This fun sci-fi romp is enjoyable enough viewing for undemanding viewers, that is if you don't mind watching unoriginal action-packed adventures which tend to rip off themes from THE TERMINATOR (pretty much the norm for any '90s android film). Really, I don't understand all the negative comments about this film; I've seen a lot worse, and at least this never forgets to be fun. It's a fast-paced movie with loads of action and special effects to keep it entertaining, even if we've seen it all before.At least the rip-offs are varied here and it's not just a straight take on one film (like DNA was). The jungle setting is fun and an excuse for lots of nice scenery which brings to mind PREDATOR. The action scenes, while ludicrous, are fun to watch with baddies having the necks snapped and falling prey to various jungle traps (a favourite staple of mine) which Solo sets up for them. There's even a surprisingly nasty back-breaking in there for good measure. The final android vs. android battle is hilarious, and has people flying all over the place.Mario Van Peebles is expectedly wooden in the lead role, but unexpectedly, this seems to work in the film's favour - it goes with his character. Favourite baddie William Sadler also gets to put in a hissably villainous turn in not one, but two roles, and makes a nicely imposing enemy for Peebles to face. For some blessed reason the film isn't saddled down with a boring romance plot between the android and a woman, in fact there are no major roles for women here. Sadly, we do get the stereotypically annoying Asian kid who serves as an aide for our hero.Sure, this isn't intelligent entertainment or even original. But it's a fun experience, and is never boring. There are plenty of pyrotechnics and violence to keep viewers happy and a more interesting plot than most films of this ilk. It's cheap, but the budget is used for plenty of outlandish special effects which I always like (especially the impressive "robo-vision", with loads of swirling colours). Worth catching if you like this particular sub-genre of cyborg/android films.

In the title role of Solo, action-adventure, Mario Van Peebles-- head shaved and his body buffed to the max, pumped hard and getting into shape and the poster really shows off Mario's physique, stomach, abs, chest, biceps, it's all pure steel! One of the manliest scenes on the movie is the fight Van Peebles / William Sadler Colonel Madden to Solo who is holding the Colonel horizontally above his head: How's it gonna feel if you kill me? Solo: Good question, let's find out. then CRRACCCCKKKTTT ! drops the Colonel on his knee, breaking his spine with a crunch. Colonel roars loud and his sap gloved hands convulse as well as his combat boots in orgasmic agony!

Solo starts as a team of US soldiers go into Soth America to blow up a rebel airstrip, joining them is a robot named Solo (Mario Van Peebles) who can use any weapon ever made, is fifteen times stronger & ten times faster than any human being. Something goes wrong though & Solo refuses to kill innocent civilians which Colonel Frank Madden (William Sadler) isn't happy about, back at base & General Haynes (Barry Corbin) orders Solo to be shut down & reprogrammed. One of Solo's main directives is self preservation so decides to escape back into the South American jungles where Colonel Madden & his men are sent in to recapture it...This Mexican American co-production was directed by Norberto Barba & one has to say Solo is awful. The script by David Corley was based on the novel 'Weapon' by Robert Mason & is one cliché after another, robots were popular at the time Solo was made in Hollywood & at the box-office so Solo rip-offs the likes of Robocop (1987), Universal Soldier (1992) & the two Terminator flicks as well as having the same setting & basic story as Predator (1987). This is the usual rubbish about an emotionless robot who grows a sense of humanity while being around people, at first he doesn't know what a joke is or why one person would care for another but by the end he develops emotions & starts to befriend people, sounds like Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) to me. The character's are poor & Colonel Madden in particular is given absolutely no motivation for hating Solo at all & why he would kill other US soldiers & disobey orders to destroy it. You know I saw this on cable telly last night for free (thank god I didn't spend any money on it) & I looked it up in the TV guide & do you know what it said? My TV guide described Solo as a 'dire sci-fi action starring Mario Van Peebels' which when I think about it is a perfect description of Solo. In less than ten words my TV guide has hit the nail on the head, I mean it's a sci-fi action film, it certainly stars Mario Van Peebles & it's definitely dire. Enough said really.Director Barba doesn't do anything particularly special here & the action scenes lack any real excitement & the sci-fi elements are virtually none existent apart from the fact Solo is a robot. So the military lose Solo & Colonel Madden is sent in to recapture it right? I'm not being funny but wouldn't the military have put a 'self destruct' mechanism inside Solo in case something like that happened? Surely at the very least Solo would have had a tracking device inside it so the military would at least know where it was at any given time? I'm not being funny but these people can come up with a walking talking robotic soldier but they are not clever enough to realise that a tracking or self destruct device might be useful if anything went wrong? The violence is mild, there are a few OK fight scenes but this is pretty weak stuff really.Technically the film looks alright & is competently made, it was actually shot in Mexico. The makers of the Dolph Lundgren action flick Agent Red (2000) edited footage from Solo into that film. The acting is poor, Van Peebles was the perfect choice to play an emotionless robot... William Sadler deserves better than this, it was only a few years prior he was staring in the fantastic Die Hard 2: Die Harder (1990).Solo is a really bad sci-fi action flick which is basically a huge rip-off of big budget Hollywood sci-fi action films like Robocop, Universal Soldier & the Terminator films. Not recommend & I'm going to start & pay more attention to my TV guide when it comes to choosing films to watch...

Even the fact that I saw this movie at a free sneak review doesn't make up for the hour plus that I lost watching this horrible dreck of a movie. Mario van Peebles had a movie to remember in New Jack city, and he has a movie to forget in Solo. Where do I start? The plot is horrendous, the action is silly, the acting is campy, and the whole movie adds up to such a bad experience that it isn't even worth renting, much less buying or watching it on cable. Any cable station that shows this movie ought to give the viewers discounts on their cable bill. Definitely a contender for worst movie ever made. Definitely the worst movie of anyone who acted, wrote, produced, directed, or did FX for it.