SPOILERS

The last Star wars movie became one of the most divisive films in the series’ run, if not in all of the history of cinema.  People either loved or hated the Last Jedi and there did not seem to be anything in-between.

To me, Solo: A Star Wars Story feels very divisive within the film.  There are scenes/moments that I really loved about the film and there are scenes/moments that I really disliked to downright hated which really made the film feel disjointed to me.  Was there more that I loved than I didn’t?  I have been mulling this over since seeing it.  Let’s see if we can work this out.  Be warned, I am going into spoiler territory with this review because I feel it is necessary to full express my feelings on Solo.

The film starts with a non-crawl.  Unlike the other Star Wars movies, Solo did not have a detailed opening crawl, but it did provide info we need to know to start the film.  I liked that use of the non-crawl, which set the film differently from previous Star Wars films, but did not just jump in (like Rogue One did).

However, all of the stuff from Han’s planet Corellia I disliked tremendously.  Especially the part with the ridiculous worm-like creature named Lady Proxima.  We are introduced to young Han (Alden Ehrenreich) and the love of his life Qi’ra (Emilia Clarke).  This intro felt clunky and ill-paced and just dragged the beginning of the film down.

As Han is trying to escape the planet with Qi’ra, we learn how he got his name “Solo”.  This is perhaps one of the worst parts of the film.  There are so many things wrong with this scene that it is hardly worth talking about.

I really enjoyed the moment that Han met Chewbacca for the first time.  This moment was truly well done, hearkening back to when Luke Skywalker was tossed into a pit to be killed.  The Han / Chewy relationship is perhaps the strongest aspect of Solo: A Star Wars Story as these two characters are very well done.

Although, the moment that Han literally speaks Wookie… well, that was a lowlight in what was otherwise a very strong scene.

I very much liked most of this cast.  Woody Harrelson as Beckett, a mentor of sorts for Han, is very well done.  Harrelson continues to be consistently strong in whatever performance he is asked to do.

Everyone is raving about Donald Glover’s work as a younger Lando Calrissian, and I agree that he is one of the strongest parts of the movie, but I would not go as far as to say that he stole the whole movie.  He was definitely excellent, though.

Lando’s droid, though, L3 (voiced by Phoebe Waller-Bridge) is perhaps the worst part of the film (maybe second to the name thing).  She is a droid who is in favor of droids’ rights and she is constantly harping on it.  It takes everything that the Internet hates about the SJW points of view and doubles down on it.  I would not be surprised to find that L3 becomes as disliked a character as Jar-Jar (for different reasons).

The Kessel Run stuff that we go in the Millennium Falcon was good, but most of the stuff on the planet of Kessel itself felt like a boring distraction.  It felt very much like the casino world scenes from The Last Jedi.  This was where the movie really slowed down its pacing to a crawl.

The film had some predictable twists at the end that you see coming.  The entire film, everyone keeps telling Han that he should trust no one, and, who would have guessed, that turns out to be true.  This was not a good stretch for the movie, but the whole “Han shot first” movement should be happy after seeing this film.

One of those twists that made no sense was Beckett’s rival group led by Enfys Nest (Erin Kellyman), who earlier in the movie was directly responsible for the deaths of Beckett’s love Val (Thandie Newton) and friend Rio (Jon Favreau)- two characters vastly underdeveloped, turns out to be heroic and wanting to start an arm of the Rebellion.  When Enfys Nest revealed herself to be a girl, I was sure she was going to be Beckett’s daughter and that there was a reason she was targeting him.  Nope.  None of that.

However, I loved the ending reveal that Darth Maul (Ray Parks, voiced by Sam Witwer) is alive and that Qi’ra was in league with him.  This played from the animated Clone Wars and Rebel series that featured the return of Darth Maul.  Using this character on the big screen was one of the most effective parts of Solo.

One of the problems with Solo was that I felt no stakes.  All they showed us was items that we already knew about.  We know Han was successful in the Kessel Run.  How Han won the Falcon in a card game (although there was a nice swerve with that). We know he and Chewy are friends.  We know Han doesn’t die here.  I never worried about the character once.

However, I do want to mention that I think Alden Ehrenreich does a wonderful job as Han Solo.  This had to be as difficult of a task that any actor will take up considering how iconic the Harrison Ford version of this character is.  Ehrenreich nailed the role and never once felt, to me, that he was just doing a Harrison Ford imitation.  I stopped thinking about the other version of the character early on and that is an accomplishment.

The story feels very underwhelming, with nothing much more than surface level story telling and character development.  I do not know how much that is because of the well publicized behind the scene troubles this movie faced, replacing original directors Lord and Miller with Ron Howard and then reshooting most of the film.  The fact that this film is not a total mess is a testament to the group of people working on it.

Last week I did the top 10 Star Wars movies list, and Solo:A Star Wars Story would probably fall into that list at #7ish.  It does not come close to the top 6 on that list, but it was not without its enjoyable moments.  It does feel too long and suffers a lot of negatives, but, in the end, I was entertained by most of it. Honestly, as soon as Han meets Chewy, the film gets better.  I am going to slightly recommend this though I can understand if Star Wars fans have trouble with the film.  There is fun to be had here if you go in with your expectations at a reasonable level.

3 stars

My theater was packed for Book Club.  Of course, the demographic of the theater patrons skewed a little older than me.

I expected as much from the crowd when I decided to go to Book Club, since the stars of the film were all actresses and actors of an advanced age.  I was one of the younger people in attendance, and there is nothing wrong with that.

Having said that, I had some positives about the story in Book Club, but, overall, it was perhaps lacking in a few areas.

The cast was great though as we got legendary performers such as Jane Fonda, Candace Bergen, Mary Steenburgen, Diane Keaton, Andy Garcia, Craig T. Nelson, Don Johnson, Richard Dreyfuss, Wallace Shawn, Ed Begley Jr and Alicia Silverstone.

In Book Club, the four lead actresses have been life long friends and get together every month to read a new book and discuss it.  It really is as much of an excuse to get together and drink wine and gossip about their lives.  So when they women decide to read Fifty Shades of Grey, they start looking to spice up their sex lives.

There is a charm among most of these actors.  Keaton, Bergen, Steenburgen and Fonda are very fun together.  I enjoyed the relationship with Steenburgen and Craig T. Nelson as the only married pair of the group.  The other women and their relationships moving forward are enjoyable to a point.

Here is the problem.  The film really becomes your typical, predictable rom-com as the movie progresses.  There are very few surprises in the film (after Candace Bergen and Richard Dreyfuss’s one scene) and it devolves into an unremarkable movie, which, with a cast like this, is a shame.

There is certainly enough likability among these actors that could have sustained the film over the full run time of the movie, but this seemed to really lose steam when we have the same old tropes of rom-coms.

There is a very charming scene involving Steenburgen, Nelson and a Meat Loaf song that is one of the best of the movie, but there is just not enough charm in the film to make up for the lazy writing and the predictable plot.

Now, the music of the movie was extremely varied and fun, with everything from Tom Petty’s Runnin’ Down a Dream, Paul Simon’s Late in the Evening, Hot Chocolate’s You Sexy Thing, and Sybersound’s Don’t Dream it’s Over.  There was a lot of fun music involved here which helped keep the entertainment level at a middle area.

Unfortunately, there is nothing special here.  You may go to Book Club and have a decent time.  There is nothing obviously wrong with the film that will make you hate it.  But it could have been (or should have been) considerably better than it turned out.

2.85 stars

I had a bad feeling about the sequel to the irreverent and crass-filled comedic sense of the first Deadpool.  It felt as if they might not be able to capture the lightning again.

And the first trailer was adequate but not as brilliant as I had oped.  So I had concerns about Deadpool 2, once again starring Ryan Reynolds as the Merc with the Mouth.

However, the final trailer featured some extremely funny lines and a much better tone and I had some hope.  Then the word of mouth was solid, so I had once again hope that it would be better than I thought it would be.

And do you know what?  It was.

In fact, Deadpool 2 was exceptional.  It was funny.  It was absolutely crass and obnoxious, but in the totally best ways.  Ryan Reynolds has proven that he is about the perfect casting of a comic book character as there ever has been.  And the end credits sequence is, arguably, one of the best in comic book movie history.

Deadpool 2 is a thrilling film, with surprising emotional depth, that is chocked full of laughs.

Now, I do think that it is slightly lower than the original.  One reason why I cannot explain because of SPOILERS.  Another reason was that it felt as if the film tried to cram too much of everything into the film.  More action. More crude jokes.  More 4th wall breaking.  There were a couple of times that it just felt too much.

And some of the CGI was a bit wonky.  Compared to what we saw with Thanos and Infinity War, the CGI in Deadpool 2 was no where near as strong.

But those are my only minor criticisms.

I thought Josh Brolin was great as Cable.  He is having himself quite the year, as first Thanos, now Cable and soon Siccario 2.

Then, Zazie Beetz as Domino was an amazing addition to the cast.  I want more of Domino and her luck power.  She had a great chemistry with Deadpool and their bickering was a highlight of the X-Factor stuff.

Speaking of them, I was also amazed at what happened with X-Factor.  Again, this is a spoiler, but their scenes in the film are unbelievably funny and surprising.

Wade Wilson’s (Ryan Reynolds) character arc in the film was great, showing more emotion and depth than you would have expected from what could be considered a spoof of super hero movies.

There is a ton of meta jokes and 4th wall breaking.  Most of them are funny and strike the proper chord with the timing, and it never feels like the meta jokes took me out of the film.  That is just the way Deadpool, the character, is.  He believes he is in a movie and goes about his life in that way.

The music is wonderfully eclectic.  Just like Angel in the Morning serenaded the audience during the first film, Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5, Air Supply’s All Out of Love and Cher’s If I Could Turn Back Time having major moments of the movie.  Add in Peter Gabriel, A-Ha, and Pat Benatar and the film’s music is tremendous.  There is also a James Bond style opening to the song Ashes by Celine Dion.

I was worried that Deadpool 2 would fall into the traps of other comedy sequels and just try to be the same film the first one was, but fortunately, Deadpool 2 is much more than just that.  It has a real heart and has as much profane humor as the original.  It is a very strong sequel.

4.5 stars

Melissa McCarthy is extremely funny, but unfortunately, her movies tend to be up or down.  She has not found a consistent format to translate her humor to the big screen.  Some of her films are just really funny (Spy, The Heat) and some are just terrible (The Boss, Tammy).  Life of the Party falls somewhere in-between.

McCarthy plays Deanna, the mother of Maddie (Molly Gordon)-a senior at college, who is just beginning her senior year.  It was as they were dropping Maddie off at school that Deanna’s husband Dan (Matt Walsh) decides to ask for a divorce.

Crushed, Deanna decides to go back to college, something she gave up on when she married Dan, to complete her degree in archeology.   And Deanna goes back to her alma mater, the same college where her daughter goes.

There was a lot of things that I liked about this film.  I thought Melissa McCarthy was great and I really did like her character Deanna.  The film creates a group of supportive friends for Deanna that actually happen to be Maddie’s friends, which is weird, but works very well.  Several of these characters are funny, especially Helen (Gillian Jacobs) who had spent 8 years in a coma.

There was an interesting relationship formed by Deanna with a young, hunky college student named Jack (Luke Benward) which I thought was interesting.  McCarthy and Benward were good together and made their scenes feel real.

I also thought much of the film was pretty funny and I laughed several times.  For most of the movie, I had a smile on my face and I have said before that if a comedy is funny, it helps cover some of the other flaws that it may have.

And the film does have its share of flaws.  First, there is not really a story here.  I mean, there are what feels like a series of sketches where we throw Deanna and her friends into situations to see what happens, but there is not much of a through line to maintain these scenes and even less of a challenge for Deanna to overcome.

There are some ridiculous moments in the film that just feel too forced.  There is too much focus on the slapstick of the scenes instead of creating the humor in natural ways.

Maya Rudolph played Deanna’s best friend Christine and she was way over-the-top most of the time.  I did truly enjoy her relationship with her husband Frank (Damon Jones) though as it was a running joke that felt like it paid off each time.

The special cameo at the end was probably my least favorite part of the whole film and it felt as if it was in danger of going off the rails.

However, I do think I laughed more than I cringed and I did think much of the film was good hearted so I am giving this one a pass.  If you are a fan of Melissa McCarthy, this one should entertain you.  If you don’t like her shtick, then this will not convert you despite it being better than many.

3.1 stars

Happy Mother’s Day.

In honor of Mother’s Day, we have a film about a mother protecting her children from a home invasion.

You can take your mom to this movie for Mother’s Day… or you can take her to a better one.

Gabrielle Union played Shaun, a mother of two and her estranged father has just recently passed away which led her to taking her kids to his home, where she grew up, to prepare to sell it.  However, four men are there as well, searching for something that her father had hidden away inside this house that is like a fortress.  Shaun winds up locked out of the house while her children were trapped inside with the robbers.  And so she had to try to break in.

There were some interesting potential ideas here, but none of them were expanded upon and, in its place, was simply a paint-by-the-number thriller with nothing that much thrilling going on.

The film hinted at Shaun’s father being involved in some kind of criminal enterprise, but we have no idea what that might be or if that is the reason why Shaun and her father were estranged.  The film hinted at Shaun having a bad childhood in the house, but does not go into more detail on it.  The film keeps saying that these crooks broke into the wrong house, but it wants you to think about Shaun as a typical mother despite consistently calling her an “exceptional woman.”

Any of these bits could have made the film more interesting.  Still, it basically comes down to the typical story.

None of the villains were interesting at all. The leader of the group was Billy Burke, and his character was after this item for reasons.  The rest of the group was as stereotypical as you could get with these type of characters.  None of them are memorable, even in the slightest bit.  That is, of course, because we have no idea what their motivations are, how they were connected to her father etc.

I liked Gabrielle Union here and I appreciated her being front and center as the main protagonist.  She did not need anyone to rescue her and, in fact, when her husband (who appears late in the film without any introduction) arrives, he gets slapped down quickly.  Heck, even the children get more to do that this guy.

Breaking In feels like it had a premise that could have been solid, but it squandered it completely.  Gabrielle Union is fine here, but the villains are forgetful and the stakes are low.  The film sets up lots of potentially intriguing bits that never pay off.  It is basically a cable TV movie at best.

Happy Mother’s Day

2.4 stars