The Last Jedi is thrilling, dark, moving... and cute as hell

Whoa, baby!  Could a film as hyped as The Last Jedi actually live up to it?  We'll get into that.  But first, I want to throw out my spoiler free thoughts on the movie event of the year.  The Last Jedi picks up where The Force Awakens left off.  The Resistance is in retreat as The First Order has taken full control of the galaxy.  As its numbers dwindle, The Resistance is forced to flee for its survival.  General Leia Solo (a fantastically stoic Carrie Fisher, in her farewell performance), Poe Dameron and Finn lead the remains of The Resistance across our favorite far, far away galaxy - barely holding off Kylo Ren's First Order.  And that's essentially what a large part of this film is... a chase.  A race across the galaxy towards an uncertain future.

Whereas The Force Awakens was essentially a refresher course in what made us all fall in love with Star Wars (after its initial critical and commercial success, it's been unfairly labaled as a clone of A New Hope), The Last Jedi treads new water.  The new actors take center stage in this film - each further fleshing out their characters in new and exciting ways.  New actors are introduced here (the best being Kelly Marie Tran's Rose) in fun and creative ways.

That's not to say that the Star Wars universe is done with the old guard quite yet.  Mark Hamill delivers the performance of his career in his 4th performance as Luke Skywalker (well, 5th if you include his cameo at the end of Force).  Hamill plays Skywalker as a jaded Jedi, who is reluctant to train Rey in the ways of The Force.  He's been burned in the past by Kylo Ren, and wants The Jedi to come to an end.  I really this angry, older version of Luke.  Carrie Fisher seems emboldened at playing Leia once again.  She's wise, strong and motherly in a way we haven't seen out of her yet.

I absolutely loved this film.  For a film that's supposed to be this trilogy's Empire, it certainly lives up to that legendary film.  It launches the Star Wars universe towards a new future.  One that will be defined by this wonderful cast of characters in a way that the prequels completely failed.  It's filled with life, love and loss.  The color palatte of this film is an absolute joy to look at for 2.5 hours.  There's a bunch of unexpected twists and turns that I won't ruin here.  Director Rian Johnson delivered a fantastic film.

Now, back to the cute factor.  This film is full of wonderfully cute moments... but cute moments that don't totally distract from the moment at hand, and the depth of the story going on.  The porgs are a wondeful addition to the Star Wars canon.  They were cute in a way that didn't annoy me like Jar Jar Binks or the Ewoks.  There's also a lot of humor that reminds us that at the end the day, we're watching a space odyssey that's supposed to give us an escape and a sense of wonderment.

I'm giving Star Wars: The Last Jedi 3.9 stars out of 4.  There are a few things I could do without... the entire casino sequence for example... but these are so minute that they're hardly worth mentioning.

I can't wait to relive this wonderful film again and again.

Logan Lucky: Steven Soderbergh tries his best Coen Brothers impersonation... and fails.

I finally got around to seeing Logan Lucky, Steven Soderbergh's return to filmmaking after a self-imposed retirement, last night and boy was I underwhelmed.  I meant to see it to during its initial theatrical run, but having two kids doesn't allow me to get to the theater as much as I would like.  I tend to wait for Netflix on a lot of movies that I used to go see in the theater.  Going in, I have to admit that I was pretty psyched for this one.  It had a great cast.  An hilarious trailer.  And a fun premise.  Basically Ocean's Eleven with rednecks.  However, I have to admit that there wasn't much to this film.  It didn't add anything new to the heist genre, and it was a pretty disappointing return to filmmaking for Soderbergh. 

Logan Lucky tells the story of two brothers.  One is a former high school hero turned real life zero (played by Channing Tatum), and the other is a one-armed army vet who runs a local bar (Adam Driver).  Together, they concoct a scheme to rob the local NASCAR event so Tatum's character can provide for his estranged daughter.  Along the way, you get a lot of tomfoolery, a couple laughs, and a plot that seems like a (very) poor man's Ocean's Eleven.  I kept waiting for it to take off, and it never quite went anywhere.  The characters weren't zany enough to be considered a Coen Brothers homage, and the story wasn't interesting enough to add anything to heist genre that we haven't already seen before.

There were a couple bright spots to this film, namely Daniel Craig's goofy explosions expert, "Joe Bang," but they weren't enough to save this formulaic film.  I'm not sure why Soderbergh decided that this was the film he wanted to make after stepping away from the game, but it was a poorly executed mess from a master filmmaker.  Seth MacFarlane is in this film as an over the top NASCAR driver, but he seems like a bad SNL skit (with a bad wig and mustache nonetheless).  Like I said, there's a lot of poor choices in this film.

If you're looking for a better heist film, I highly recommend you check out Good Time, a much better film with top-notch directing and acting.  Save yourself some time and skip Logan Lucky.