Solo, el destructor

Even the most precursory glance at his extensive film work, clearly shows that Mario Van Peebles has sadly never really made it as big in Hollywood as he deserves. Up until now for instance, his most well known roles have been the (enjoyably OTT) sorcerer Kane in Highlander 3 and as effective fish chow in the utterly risible Jaws: The Revenge.

The majority of his work tends to have been low key, direct to video fodder which is a real shame, as in my opinion, Peebles is a decent actor with a lot of unfulfilled potential. For instance, I know not whether he ever auditioned for the part, but I would be willing to bet that Peebles would have made a much better Blade than Wesley 'Pay my taxes?!!!' Snipes.

Unfortunately, it has to be said that the film reviewed here is hardly likely to help Peebles career any either. In fact, I am slightly puzzled as to why he would have ever taken such a role in the first place (the money was good perhaps?) Peebles plays the eponymous hero of the title – a state of the art, cybernetic weapon who it turns out is struggling with the contradictory nature of the callus orders given unto him by his superiors. On one such mission Solo deliberately sabotages the objective in order to spare some innocent civilians, much to the anger of his commanders who subsequently order him to be decommissioned. However, getting wind of this, Solo decides that self preservation is of the highest order and goes on the run, hotly pursued by a relentless, sadistic colonel (the ever superb William Sadler) who has a particular grudge against what Solo represents.

Ending up in a small South American village, Solo is gradually befriended by the locals and begins to learn the nature of humanity. In addition, he serves as their protector from a ruthless gang of bandits. Of course, things don't stay happy for long and the army eventually locate him whereupon much explosive action ensues. Finally, Solo discovers that he is in fact not the only one of his kind when another android is sent to destroy him. Needless to say, there can be only one winner…..

Once again, I do wonder why Peebles chose to play such a role; As a guide, if you've ever watched (the gorgeous!) Jerry Ryan in Star Trek: Voyager as Seven Of Nine, then you'll be able to clearly picture exactly how Peebles plays his part. Certainly, the role hardly pushes him as an actor in any way. On the other hand, Peebles did work himself into awesome physical shape for the role and apparently undertook some arduous military/combative style training regimes in order to capture the action authentically (although it has to be said that said scenes have not been exactly well handled by the director here).

Whilst Peebles may not get to display at least his acting muscles, as mentioned before, Sadler is excellent as the psychopathic Colonal and it's also great to see an early role here from none other than Adrian Brody of The Pianist fame.

At the end of the day, if approached in the right frame of mind, this proves to be a fairly enjoyable, if low key flick, albeit one that seems to take itself perhaps a little too seriously for my liking.

Nonetheless, for less discriminating action junkies and fans of the whole android sub genre, this is a harmless enough way to spend an hour and a half.

Solo is an action movie about a Terminator-like android that is constructed and trained for the military. When a flaw is discovered, he is issued to be deprogrammed. Rather than face death, he chooses to flee into the jungles of Central America, where he takes refuge in a village. The military chases him into there, leading into a big action feast.

Mario Van Peebles does a decent performance the android. His movements and gestures look mechanical enough to get the job done. Actual scientific realism is abandoned in order to make a good action hero. And it works out; the action scenes aren't that spectacular, but they aren't all too bad either. The acting from the other characters is pretty bad, but I was not expecting anything too good. The special effects were decent as well.

Solo is decent as an action flick, but very forgettable. It lacks the substance that most movies possess. But if you just want to pass a couple hours without much thinking, this will get the job done.

When I stumbled on SOLO on cable TV and realized Adrien Brody, one of my favorite actors, was third-billed in this Mario Van Peebles action flick, I decided to record it and check it out later for the heck of it. Turns out that was a good idea, since I got the most enjoyment out of this derivative SF/action/adventure when I simply gave up and fast-forwarded to Brody's scenes as Solo's endearingly scruffy creator Dr. Bill Stewart (sounds like the kind of bland name they'd give the hero in a 1950s creature feature -- told you SOLO was derivative! :-). Brody's one of the few performers in the film who actually says his lines with heart and conviction. When he was emoting opposite Van Peebles & Co., I wonder if Brody ever thought one day he'd be winning an Oscar for his starring turn in a Roman Polanski drama? :-) Adrien Brody fans, get the VCR ready; genre fans, try renting THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, FRANKENSTEIN, THE TERMINATOR, or any of the other movies that SOLO rips off! :-)

Solo is action packed and creates a riveting cinematic atmosphere. Mario Van Peebles delivers one of the finest performances I've ever seen. Mario Van Peebles stars as Solo, a robot made without a heart, but still retains a conscience. The bad guys got what they were getting when it came time to punish them. Solo is the strongest bionic person alive, ten times stronger than any man. He can even lift a 1000 year old tree trunk on his head. Solo is definitely worth spending money on to rent or buy.

Solo is a pretty good movie. Mario Van Peeble is good as Solo, the andriod soldier that learns to think for himself. When he escapes from his superiors and takes refuge in a small mexican village, he agrees to help the villagers defend themselves against a rebel and his army. The action scenes are good, and the fight at the end between Solo and the bad android is awesome.