The Force is weak with lackluster ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’ (Movie review)

First, some background on some apprehensions I carried with me into the theater when I saw “Solo: A Star Wars Story” last night. My excitement for “Solo” dropped to near zero when Lucasfilm fired directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, two of the weirdest and most inventive filmmakers working today, and brought on Ron Howard,

The top 20 people responsible for the success of the ‘Star Wars’ saga (Commentary)

A great debate recently popped up at my office: Who deserves credit for the success of “Star Wars?” Well, George Lucas, of course, because he created it. Plain and simple, right? Not necessarily, because he was far from alone in making “Star Wars” great. Strictly speaking, he couldn’t have made that first movie on his own, because

Happy 30th anniversary to ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ (Movie commentary)

On Friday, “The Empire Strikes Back” marks its 30th anniversary. That’s right, 30 years ago, the movie industry was capable of putting out a Memorial Day weekend blockbuster that people wanted to see and that was not only worth the price of admission, but was so good that we’d talk about it 30 years later. “The Empire