I didn't know Carano's Reno ties, but recognized her from her days as a mixed
martial arts fighter. She fought in the days before the UFC had a female
division. While I can't disagree with Steve on her acting in "Haywire," I felt
she did extremely well with the action.
There are many other, better-known actors featured in The Mandalorian (Werner
Herzog's voice is all over some of the promos, Giancarlo Esposito mentioned he
was in it while on Conan, and I've seen glimpses of Carl Weathers and Ming-Na
Wen). Maybe Favreau had to spend some money on casting that could have gone to
the effects?
David
On Wednesday, January 29, 2020, 8:49:01 PM EST, Steve Timko
<[email protected]> wrote:
Verizon gives me bonuses when I pay my smartphone bill on time. Two months ago
Verizon gave me a $3 Starbucks discount coupon. I logged in again on Sunday,
hoping to snag another one. Instead, I found out I have a free one-year
subscription to Disney+. That’ll show me for not allowing Verizon to send me
any promotional emails.
I promptly download the Disney+ app and perused the show selection. The movies
are impressive. There’s movies I still haven’t seen, including “Frozen” and the
original “Lion King.” The series selections are less impressive. Jeff Goldblum
is interesting so I suspect his documentary series will be interesting (the
first one I’ve watched, on basketball shoes, was good, not great).
But I decided to take the plunge on “The Mandalorian.” The first episode is
fantastic. It’s the best “Star Wars” product since “The Empire Strikes Back.”
Writing credit goes to Jon Favreau. He’s a talented guy, but I’m guessing there
were a lot of fingers in this writing pot. Past “Star Wars” movies have hinted
at being the new western movies. “The Mandalorian” jumps right in. There’s
little doubt about it. When the Mandalorian creeps up to look over a ridge,
it’s a scene from any number of John Ford or John Wayne movies. The Manalorian
speaks with a Clint Eastwood growl. A scene in the penultimate show is straight
out of “Butch Cassidy And the Sundance Kid.” Not all are allusions to westerns.
Another scene is a throwback to “Return of the Jedi” with essentially the same
payoff.
I was happy to see Gina Carano in the film. She is part of the Carano family
that owns casinos in Reno (and elsewhere now), although her time in Reno was
limited. She’s more a product of Las Vegas and Texas. She had the starring role
in Steven Soderburgh’s “Haywire” in 2011 and she was not up to the task. Carano
was quite wooden. Among her other films were “Deadpool,” which wasn’t much of
an acting challenge. She’s grown and shows much greater range of emotion in
“The Mandalorian.”
The special effects are generally first rate, although there were a few places
where they seemed to be cutting corners. When “Howard The Duck” came out,
George Lucas talked about the importance of getting the eyes right in non-human
characters. He didn’t do it with the duck, but Baby Yoda is well done. I wonder
how many millions of dollars of profits they lost by not having a Baby Yoda
doll for sale at Christmas.
I liked the humor as well. The discussion of bored Imperial Troopers was a
great touch. And the droids/robots were often good for laughs.
IMDB lists a second season coming some time in 2020. I look forward to it.
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