‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’ Movie Review

‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’ (2018)
20th Century Fox

Directed by: Ron Howard
Written by: Jonathan Kasdan & Lawrence Kasdan
Starring: Alden Ehrenreich, Emilia Clarke, Joonas Suotamo, Donald Glover, Woody Harrelson, Thandie Newton & Paul Bettany

‘Solo: A Star Wars Story‘, the newest entry into the Star Wars franchise, hits theaters this weekend. For those of you keeping score, this is the 10th movie in the film’s 41 year franchise, the 4th since Disney bought Lucasfilm but only the 2nd “non-trilogy” film in the group. Disney purchased George Lucas’ company in 2012 for $4 billion and has already made over $4 billion back just from the worldwide box office takes of ‘The Force Awakens‘, ‘Rogue One‘ and ‘The Last Jedi.’ Anything ‘Solo’ does is now just icing on the cake or extra feathers in the cap, depending on whether you prefer cakes or caps, I suppose.

From what I saw, it seems that they will more or less have yet another hit on their hands. For the two or three of you out there who somehow don’t know who Han Solo is, we were first introduced to the character in 1977’s original ‘Star Wars‘ (now known as ‘Star Wars IV ‘or simply as ‘A New Hope’). He’s a lovable smuggler who ends up helping Luke Skywalker and The Rebels rescue Princess Leia and destroy The Death Star. There have been novels and comics devoted to some of Han’s back story but now that Disney owns the rights, all things previously thought to have been known about Han are no longer canon. THIS is now his origin story and, for the most part, I feel like director Ron Howard and writers Jonathan & Lawrence Kasdan did right by us.

As the movie opens, we see Han and his friend Qi’ra attempting to escape their hardscrabble life on Corellia and the events that led to Han enlisting in the Imperial Navy to be a pilot as well as his getting kicked out of the academy for “having a mind of his own.” These aren’t spoilers, but pieces of the back story we’d all previously known and that the writers correctly decided to keep in play. We also see how he meets his sidekick and stalwart co-pilot Chewbacca (also first seen in the original film). From this point on, the writers do a great job of weaving a brand new story for our reluctant heroes while also including necessary parts of what we all hoped would be present in this tale along with several clever Easter Eggs for those of us who live and breathe all things Star Wars (anyone still have their original PlayStation “Star Wars Masters of Teras Kasi” video game?).

We truly have an all-star cast in this film including Thandie Newton, Paul Bettany, Emilia Clarke & Jon Favreau. The two stand out performances for me were Donald Glover who was able to perfectly capture the essence of Billy Dee William‘s smooth but shady Lando Calrissian and Woody Harrelson who portrayed the new character of mastermind / thief / smuggler Beckett with a world-weary determination that commanded attention. As for Alden Ehrenreich‘s Han Solo, he gave us a young, hungry and energetic rendering of our favorite scruffy-looking nerf herder, but he never seemed to be able to muster the easy, roguish charm that Harrison Ford gave us throughout his run in the franchise. He tried…. but it just fell slightly short of the mark, for me.

For my money, ‘Solo’ does a rather solid job of navigating between what hard core Star Wars fans will expect and what newcomers and younger generations will enjoy with fresh eyes. The cast is sharp, the story is clean and the action is never too slow nor too far outside of what we have seen from previous Star Wars films. My biggest complaint was the attempt at giving us a similar-ish droid character to ‘Rogue One‘s stand out K-2SO (voiced by Alan Tudyk) in the form of Lando’s co-pilot L3 and not pulling it off as well (through no fault of voice actress Phoebe Waller-Bridge). Nothing more can be said there without spoiling a few things, so I’ll just leave it at that. I have no doubt that this movie will be successful for Disney and, given the movie’s ending, I definitely see the need for either a sequel or a direct spinoff for at least 2 or 3 of the characters involved in this film. On a scale of 1 – 10, I give ‘Solo’ a respectable 7.5. Get out and see it in a movie theater near you!!

‘Deadpool 2’ Movie Review

‘Deadpool 2’ (2018)
20th Century Fox

Directed by: David Leitch
Written by: Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick & Ryan Reynolds
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin, Morena Baccarin, Zazie Beetz, Brianna Hildebrand & Julian Dennison

Describing ‘Deadpool‘ to someone unfamiliar with the character can sometimes be… difficult. Yes, it’s a comic book movie, but it’s unlike any other comic book movie out there. The titular character is a katana-wielding, mass-murdering, 4th wall-breaking, joke-cracking anti-hero. The original film brought in over $780 million at the world wide box office and if reaction at the press screening last week was any indication, the sequel which hits theaters this weekend will far surpass it. Yes, Wade Wilson is back in ‘Deadpool 2‘ and, once again, Ryan Reynolds is the perfect embodiment of “The Merc With A Mouth”. This time around, he’s trying to protect a young mutant named Russell Collins from a time traveler Cable who is hell-bent on killing Rusty at all costs. Along the way, Deadpool must learn how to be a team-player as he assembles his X-Force to stop Cable and save Russell while also redeeming himself in the process.

The introduction of Cable is an interesting one because the vast majority of comic book fans know the character who first appeared in “New Mutants #87” (co-created by the same Rob Liefeld who also co-created Deadpool himself in the same title just 12 issues later!) and Josh Brolin does a fantastic job of portraying the no-nonsense, time-traveling mutant. This film, however, provides virtually no character development for him. We don’t know why he has come back in time to kill Russell until over half way through the movie. Honestly though, due to the nature of Deadpool both as a character and a film franchise, it’s very hard to let that little hiccup stop one’s enjoyment of the film. The other new cast members including Zazie Beetz as Domino, Terry Crews as Bedlam, Lewis Tan as Shatterstar, Bill Skarsgard as Zeitgeist, Rob Delaney as Peter and Julian Dennison as Russell all make for fresh and welcome additions along side returning actors such as Brianna Hildebrand as Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Stefan Kapicic as Colossus, Karan Soni as Dopinder and TJ Miller as Weasel. The stand out for me was definitely Zazie Beetz whose performance here as Domino merits that she gets her own spinoff movie and soon!

The plot, even involving the idea of time travel, is not overly complex at all but again, I wasn’t expecting a deep story line from a Deadpool film. I went in expecting more of what I saw in the original movie and I got it in spades! ‘Deadpool 2’ was exciting, irreverent, action-packed, hilarious and definitely not for children. That’s a hard ‘R’ rating, people!! I can’t say too much more without spoiling certain aspects of the movie, but I will say that the writers get huge credit from me for finally doing one of my very favorite Marvel Comics characters proper justice AND also for having the BEST post credits scenes of any comic book movie. Ever. Period! So if you enjoyed the original, if you’re a huge comic book fan, if you can’t get enough Ryan Reynolds OR you just want to go laugh harder than you thought possible, see ‘Deadpool 2’ in theaters this weekend! On a scale of 1 – 10, I’d have to give this film a solid 9 for “maximum effort”!! (But good luck getting that Air Supply song out of your head.)

‘Life Of The Party’ Movie Review

‘Life Of The Party’ (2018)
New Line Cinema

Directed by: Ben Falcone
Written by: Melissa McCarthy & Ben Falcone
Starring: Melissa McCarthy, Maya Rudolph, Gillian Jacobs, Debby Ryan, Adria Arjona & Stephen Root

Certain actors make certain kind of movies. That’s something we can all count on and something that, for me, is comforting. We more or less know what we are going to get when we go see a Julia Roberts movie or if we go see a Tom Cruise film. The same holds true with Melissa McCarthy. She has a style of humor and a type of movie that she makes. ‘Life Of The Party‘ is definitely a Melissa McCarthy movie and that’s a good thing. In my humble opinion, her movies are always funny, albeit in varying degrees, and her supporting cast is always strong. Her current offering is no exception! McCarthy plays Deanna who, just after sending her only daughter off to her senior year of college (and I mean literally JUST after dropping her off and hasn’t even left the parking lot) is told by her husband that he wants a divorce. Unsure as to what to do with her life, her parents (played by Jacki Weaver & Stephen Root) suggest that she should start by finishing college. Now, heading back to her former college to finish her last year (the same school from which her daughter is also set to graduate), Deanna is determined to “make lemons out of lemonade” (you’ll get that one once you see the movie).

McCarthy not only stars in this film but she also co-wrote it along with her real-life husband Ben Falcone (who makes a delightful cameo). As I mentioned, it is ripe with her brand of humor in the vein of ‘Tammy‘ and ‘The Boss‘, but with flavors of ‘Old School‘ and ‘Animal House‘ mixed in along the way. I mentioned her supporting cast which includes her best friend (Maya Rudolph), her daughter (Molly Gordon), her daughter’s friends (Gillian Jacobs, Adria Arjona & Jessie Ennis), her ex-husband (Matt Walsh) and his new wife (Julie Bowen), all of which demonstrate impeccable comedic timing in their various roles. The comedy snowballs as the film progresses from just a few light giggles in the opening to full-on belly laughs by the middle of the picture. It’s fun, if slightly predictable, but mostly… it’s fun! I find that people who don’t like Melissa McCarthy generally don’t like her movies based on that single premise alone. I, however, am a fan of her style and this particular film ranks right up there with the likes of ‘Bridesmaids‘ and ‘Spy‘ as far as laughs delivered. I would have to give this movie as solid passing grade of 7 out of 10 and recommend that, if you’re in the mood to laugh, you go see it in theaters this weekend!!

‘Bad Samaritan’ Movie Review

‘Bad Samaritan’ (2018)
Electric Entertainment

Directed by: Dean Devlin
Written by: Brandon Boyce
Starring: David Tennant, Kerry Condon, Robert Sheenhan, Carlito Olivero & Jacqueline Byers

There are certain movies that have stand-out moments to everyone. Every genre of film has these moments from rom-coms to action flicks to animated features. Thrillers & horror films, for me anyway, have those moments even more so. This weekend, writer Brandon Boyce and director Dean Devlin will serve up several of those moments to you on a silver platter in their new movie ‘Bad Samaritan‘. Robert Sheehan & Carlito Olivero play valets (Sean & Derek, respectively) at an upscale Portland restaurant who use their access to customers’ cars to gain access to their homes and rob them. On this particular evening, they find more than just valuables when they break into the home of Mr. Cale Erendreich (played with sociopathic aplomb by David Tennant) to find a woman chained to the wall of his private home office and a “kill room” in his garage. Sean decides he has to alert the police even though it means admitting to his own crimes. But Erendreich is already ahead of him and has moved his prisoner to another location. Desperately, Sean goes to the FBI for help but even they seem to be unable to stop this mad man from killing his prisoner and systematically destroying Sean’s life piece by-piece in the process.

Dean Devlin is a masterful director and does a fantastic job of slowly and mercilessly building tension scene-by-scene. The entire cast give strong performances including Kerry Condon as Erendreich’s prisoner Katie (who delivers what is probably my favorite line of the film). David Tennant is unrelentingly intense and razor sharp as Cale Ehrendreich. His portrayal of this sociopath ranks right up there with  greats like Robert De Niro‘s Max Cady and Anthony Hopkins‘ Hannibal Lecter. This is one of those films that you’ll be thinking about days after you’ve seen it. We had a great talk with Dean Devlin about the film if you’d like to hear his thoughts on the film, the casting and more. Movies like this that are original ideas and driven by a strong cast are few and far between in today’s age of the Hollywood blockbuster where it’s all big names, special effects and barely plausible plotlines. To that end, ‘Bad Samaritan’ is a breath of fresh air that will leave you holding your breath until the pulse-pounding finale. On a scale of 1 to 10, I’d give this film a blood-chilling 9! Don’t see it alone!!