Is " Solo" Maligned by Star Wars Fans Unfairly

I just rewatched "Solo". Star Wars fans set up a howl about that movie. I heard it from the usual prissy Star Wars Fans, It didn't have Harrison Ford in it, but he couldn't have played a young Han Solo anyway. Why is it that movie fans think they should criticize another person's story?

I enjoyed the movie. It was well done. No nudity or strings of f-words. It filled in Solo's backstory and the plot was as intricate as any sci-fi fan could want.I think Ron Howard did a fine job. The folks doing Star Wars these days are taking off in their own directions somewhat, but hey. George wasn't doing anything with it anymore so the story fell to another generation of filmmakers to tell.  Besides, who wants to know how the story ends even before it starts. Sure the feminist and social justice stuff gets sneaked into it - though not as much as with some of the other ones.

What's funny about it all is that so many of these filmmakers are foursquare liberal big government socialists and yet, when they do a film, it's always the big government that is the villain. You'd think they'd notice that, huh?

Only two pineapples though for forgetting to put in something that explains Harrison Ford's chin scar like they did in the Indiana Jones series. Derivative? Maybe. But it would have been fun and I'd always bet on fun!

© 2019 by Tom King

Hold that Ghost - Abbott & Costello

At Halloween each year we cycle through our favorite Halloween Movies. No slasher films included!  I intensely dislike slasher films. I prefer comedy films.  The Halloween films we watch are older films, back when it wasn't necessary to say the f-word every other sentence and comedy was a bit gentler.  Tonight's movie was an Abbott & Costello classic, "Hold That Ghost".

The film is basically a thinly plotted series of Abbot & Costello bits interspersed with Ted Lewis and the Andrews Sisters numbers and some action designed to advance the unlikely plot. The duo inherit a hotel from a gangster named Moose Matson who left the crypt hint that he "kept his money in his head".  The boys and an assortment of travelers including comedian Joan Davis, who does a great job of keeping up with Lou through several delightful sketches.

The two do a chaotic dance number, faint when each thinks the other is dead, and try to keep track of mysterious candles that move around by themselves.

Oh, there's gangsters, hidden treasure, romance and a lively corpse that shows up several times to make Lou faint in a funny fashion.  Several people get slapped, and Lou does his terrified attempts to call his friend Chuck, but can't get anything out except and excited bout of wheezing. It's all brought to a happy ending. The boys open a health resort in Matson's old hotel and the Andrews Sisters are back to sing a Brazilian tune called "Aurora".

It's a fun romp with just enough spookiness to make it fun for Halloween without scaring the wee bairns (or their aged grandparents).

This one gets a full plate of pineapples.

© 2019 by Tom King