Solo: A Star Wars Story

Rating: 1.5

DAMMIT! I’M SUCH A FOOL! I just realized: I WAS THE ONLY ONE AT THE SCREENING  AND DIDN’T MAKE ANY «SOLO» JOKE at the concession stand! That might have been a better starter to a conversation in which I learnt that an almost empty theatre didn’t really matter nowadays (in some aspect) because movies are delivered digitally now and don’t wear with every projection.

Which wouldn’t make much of a difference because «Solo» isn’t any good to begin with.

Even beforehand, I had pretty much made up my mind about Alden Ehrenreich’s Han-thankful job and his more than Han-likely success in taking over Harrison Ford’s iconic role. Ehrenreich surely didn’t help but after seeing «Solo», he cannot be made solely responsible for this disappointment of a movie. I doubt even Mr. Ford (or Harrison, as I like to call him, though he’d rather I wouldn’t) himself could have made this Han-inspired, Han-funny wannabe Star Wars «adventure» work.

It’s too generic even for a franchise as formulaic as the Star Wars universe. I haven’t seen such an empty, self-serving and Han-motivated mess of jumbled together bits and pieces of canon and fan service in a long, long time. (Not unlike this very review you’re reading right now).

There were some nice ideas in there that I might have liked but they were presented in such a Han-connected way I couldn’t have bothered less.

#notMyStarWars

And now a personal message to my co-worker Cello: Don’t go see that movie! I can’t tell you why because of spoilers. Just don’t!

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Rating: 4.5

Oh the humanity! Thank  you, we got ourselves a winner here. Martin McDonagh really knows how to make the shit out of a movie! Dark, intense, human(e).

While Tarantino might be the master of dialogue, McDonagh once again penetrates the superficiality, digs deeper and creates some of the most interesting, conflicted and flawed but sympathetic characters in film, embedded in artfully crafted storytelling as he did before in «Seven Psychopaths» and «In Bruges».

Mild spoiler: Somewhat eerie to watch Sam Rockwell paying due regard to his character in «The Green Mile».