Solo (1996)

We need Solo II!!! Van Peebles is still in pretty good shape! The military can return to the island where Solo has spent many years cultivating a civilization and his knowledge of human behavior, leading him to the conclusion that his deadly nature is necessary to preserve humanity. When the troops arrive, they find that he has developed something else...With the hype and shooting and basically blowing things up, just as in the original, Solo can defeat his nemesis (the out-of-control, robotized Colonel) and return to the mainland. There, he can take on a new nemesis.So, stop playing around and produce it already. I will even provide my services for free. It will be another silver screen block buster!

An independent action sci-fi (The danger alert !) + Mario Van Peebles (Not my star or even close !) + A story about human android (Terminator-Peter Weller-I'll Be Back kind of crap.. NAAAY !) = The early healthy sleep is surely much better ! Though as funny as it may seem (for me mainly) I liked it very much as dexterous action movie or as good story with a lot of important potentials.(Solo) is the electronic super soldier who got human and became more sensitive than all the senseless war machines around him whom ironically are the original humans! It's Frankenstein again but in Schwarzenegger's kind of shape with the conflict of the little village and its protector "one" samurai against his crazy makers ! I just want to assure how catchy the elements of the story were, which made me confused about how the big Hollywood majors missed that one ?! I couldn't believe the presence of so many good things since my experience with familiar low budget flicks was horrible. For instance : The script. Actually they could have recreated Frankenstein who takes revenge cruelly on its makers, but on the contrary we've watched the (human/beast) conflict and how (Solo) personifies – by his muddle newborn humanity – the noble martyr of this inferno or that greedy degenerate human world. Also how it was wonderful to begin hotly enough with the point of attack when (Solo) the robot uses his own merciful tactic, then we watch his past briefly and smartly after. Moreover the nice touches to affirm his importunate desire to be human (the childish wicked tricks, the joy of the smile, the meaning of sacrifice.. etc), and the idea of another electronic more lethal soldier at the end was unpredictable along with expressing as we watch the ultimate confrontation where the heartless American military commander turned perfectly into that mighty monstrosity against the android where the android looked more high and powerful because of what he already learned from the pure human souls. And although the android triumphed eventually, but the sole (solo) must die at the end as the only one there who is deadly and "kind" in the same time, so he couldn't live by the deranged logic of this world, yet his death informed about how the human could win the beast humanly ! That final truthful laugh was such a marvelous end which summarized the main victory of (Solo) and the basic tragic sense of the whole thing (maybe that's what Hollywood hated in this story).The direction wasn't that vapid or that Kubrick either. It made fair action despite the non-zillion budget. Then we come to the matter of (Mario Van Peebles); regardless of the ordinary charisma and the quiet career which both didn't serve him much; this actor confirms here how talented he is. His performance grasped the subtle features of Solo's personality even if it seemed so easy to act. This man, as a true actor, gave a lucid effort to show us (Solo), not as another metallic character done by metallic star; he put some simple human sense in the mix to watch carefully how (Solo) the machine feels the pain of not feeling, to experience the confusion of the human games, and to taste his unfortunate mineral laughter (That was his best scene). (Peebles) succeeded in playing (Solo) clemently; by putting slight doleful compassion with strong pride right in his eyes, voice and moves.Maybe I didn't like that stereotyped forever-evil guy; not because its bad conscience, but for its bad construction, where he was so devilish with no convincing reason or whatsoever ! But anyway, (Solo) is solid piece of work that made such a new Frankenstein, mixed it cleverly with the one-man-army action hero, and while presenting the story of the monster; didn't turn into one itself !

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.

Got it cheap so didn't waste too much money on it. I brought for one reason only William Sadler, not enougth scenes of him but Spoiler coming up, when William Sadler steps out as new improved Solo, ooh I was impressed, forget the original Solo. (Got it on dvd so tend to fast forward a lot of scenes anyway) William Sadler was more my thing, very sexy scene yes I'm female as you'v proberly guessed. The story is nothing new but for me I was pleased I got, but I wouldn't have paid full price though. Van Peeples I'v never heard off before and not my cup of tea. But if you're a William Sadler fan, try and get this cheap if you can.