Also in Poipu, the Koloa Landing Resort has been honored with a “Best Pool in America” accolade by USA Today several years running. A huge waterfall overflowing a rock arch is the centerpiece of the main pool, but my favorite aquatic escape at the resort is the secluded adult pool and hot tub, set away from the busy main pool complex. Details: koloalandingresort.com

Maui

In West Maui’s Ka’anapali resort region, Westin Maui Resort & Spa’s lush pool complex is just feet from the beach and includes an adult pool on the upper terrace and lower pool with a waterslide that’s a hit with kids and adults. An infinity pool for adults features a sandy bottom, perfect for wiggling your toes while sipping a tropical drink from the nearby poolside bar. Details: westinmaui.com

At the far end of the main stretch of Ka’anapali Beach, the Sheraton Maui Resort and Spa’s pool is longer than a football field and has two swimming areas connected by a river. You can float between them, past waterfalls and tropical trees, plants and flowers. At one end, a family area includes a slide and shallow section for children. The other end has cabanas and a bar and is geared for adults.

Located between the pool and the beach, the Cliff Dive Grill provides prime seats for the spectacular nightly sunset torch-lighting and cliff dive ceremony at the promontory called Pu’u Kekaa (aka Black Rock). Details: sheraton-maui.com

In South Maui, the Wailea Beach Resort boasts several pools, including the serene Maluhia infinity edge pool overlooking the popular Wailea coastal path and the new Olakino wellness pool (reservations required), where poolside offerings include mini-massages, wellness workshops and wellness drinks and food.

Don’t miss the resort’s Nalu Adventure Pool, featuring the highest waterslides in Hawaii — a top attraction for thrillists seeking helter skelter descents through two slippery tubes. Details: waileabeachresort.com

Next door, the Grand Wailea, a Waldorf Astoria Resort, draws thrill seekers to experience the Lava Tube Slide and its exhilarating three-story drop at speeds up to 22 miles per hour. The sprawling resort complex boasts multiple pools, including the thrilling Wailea Canyon River Ride. Take a raft down twists, turns and waterfalls—a surefire way to cool off and get your adrenaline pumping. Details: grandwailea.com

Oahu

Aulani, A Disney Resort & Spa, on Ko Olina Bay is where Disney magic meets Hawaii. Aulani’s pool complex offers family-oriented swim and water play spots ranging from the whimsical water fountain wonderland of the Menehune Bridge to the 3,800-square foot Rainbow Reef, a private lagoon where you can swim with ocean fish. An infinity pool and several whirlpool spas are perfect for parental rest and relaxation.

Kids will love the lazy river, the Keiki Cove splash zone with its water jets and slides or the more elaborate 2,100-square-foot Menehune Bridge splash zone, and the chance to meet Disney characters. Adults can unwind in the adult-exclusive pool or soak in a hot tub. Details: disneyaulani.com

Sheraton Waikiki Helumoa Playground offers two pools, two whirlpools, a water slide and a fountain play area for kids, all right beside the ocean and Waikiki Beach. There are 17 in-water chaise lounges. And during the summer — at midday Tuesday through Saturday — Citrine the mermaid, Tinker Fairy, Spider Super Hero, Polynesian Princess, Polynesian Warrior or another costumed character entertains children with storytelling, games and tricks. Details:marriott.com/hotels/travel/hnlws-sheraton-waikiki

Island of Hawaii

The luxurious Four Seasons Hualalai in Kailua-Kona has seven swimming pools ranging from oceanside lagoons to adults-only sanctuaries. Most unusual is the recently renovated King’s Pond, which provides a 1.8-million gallon swimmable aquarium hosting more than 1,000 tropical fish and more than 60 species that you can swim with — including the resort’s resident eagle ray, Kainalu. The pond also has an adjoining lounge pool and sun deck.

The swim-up bar at the Palm Grove Pool is a popular choice for in-water libations, a perfect place to gaze out at the endless blue Pacific Ocean or take a dip. Details: fourseasons.com/hualalai

The Hilton Waikoloa Village features multiple pools, each with its own unique charm. The jewel of the resort is a swimmable, four-acre saltwater lagoon connected to the ocean. It teems with tropical fish and green sea turtles that enter the lagoon under a footbridge, providing an opportunity for snorkelers to see a variety of Hawaii’s colorful underwater denizens up close. The quieter Kohala Lagoon Pool offers a swim-up bar and a beautiful lava rock waterfall, while the Kona Pool boasts a thrilling 175-foot slide. Details: hilton.com

Nature pools

The Hawaiian islands also abound with waterfalls and swimmable natural pools. In the Waimea Valley on Oahu, for example, a 1,800-acre valley features a natural pool fed by freshwater springs. It’s perfect for a refreshing dip surrounded by cascading waterfalls and tropical flora. Details: waimeavalley.net

On Kauai, join a five-hour guided adventure that starts with a kayak paddle on the wide, calm Wailua River followed by a hike through the lush jungle to the remote-feeling Uluwehi waterfall for an unforgettable swim session in the pool beneath the falls. Details: kayakkauai.com

We have thoughts on that as well as about some indie films you need to check out, including “The Beast Within,” “Fresh Kills” and the documentary “Eno.”

Here’s our roundup.

“Deadpool & Wolverine”: What a bummer it’s been with the Marvel Cinematic Universe spinning out of control (“Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” and “The Marvels” were DOA), with even diehard fans suffering from superhero burnout. The elixir to all the multiverse burnout arrives in the costumed form of this rude, raunchy and hard-R-rated Marvel resurrection of sorts. Director and co-screenwriter Shawn Levy’s MCU bad-boy matchup pits profane wisecracker Deadpool with brooding worrywart Wolverine, and resuscitates the gasping and splintered MCU. The reason it works that it has the right people attached – from stars Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman and on to Levy — who tones down the nauseating overuse of CGI that’s marred recent efforts and leans heavily into an irreverent midlife/existential crisis storyline concocted by a team of five (including Reynolds), which liberally ribs almost everything attached to it (20th Century Studios, Disney, “Gossip Girl,” Blake Lively, “Furiosa,” “The Proposal,” Jackman’s divorce and so on). The cameos — none of which should be revealed — pump things up even more so, to the approximate size of that eighth wonder of the world, Jackman’s biceps. (Impressive, Hugh. Impressive). Meanwhile, Emma Corrin gives one wicked turn as supervillain Cassandra Nova, the mind-manipulating twin sis of “X-Men’s” Charles Xavier. After Deadpool teams up with Wolverine (Why? I won’t tell you), the bickering duo are jettisoned off to the Void — a “Mad Max”-like post-apocalyptic junkyard where dead timelines waste away. Nova is the ruler there, and she loves control in every form, setting the stage for mayhem.

“Deadpool & Wolverine” throws a lot at us — including the awesome, over-the-top violent choreographed fights set to pop songs, and even the extra-juicy bit tagged on at the end  credits — and nearly all of it works. But what makes “Deadpool & Wolverine” the best Deadpool movie yet and the second best “Wolverine” film (James Mangold’s “Logan” still stands tallest) is how the union of two of the edgiest superheroes tempers the tendencies of each other, serving as a needed buffer between Deadpool’s barrage of double entendres and fourth-wall breaking asides and Wolverine’s relentless, gloomy tendency to beat himself up over and over again about past mistakes. United, they’re better and create something more sustainable and less monotonous, a game changer — if you will — that contributes in making “Deadpool & Wolverine”  one of the best, most satisfying and certainly adult roller-coaster rides of this summer. Details: 3½ stars out of 4; in theaters July 26 (with a scattering of screenings July 25).

“Fresh Kills”: Actor Jennifer Esposito hits the target with her electrifying directorial debut that reinvents and reinvigorates worn-out mobster tropes. Esposito co-stars as an ‘80s-’90s Staten Island mob wife/mom shouldering domestic duties and raising two close sisters (Emily Bader from Prime Video’s “My Lady Jane” and Odessa A’zion) while hubby profits from crime and murder. Esposito’s grasp of her multi-dimensional characters, their problems and the era in which they live, is dead-on perfect. Better yet, she gives us a rich portrait of what it’s like to be a girl and then a woman brought up in the shady, violent, macho world of Mafia madness. Sadly, after the film’s successful screening during the 2023 version of Cinequest, it never received a release in the Bay Area. Now you can rent this dynamite film. Details: 3½ stars; available on Fandango at Home, Amazon Prime, Apple TV+, Google Play and more..

“The Beast Within”: Alexander J. Farrell’s Gothic tale conjures a visually intoxicating world that’s both dark and thematically unsettling in unexpected ways. Drawing on “Beauty and the Beast,” even “Little Red Riding Hood,” this bold narrative debut takes a huge swing in its critical, closing minutes and it works — extremely well. Kit Harington of “Game of Thrones” gives a high-wire performance as Noah, a cursed dad from an indeterminate era living with a hyper-alert family deep in the U.K.’s remote woods. Noah is a gregarious, handsome guy, but on occasion needs to get chained up when a bad moon rises. His wife (Ashleigh Cummings) and her father (James Cosmo) do everything to ensure Noah will do no harm to 10-year-old Willow (Caoillinn Springall, handling a tough role with ease). “The Beast Within” is a supernaturally laced thriller, but seems as if came from a painful, dark personal place where the horrors are human and the wounds remain open forever. Details: 3 stars; in theaters July 26.

“Eno”: Often, documentaries about creative types gush about their subject. Not so, Gary Hustwit’s revolutionary mindblower about musician/producer Brian Eno and his hyperkinetic creative process. While David Byrne of the Talking Heads — a group the former Roxy Music member produced — weighs in, Hustwit’s approach avoids the use of talking heads and favors emulating the organic, free-flowing process of creating something changeable — akin to musical performances. This “generative” documentary is continually fluid and changes from one screening to the next. What could have been a confounding mess morphs into a brilliant plunge into the creative process of the tech-savvy Eno and what inspires the the influential artist (he loves nature) and how he allows the work he’s conceived grow up, move out and become its own vibrant entity. “Eno.” is intellectually stimulating, cinematically exciting and truly unique. Details: 4 stars; opens July 26 for a seven-day engagement at the Roxie, with each screening being different than the other.

“The Commandant’s Shadow”: Two families — one whose matriarch survived Auschwitz and the other that includes the elderly son of the commandant (Rodolph Hoss) that oversaw the extermination of more than a million Jews — get their stories told in Daniela Voker’s extraordinary look at the legacy of evil and how unfathomable acts continue to scar ensuing generations. Anyone who saw Jonathan Glazer’s award-winning “The Zone of Interest” will spot how that 2023 film so eerily replicated the Hoss family house featured here, which sat next door to a relentless killing machine. Voker bookends interviews with family members — some who remain in denial of who their father really was — with clips of Hoss’ trial, recollections from his autobiography and photos. Its most powerful moments occur when 87-year-old Hans Jurgen Hoss confronts the scope and scale of the extermination and realizes that his memories of how idyllic his childhood are faulty. Details: 3½ stars; available now on Max.

“Dirty Pop: The Boy Band Scam”: Fans of The Backstreet Boys and NSYNC will want to watch Netflix’s spill-the-tea three-part series on Lou Pearlman, and how the boy-band wiz built an empire out bad money culled from the longest running U.S. Ponzi scheme. “Dirty Pop” dusts in performance footage but it’s the voices of those who knew or worked with Pearlman (sorry, no Justin Timberlake) that fuel it. Fine tells the story well, except when he dumps in video of Pearlman and doctors it up so it appears the late businessman’s reading (a voice actor is used) excerpts from a book he co-authored. Even though “Dirty Pop” reveals upfront this is manipulated, its weirdness backfires and distracts from the story itself. Details: 2½ stars; drops July 24 on Netflix.

“The Fabulous Four”: There’s nothing wrong about wanting to make a goofy comedy about four 60ish/70ish female chums reuniting for a wedding in Key West. But there’s really not much right about “The Fabulous Four,” a predictable slog built around wah-wah jokes, lame situations and an incredibly horrendous bit of lip syncing from Michael Bolton. The cast — Bette Midler, Susan Sarandon, Megan Mullally and Sheryl Lee Ralph – deserve better, and the beginning promises there will be one doozy of a cat fight since Sarandon’s workaholic, cat-lady Dr. Lousie Zebarski and Midler’s social-media addict Marilyn have been estranged for years over a dating kerfuffle. But the tired-out screenplay from Ann Marie-Allison and Jenna Milley even botches that gimme near the end. An obligatory song-and-dance number at the end comes feels tacked on, as if someone saw “Mama Mia!” and said bingo – let’s replicate that box-office crowd pleaser. Made me want to rewatch “Grace and Frankie” instead. Details: 1½ stars; in theaters July 26.

“The Girl in the Pool”: Freddie Prinze Jr.’s growing-more-desperate performance as a cheating family man who stuffs his murdered mistress’ bloody body into a pool storage bin minutes before his surprise birthday party gets sprung keeps this dark comedic thriller afloat. What manages to sink it happens when the screenplay takes a radical tonal shift that doesn’t produce the emotional punch it thinks it’s earned. For the first two thirds, “The Girl in the Pool” leans into genre inclinations and gives us loads of suspects: a drunken, flirtatious invitee who paws at Tom’s (Prinze Jr.) and his angry wife Kirsten’s (Monica Potter) model-looking son; a suspicious father-in-law (Kevin Pollak) and so on. The red herrings don’t net much of anything, except making us realize that Prinze Jr. and Potter (seen together in the 2001 rom-com “Head Over Heels”) deserve better than this. Details: 2 stars; opens July 26 in theaters and also available to rent.

Contact Randy Myers at soitsrandy@gmail.com.