Le guerrier d'acier

My dad took me to see 'Solo' back when it hit theaters in 1996. Even then I knew it wasn't great but still had fun. Returning to it nearly thirty years later this sentiment remains. It doesn't do anything new or flashy with it's cyborg formula, but if you tolerate a measure of predictability you'll find a few likable faces in the cast - Mario Van Peebles, William Sadler - and some well shot action pieces particularly towards the end.

Solo (Peebles) is an experimental cyborg creation of the US Army who's sent on a field test in Central America to take out some bad goons, but when he disobeys orders because innocent people will be killed the decision is made to reprogram him. He can't allow that to happens due to his directives so he escapes his handlers and stands up for the poor innocent villagers as his own military sends in Col. Madden (Sadler) to capture or take him out by any means.

Barry Corbin plays a one note General and in an earlier role it's Adrian Brody as the android doc who's sympathizes with Solo. Peebles turns in a wooden performance, but I guess you can say that's what was asked of him. Sadler is the biggest burst of energy as the lifelong military man resentful of a machine taking over a soldier's job and carries the task of being the bad guy effectively.

If you ignore cliche emotional sentiment, tolerate minuscule character development and avoid thinking too deeply, 'Solo' makes for a passable low level action trip. Peebles physically looks very much up to the role and there's a few mild twist 'n turns along the way. Everything looks good too, but it's fairly uninspired.

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 saw this film, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the ridiculous plot, with bad acting, bad effects etc. it was probabaly worse than the butt ugly operation: Delta Force film series! I really smell a huge rip- off of good films with human/ robotic cyborgs eg. Terminator, Robocop, even the British TV show Red Dwarf. SOLO, aka Mario Van Peebles attempts to create an atmosphere that is spoilt by a commando team searching for SOLO and the scene where he throws the knife with the wire on it is pathetic, especially where he shimmies down the wire on his bare hands without any scratches, comedy, and definitely a bargain bin classic!

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.

This was an interesting little B film. Mario van Peebles is a cyborg with a capacity to learn and have independent thoughts. The film is rather predictable, but on a weekend afternoon when there's nothing to do, it's nice to watch. This is the kind of thing you can find a lot of problems with if you analyze it, but if you do, you're really being too serious about it.