Movie Review: Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)

The eighth episode in the original Star Wars saga and the second in the sequel trilogy, The Last Jedi is a magnificent achievement, brilliantly combining the series' familiar elements with original ingredients and powerful plot developments.

Picking up events immediately after The Force Awakens, the resistance fighters led by General Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) are routed, and the evil forces of the First Order under the command of General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson) are moving in for the final kill. Ace resistance pilot Poe (Oscar Isaac) leads a daring bombing counterattack but incurs heavy losses.

Meanwhile Force-sensitive scavenger Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo) track down the legendary Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), now the last known Jedi, on a remote planet. Rey pleads with Luke to come to the rescue of the resistance. He refuses, having still not come to terms with failing to prevent his nephew Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) from turning to the dark side under Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis). Rey starts to experience Force-enabled face-to-face communications with Kylo, and they try to influence each other towards opposite sides of the Force.

Leia is severely wounded in battle, and Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo (Laura Dern) takes over command but immediately clashes with the hot headed Poe. With Rey and Kylo having an in-person audience with Snoke, former stormtrooper turned rebel Finn (John Boyega) and resistance maintenance worker Rose (Kelly Marie Tran) team up for a mission to secure the services of a hacker who can help the remaining resistance ships escape. Their search yields the services of the seemingly capable DJ (Benicio del Toro), but things are about to get much worse for the decimated rebel army.

After the relatively disappointing warmed-over rehash offered by The Force Awakens, Rian Johnson takes over as writer and director and delivers a spectacular boost to the franchise. The Last Jedi is best described as fearless, introducing new Force capabilities, one of the best lightsaber battles in the series within Snoke's inner sanctuary, a stunning landing pad for one essential arc, stirring acts of bravery and sacrifice, and a marvellously tense Force-enabled connection between Rey and Kylo, pregnant with possibilities.

And nothing is taken away from the action set-pieces, here delivered with a searing creativity and clarity of execution. Johnson pushes away from the familiar and finds new showdowns and genuinely thrilling battles, including Poe's bombing raid; the First Order all but annihilating the rebel fleet; a slow but existential space chase; and a finale at a previously abandoned resistance base that features several epic confrontations.

The narrative is pushed forward with Luke and Kylo both offering versions of where it all went wrong, and Luke forced to define his true legacy in unexpected but faultless fashion. Rey makes progress in coming to terms with her origins and role in the unyielding struggle between good and evil. Gradually Poe and Finn unite with Rey at the centre of the story, and now they are joined by the unlikely and disguised heroism of Rose.

The Last Jedi is not without its faults. The running time of 152 minutes is excessive, Finn and Rose's side quest to the casino planet a particular bloat culprit, and some of the multicultural preachiness is flagrant. But Johnson also introduces a mean streak of humour to combat the slow parts. The noisy robot BB-8 and the perpetually worried Porg furry creatures are deployed in just the right doses, and several other characters and creations make timely contributions.

Despite the large cast, a few performances do stand out. Adam Driver emerges as a magnetic presence, the uncertainty within him bursting out in prodigious directions. Daisy Ridley and Benicio del Toro are the other notable cast members, Ridley mixing the perilous unknowns of Rey's ancestry with grim determination, del Toro luxuriating in DJ's confidence as an enigmatic man who can code break his way out of any situation.

With John Williams contributing another iteration of cinema's most beloved music score, The Last Jedi travels at lightspeed to claim a place as one of the most satisfying entries in the legendary series.

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Movie Review: The Blues Brothers (1980)

A bombastic musical comedy, The Blues Brothers is a raucous exercise in unconstrained charisma. The story of two hip brothers seeking to raise money for an orphanage is just a good excuse for automotive mayhem and buoyant musical performances.

Released from jail after serving three years for robbery, Jake Blues (John Belushi) is picked up by his brother Elwood (Dan Aykroyd) driving a repurposed ex-police car. Together they visit an orphanage run by nuns, and discover that the institute will shut down unless a $5,000 tax bill owed to the City of Chicago is settled within days. Jake and Elwood decide that they are "on a mission from God" and set out to do the only thing they know how: reunite their old blues band and perform a show to raise the required money.

They track down their old bandmates, who are all initially skeptical but ultimately game. Along the way, Jake and Elwood manage to enrage the police and the local neo-Nazi chapter, while a mystery woman (Carrie Fisher) does all she can to blow the brothers to smithereens. Hotly chased by their pursuers, the reunited Blues Brothers bungle their way into a show at a rough country and western eatery before finally landing a gig at a lavish hotel to give themselves a chance at raising the funds in time.

The Blues Brothers is a celebration of excess. Perfectly mixing music and comedy, director John Landis packs in over-the-top auto chases filled with wild stunts and crashes involving a ridiculously large number of cars, along with several long, energetic music numbers. He also milks every drop of star John Belushi's stratospheric star power, and unapologetically delivers an over-budget 133 minute musical comedy about very little. It is all disproportionately larger than life, and it all works.

Inspired by Saturday Night Live sketches and capitalizing on Belushi's post-Animal House popularity, The Blues Brothers is more an attitude and a cultural landmark than a narrative-driven film. Co-written by Landis and Aykroyd, the film achieves a cool vibe, with the two lead protagonists quickly achieving cult likability by sticking to their principles and their dark suits, hats, and shades, achieving hyper self-awareness and simultaneously remaining oblivious to the carnage unfolding all around them.

The highlights are many. The performance at Bob's Country Bunker is the perfect irreverent set-up, a place where the blues band has to quickly pretend to love country music, and where chicken wire protects the band from beer bottles hurled at them to signify derision and appreciation. Carrie Fisher's mystery woman bursts into the movie at regular intervals with ever more destructive weaponry, harbouring all of hell's fury. James Brown, Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin among others show up for extended and dynamic musical cameos, sparking career revivals. And Landis somehow makes it perfectly logical that by the end of the film, an army of law enforcement vehicles, a militant group of neo-Nazis, and the Good Ol' Boys country band and their RV are all in hot pursuit of the Blues Brothers.

Aykroyd and Belushi are as smooth as any film buddy couple can be, whether acing their cool test, escaping from hundreds of police cars or performing their unique music-and-dance routines. In addition to Fisher and John Candy, the supporting cast is peppered with blues performers thought to be well past their prime, until the film propelled them back into the limelight.

The Blues Brothers is a spectacular success, but with a dark cloud hovering on the horizon. Within two years of the film's release date, Belushi was dead from a drug overdose, and Landis was charged with manslaughter for the tragic deaths of Vic Morrow and two child actors on the set of The Twilight Zone, caused by pyrotechnics bringing down a helicopter. Every type of excess, as it turns out, has its limits.

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Movie Review: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)

The first Star Wars movie in 10 years, The Force Awakens goes back to the roots of the franchise with a feel-good rollicking space adventure. The film singularly lacks originality, but features plenty of heart and unflagging amounts of energy.

About 30 years after the events of The Return Of The Jedi, Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) has gone into hiding. In the absence of the one remaining Jedi, the Republic flounders and comes under threat from a new evil organization called The First Order, with an army of stormtroopers commanded by dark knight Kylo Ren (Adam Driver). On the planet Jakku, the Republic's ace resistance pilot Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) obtains a partial map file that may contain clues to Luke's whereabouts, and hides it in a BB-8 droid. When Poe is captured by Kylo, his escape is enabled by storm trooper Finn (John Boyega), who wants to defect and join the resistance. Meanwhile BB-8 is rescued by Rey (Daisy Ridley), a resourceful scavenger on Jakku who has lost contact with her family.

Eventually Finn, Rey and BB-8 team up, steal the ancient but still capable Millennium Falcon and accidentally join forces with Han Solo (Harrison Ford), back to his smuggling ways of old, and still with his loyal friend the Wookie Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew). They try to make their way to the rebel base where General Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) is trying to organize the Republic's resistance against The First Order. On a side trip to the planet Takodana, Rey meets the wise pirate Maz Kanata (Lupita Nyong'o), and upon finding an ancient lightsaber is exposed to powerful but disturbing visions that awaken her to the strength of the Force. But The First Order has a mammoth new weapon in the shape of the Starkiller Base, and Kylo will not hesitate to unleash death and destruction on a mass scale to locate Luke and crush the resistance.

Less an evolution and more of a feel-good reboot, The Force Awakens takes few risks, but does what Star Wars does best. Director J. J. Abrams ditches all of the politics and most of the character conflicts that defined the prequel trilogy, and brings back the fun factor, humour and frequent but short action set-pieces that defined the birth of the franchise in A New Hope. The Force Awakens is fast, entertaining, funny, sharp, and sometimes hokey, and for less demanding fans, probably a perfect definition of what a Star Wars film should be.

But it is also exceptionally derivative. Almost every major element of the film is either a strong echo or a simply blatant recreation of an already-seen component from the history of the franchise. The hidden message in a robot, Rey's humble origins on a dusty planet, the familial conflicts and betrayals, the heart-breaking sacrifice, and the endless battles with stormtroopers who crumble like so much cheap tin: it's all been seen, heard and done before. The Force Awakens also hurtles to its biggest disappointment in a muddled climax that throws all sorts of action movie cliches into a hurried, almost childish mix, before settling for a most familiar, and poorly executed, final assault.

Also rather unsatisfactory is the rush towards decisive moments. Kylo's lineage is revealed quite early, while his struggles and potential limitations surface before he can properly cast an evil shadow. Meanwhile, Rey's positive abilities with the Force develop remarkably quickly, compared to Luke's much richer journey.

The good moments almost exclusively revolve around Rey. The new central heroine of the series, Daisy Ridley brings to life a bright, adventurous woman, worth investing in as the series progresses. Kylo also carries potential but Adam Driver's performance is only vaguely promising due to uneven character development in the script (co-written by Lawrence Kasdan and Abrams among others). Finn and Poe are less interesting, while BB-8 hits the perfect note as the new robot, rolling into the franchise on just the right side of cute. R2D2 and C3PO are reduced to cameos for this outing.

Neither ground-breaking nor an outright disappointment, The Force Awakens is often fun but always familiar.

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Movie Review: Shampoo (1975)

A sex and politics farce of sorts, Shampoo is weighed down by petulant characters engaged in uniformly selfish behaviour. The lack of anyone remotely sympathetic, or halfway intelligent, sucks most of the enjoyment out of the movie.

It's the eve of the 1968 presidential election. In Los Angeles, George (Warren Beatty) works as a hairdresser. He dreams of opening his own salon, but does not have the credit or business savvy to secure a loan. Extremely popular with his lady clients who find him sexually irresistible, George is sleeping with Jill (Goldie Hawn), who is naive enough to think that she is the only woman in his life. In fact, George jumps into bed with any willing woman, including Jackie (Julie Christie), the mistress of the pompous, rich and politically-connected Lester (Jack Warden).

Jackie suggests that George approach Lester to secure a private loan. While Jackie is torn between the promise of what Lester can offer her (should he ever leave his wife) and George's raw passion, Lester is intrigued by George, but also suspicious of him. As well he should be: George is also sleeping with Lester's wife Felicia (Lee Grant). Meanwhile, Lester's daughter, Lorna (Carrie Fisher) wants in on the action with George. As Nixon is confirmed as the winner of the election, a night of stuffy political banquets and wild sex parties provides a backdrop for George, Lester and Jackie to sort out their futures.

Shampoo bids a fond adieu to the free-wheeling, sex-drenched days of the 1960s social revolution, and ushers in the era of cynicism and corruption, as marked by Nixon's election. It's an interesting seam in cultural history, but Shampoo is unable to do much with it. Bogged down by uninteresting and unlikable characters, the film is a tiresome merry-go-round of sexual obsession among a group of desperate dullards. It's rarely funny, nor does it carry any meaningful weight of drama.

Director Hal Ashby struggles to create something watchable out of the Robert Towne script, finding only so much story in the ongoing sexapades and half-hearted attempts at irony. Precious few laughs and fewer sober thoughts are generated, and none are sustained. Shampoo settles down to a series of set-piece parties and hair appointments interrupted by brief couplings that admittedly were risqué in 1975.

Warren Beatty rides around on his motorcycle from house to house and bed to bed (or just the floor will do, on some occasions) having sex with every desirous female, and he sports a serious contender for the most ridiculous hairdo in the history of motion pictures. As is typical for the Beatty persona, he mostly just is, a catalyst around which women flutter and dissolve, for no apparent reason related to ability, smarts or prospects. George is a great summary of things that women regret wasting their time on in their later years.

Jack Warden, usually confined to limited screen time, gets one of his more expansive roles. Representing a 1950s man beginning to get really lost at the end of the 1960s, Warden makes Lester the most interesting character in the movie as the man with everything but inching towards a variety of self-destruct buttons to counter the growing boredom and detachment.

The ladies of Shampoo are hampered by having no brains to overcome the sexual gravity generated in proximity to George. The characters played by Julie Christie, Lee Grant and Goldie Hawn never answer any questions related to what is attracting them to a big-haired loser stuck in a dead-end job. Hawn's Jill seems able to grab any man she wants (and indeed she tries to arouse George's jealousy); Christie as Jackie is already wrecking one home by carrying on with Lester; with George, she risks destroying her destruction, which may be quite appropriate. And Grant's Felicia is pretending to be jealous of Jackie while cheating on Lester with George. Sympathetic, these women are not.

Only Carrie Fisher as Lorna seems to get it right: she uses George to scratch an itch, and has no other agenda or expectations. Welcome to the 1970s.

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The Movies Of Carrie Fisher

All movies starring Carrie Fisher and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

Shampoo (1975)

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977)

Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

The Blues Brothers (1980)

Star Wars Episode VI: Return Of The Jedi (1983)

The Man With One Red Shoe (1985)

Hannah And Her Sisters (1986)

When Harry Met Sally... (1989)

The 'Burbs (1989)

Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery (1997, uncredited)

Wonderland (2003)

The Women (2008)

Sorority Row (2009)

Maps To The Stars (2014, cameo, as herself)

Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)

Rogue One (2016, digital cameo only)

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)

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Movie Review: The 'Burbs (1989)

A promising first half fizzles badly in the second half. The 'Burb is half of a good film, succeeding in painting a typically eccentric picture of life in the suburbs before disintegrating into a muddled mass murder mess.

In a seemingly quiet suburb, Ray Peterson (Tom Hanks) is on vacation. Much to the disgust of his wife Carol (Carrie Fisher), he decides to spend his time off lounging around the house, watching television and snooping on the goings on in the neighbourhood. His neighbours include Mark (Bruce Dern), who is still fighting the Vietnam war; Art (Rick Ducommun), who has too many conspiracies and not enough good sense; and the young Ricky (Corey Feldman), who seems to be in the movie just to attract the younger demographic and whose absentee parents are never quite explained.

Ray is most intrigued by the reclusive new owners of the decrepit house immediately next to his. Loud noises and strange lights are emitted from their basement in the middle of the night. When they are spotted, the owners look like escapees from a 1920s lunatic asylum. And it doesn't help that they appear to be digging up their yard past midnight to either bury or retrieve dead bodies. Ray, Mark and Art start poking their nose deeper into the affairs of the house horrors.

Director Jo Dante can do little with the Dana Olsen script that starts brightly but fades without warning. The opening 45 minutes of The 'Burbs is an entertaining introduction to the lives that live behind every hedge, exaggerated for effect but nevertheless recognizable enough from any real-world subdivision. Tom Hanks is effective as everyman, not quite aware of a creeping mid-life crisis, bored with life but content to burn his vacation by chilling out in his suburban haven. Bruce Dern is over-animated but quite funny as Mark, highly strung but coping with it thanks to the distracting charms of his wife Bonnie (Wendy Schaal). Rick Ducommun's Art is the annoying neighbour, with an answer for everything and knowledge of nothing.

The back-end of The 'Burbs unfortunately throws away most of the good work and becomes a faux horror journey into the bowels of a creepy house, complete with hints of macabre medical experimentations, basement cremations, and human bones in the back yard. None of it is explained, as Olsen and Dante throw all logic out with the trash and surrender to juvenile instincts. As every suburbanite knows, manicuring the front lawn while abandoning the back yard to a pile of junk fools no one.

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Movie Review: When Harry Met Sally...(1989)

A delightful romantic comedy, When Harry Met Sally... established the new standard for the genre. Warm-hearted, funny and quirky, the film's two main star-crossed protagonists grow ever more likeable as they tentatively take their multi-year journey towards a cupid-defined destiny.

It's 1977. New graduates Harry (Billy Crystal) and Sally (Meg Ryan) share an 18 hour drive from the University of Chicago to New York, where they are both starting their careers, Harry as a lawyer and Sally in journalism. Prior to the drive they don't know each other, but during the journey they become sure that they don't like each other: Harry is an arrogant, fast-talking pessimist who is sure that he has the world already figured out. Sally is detail-oriented and a bit uppity. They argue about everything, including whether a man and woman can be just friends. Harry does not believe it to be possible: the sex part always gets in the way. Sally convinces herself that Harry is a creep because he seems to be coming onto her despite already having a girlfriend. They arrive in New York and coldly part ways.

Five years later, they accidentally meet again during a flight. Harry is mellowing a bit, now engaged to Helen, but still a motor-mouth with all the answers. Sally is in the throes of a deepening relationship with Joe, and optimistically love-struck. Although more civilized, they again part ways as soon as the flight lands.

Five years further on, they meet again at a New York bookstore. Both relationships have ruptured badly. Harry is heartbroken by the breakup of his marriage to Helen, while Sally is trying to hold herself together despite Joe leaving her because he did not want to start a family and she did. Gradually, Harry and Sally become best friends, sharing all the details, joys, and sorrows of their lives, supporting each other and developing a deep bond of dependence and affection while continuing to date other people. Sally's best friend Marie (Carrie Fisher) and Harry's best friend Jess (Bruno Kirby) also end up in a relationship together.

Sally is devastated when she hears that Joe is getting married and starting a family with a younger woman. When Harry comes to her apartment to comfort her, they end up making love, shattering the basis of their friendship. Harry and Sally have to decide whether or not to pick up the pieces and turn the wreckage of a friendship into the green roots of a romance.

The success of When Harry Met Sally... is based on a Nora Ephron script that works diligently to create two fully-rounded characters. The mannerisms, reactions, and emotions of Harry and Sally are established early on when they are brash graduates, and gradually evolve, soften and mature as life gently but surely scrubs away the edges. Director Rob Reiner guides the romance with a gentle hand, delicately adding New York City garnishings to create a perfect but understated feast.

Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan were both catapulted into deserved stardom for their performances. Crystal had earlier made an impression in The Princess Bride and Throw Momma From The Train (both also directed by Reiner), but his performance as Harry elevated him into a leading star as a sensitive comic talent. Harry's journey is the more pronounced, including a detour into a long friendship that threatens to disprove his theory about friendships between men and women, but he then has to endure a lot of pain and no pleasure when the inevitable intervention of "the sex part" indeed proves his initial belief to be true.

Meg Ryan was designated as America's sweetheart and leading romantic lady after her performance as Sally. Defiant yet vulnerable, argumentative yet appealing, and attractive yet down to earth, Sally is most memorable for being so real: she captures, with just a dash of comic exaggeration, deeply human traits found in most women. And her impressive fake public orgasm in a New York deli immediately entered the hall of fame of classic movie scenes.

The central theme of the film is the nature of friendship between men and women, and the movie's warmest moments portray Harry and Sally as friends. There is a magical emotional depth to the scenes portraying the couple becoming platonic soul mates, and the film provides a complex answer to its core conundrum: yes, a strong bond of friendship may be formed between a man and a woman, but perhaps such a deep connection is really a pilot light for a flame waiting to be lit.

It takes them a long time, but not only do Harry and Sally finally realize that they are meant for each other, they also join the distinguished ranks of most memorable movie characters.

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Movie Review: Sorority Row (2009)

The killer is wearing a college graduation gown, and Sorority Row is just slightly more intelligent and enjoyable than typical slasher movies.

The film earns a couple of points for introducing a mean streak of humor in its final third, and for taking the time early on to establish a relatively original context for the killing spree.

A college sorority prank goes terribly wrong and a girl lies dead, gored by a tire iron. Instead of admitting what happened, her sorority sisters throw her down a remote mine shaft and decide to keep her death a secret. Eight months later, the girls are graduating, a mystery killer is loose, and one by one, the sorority girls and some of their friends meet untimely deaths at the sharp end of a pimped-out tire iron wielded by a gowned maniac.

The cast of catty characters are given quite a bit more personality than in the typical slasher flick. The sorority girls run the range from the uber-bitch Jessica (Leah Pipes) to the ultra-fragile Ellie (Rumer Willis, daughter of Demi and Bruce), passing through the conscientious Cassidy (Briana Evigan). The dialogue between them is quick and sharp, and turns, unexpectedly, to smartly funny as the body count mounts and the film decides to take itself none too seriously. Carrie Fisher shows up as the sorority den mother, and has no small amount of fun running around with a shot-gun.

At the end of the night, a few of the girls survive the carnage, and do they ever have graduation stories to share at their reunion.

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Movie Review: Star Wars Episode VI - The Return of the Jedi (1983)

And so the saga comes to an end, with a non-stop parade of action that features a memorable tri-headed climax.

On the planet Endor, Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) team up with a group of cuddly but strong-willed Ewoks (smallish bear-like creatures perfect for toy merchandising) to storm an Empire station powering the defensive shield of the latest version of the Death Star.

On the Death Star itself, Luke (Mark Hamill) engages with his Dad, Darth Vader, in an epic light saber battle, as well as a battle of competing wills overseen by the Emperor (Ian McDiarmid): Luke wants to draw Vader back to the positive side of the Force, while Vader wants Luke to join him on the Dark Side to jointly govern the galaxy as a father-and-son combo.

And finally, out in space, Lando Carlissian (Billy Dee Williams) and Chewbacca on board the Millennium Falcon lead a group of rebel fighters in their assault on the Death Star. Carlissian needs Solo to de-activitate the shield station on Endor before he can launch his final assault, and also needs Luke to end his duel and clear out of the Death Star before it is blown up into so much space dust.

It all ends well for the good guys, of course, but credit to Director Richard Marquand for effectively converting the entire second half of the movie into one long, breathless climax, and kudos also to writers George Lucas and Lawrence Kasdan for dreaming up a satisfying ending to a grand series.

Return of the Jedi does also unfortunately include a long-winded opening where Leia, Luke and Carlissian save the carbonated Han from the clutches of Jabba the Hutt. This sequence is way too long - the only good thing thing about it is Carrie Fisher in that amazing golden metallic bikini - and there are way too many creatures in rubber costumes hanging out in Jabba's cave. In contrast, when Solo resumes his childishly-written romance with Leia, it is a relief.

There is also time for Luke to pay another visit to the planet Dagobah where Yoda finally decides that he is way too old to remain among the living; and for Luke and Leia to realize that they are brother and sister, clearing the way for Han to win Leia's heart.

At the end of a grand epic, Return of the Jedi is a well-executed exclamation mark.

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Movie Review: Star Wars Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Three years after Star Wars stunned the world of movie-making, the first sequel arrived, and George Lucas shocked everyone again by announcing The Empire Strikes Back as "Episode V". He revealed his vision for a nine-part epic, with the original Star Wars now re-named "Episode IV" and marking the beginning of just the middle trilogy.

The Empire Strikes Back itself is interesting in several respects. Lucas left the screenwriting duties to Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan, and brought in Irvin Kershner as Director. Lucas focused his efforts on developing the special effects, further pushing the boundaries of visual achievement and again raising the benchmark of expectation.

The Empire Strikes Back is also different in not offering any sort of climactic grand action finale. The film instead has the essential but unglamorous task of developing its characters and filling in concepts that were only outlined in the original movie.

Thus a large part of Empire is occupied with Luke traveling to the planet Dagobah to meet the ancient Jedi Master Yoda and embark on his training as a Jedi. Through the slow and purposeful training scenes, both Luke and the viewer get to know a lot more about the Force and the ways of the Jedi. These scenes also serve as Luke's transition into adulthood and his understanding of the world and his role in it.

Meanwhile, Princess Leia and Han Solo find time to develop a clunky romance based on horribly cheesy dialogue as the rebels are routed out of their hideout on the icy planet Hoth. Thankfully Leia and Han soon need to focus on more important matters as they fall into the clutches of Darth Vader in Cloud City, a mining planet run by Lando Calrissian, an old shifty acquaintance of Solo.

Han ends up getting the worst of Calrissian's double-cross, while the closest thing that passes for a climax is a Luke and Darth Vader light saber duel that ends in a relative stalemate, notwithstanding Luke losing an arm, but not before a revelation that represents one of the more memorable and iconic moments in movie history.

Mark Hamill as the more mature and confident Luke does well and carries the main weight of Empire, while Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher need to contend with plastic lines and the worst of cliches as they fall in love based on...nothing much, really.

Visually, Lucas delivers the AT-AT Walkers as a stunning tank-as-massive-camel weapon for the Empire in the battle on Hoth, and then tops himself with the wire-trip trick that the rebels use to fell the lethal metal monsters. The AT-ATs quickly joined the long list of striking Star Wars symbols instantly recognizable beyond the movie world.

The Empire Strikes Back does not deliver the thrills of some of the other entries in the Star Wars saga, and it very much feels like the middle of the story with no sharp edges at either end, but it does fulfill its mission in providing significant depth to the Star Wars galaxy and its inhabitants.







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Movie Review: Star Wars Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)

In 1977, George Lucas reinvented all the rules of movie-making, relaunched the special effects industry, re-calibrated audience expectations and re-imagined the potential for film profitability.

Star Wars, as it was simply known upon its release, is one of those rare films that stands as a gigantic landmark in the history of cinema.

In terms of movie franchises, science fiction, special effects, sprawling epic stories, and movie merchandising, there are two eras: before Star Wars, and after Star Wars.

Star Wars turned out to be the fourth episode in what would become a multi-part movie series that spanned decades, and generated countless books, video games, TV series, and an entire collectible toy sub-industry. Star Wars also launched the career of Harrison Ford, who went on to become one of the biggest Hollywood stars, and re-ignited interest in space-related movies and television series.

The impact on culture was to be equally deep and long-lasting. The Force, warp-speed, holograms, Jedi Knights, the Death Star, Darth Vader, R2-D2, C-3PO, light sabres, and the term "Star Wars" itself all became integrated into everyday life and far transcended their humble movie origins.

The success of Star Wars is rooted in the creation of a vast, original, and complex galaxy (both figurative and literal), but weaving onto it a simple story of a farm-boy who must rise to fulfill his destiny in a strange world.

The farm-boy is of course Luke Skywalker, who stumbles onto a holographic message hidden within the robot R2-D2 by Princess Leia. The Princess is aiding the fledgling rebellion against the evil Empire, and she needs the help of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Luke soon finds Obi-Wan, and they team up with the smuggler Han Solo and his side-kick Chewbacca, a Wookiee, to rescue the Princess, who is in the clutches of Darth Vader.

Luke and Han free Leia while Vader duels with Obi-Wan. Although Vader wins the light sabre battle, Obi-Wan becomes "one with the Force" and gains the ability to help Luke from the beyond. And help will be needed as the rebels and Luke attack the fearsome Death Star in an epic space battle.

In addition to spectacular visual and sound effects and the majestic John Williams music score, Star Wars included several scenes of astounding originality that became instant movie classics. Among them the cantina scene on the planet Tatooine, the garbage compactor trap, the Millennium Falcon jumping to warp-speed, and the final attack on the Death Star.

And in the character of Darth Vader, Star Wars introduced one of the most fearsome and menacing movie villains, and also one of the most famous and loved film icons.

In front of the screen, Harrison Ford as Han Solo, Mark Hamill as Luke and Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia are all watchable and engaging, and they benefit from relatively sharp and witty dialogue that Lucas would unfortunately not match again in future entries. Star Wars is helped enormously by the sheer presence of Sir Alec Guinness who sparkles as Obi-Wan Kenobi and lends substantial weight to the story and the unfolding action.

Star Wars only gets better with age, and now that future parts of the story have been told, it shines ever more brightly as the foundational chapter in the most remarkable space epic ever put to film.

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