Post by Vits on Nov 1, 2018 15:52:42 GMT
A STAR IS BORN 1937
4/10
A STAR IS BORN 1937 told a story about a woman (VICKI LESTER) who went to Hollywood to become an actress. She found some gigs and fell in love with a celebrity (NORMAN MAINE). While she was becoming famous, he was becoming a jealous drunk. From the very 1st scene of A STAR IS BORN 1954, VICKI is already a perfomer (though not a famous one) and NORMAN is already a drunk. These things change the story in 3 ways:
-The romance gets more focus than the career, making the story NORMAN's as much as VICKI's.
-VICKI isn't portrayed as a young and naive up-and-comer.
-The dramatic shift in the last part doesn't feel like it comes out of nowhere.
Judy Garland and James Mason's performances are good, but most of the musical numbers aren't creative and all the songs are forgettable. Even though I'm not writing a positive comment, we're talking about the remake of a movie that wasn't very original to begin with (there almost was a plagiarism lawsuit). It could've been a lot worse.
5/10
3/10
I wasn't looking forward to a 3rd remake. Not just because I didn't like any installment up until this point, but also because many movies in the last 40 years have been inspired by this franchise. However, the directing, writing, cinematography and song score in A STAR IS BORN 2018 is good enough to make the story feel fresh. Lady Gaga, Bradley Cooper, Sam Elliott and Andrew Dice Clay's performances are great. The beginning plays out like one of those indie movies that take place in a short period of time showing 2 people going to different places while talking and falling in love. The lead actors get to show off their amazing chemistry. Later, we see JACKSON MAINE & ALLY (the protagonists) playing rock music with instruments not really caring about how they look. As she becomes famous, she leans over the pop genre, computerized music and exagerated makeovers. This parallels the change of predominance in the music industry that started around 10 years ago. Therefore, it would've been obvious for the movie to follow the "She rises to fame while he hits rock bottom, causing him to drink more" plot that its predecessors followed... but it doesn't. Hell, it doesn't even portray ALLY's change as something truly negative. JACKSON's career is fine (I hate to say it, but he probably wouldn't be so popular in 2018 if his songs didn't have a slightly country sound), but his insecurity causes him to drink more, which is what starts to ruin his career.
9/10
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You can read comments of other movies in my blog.
4/10
A STAR IS BORN 1937 told a story about a woman (VICKI LESTER) who went to Hollywood to become an actress. She found some gigs and fell in love with a celebrity (NORMAN MAINE). While she was becoming famous, he was becoming a jealous drunk. From the very 1st scene of A STAR IS BORN 1954, VICKI is already a perfomer (though not a famous one) and NORMAN is already a drunk. These things change the story in 3 ways:
-The romance gets more focus than the career, making the story NORMAN's as much as VICKI's.
-VICKI isn't portrayed as a young and naive up-and-comer.
-The dramatic shift in the last part doesn't feel like it comes out of nowhere.
Judy Garland and James Mason's performances are good, but most of the musical numbers aren't creative and all the songs are forgettable. Even though I'm not writing a positive comment, we're talking about the remake of a movie that wasn't very original to begin with (there almost was a plagiarism lawsuit). It could've been a lot worse.
5/10
Except for 2 intense scenes (the one that takes place at the Grammy Awards (it didn't even need the accidental slap shown in its predecessors to cause tension) and the one in the highway before the tragedy),
A STAR IS BORN 1976 is the most dull-looking movie I've seen in a long time (how the Hell was it nominated for the Best Cinematography Oscar?!). Of course that I've seen plenty of other movies with the same problem, but they didn't tell stories about music, so the lack of visual creativity stands out more here. It's also boring from a storytelling point of view, but that's not exclusive to this sub-genre. There's so little plot in this 140-minute-long movie that some of the musical performances are immediately followed by another one. Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson's performances are good, but they have no chemistry. The previous versions portrayed NORMAN MAINE as a not-so-bad guy who allowed the booze to let out the worst in him. Here, JOHN NORMAN HOWARD (his counterpart) is an asshole from beginning to end and he doesn't even get drunk that often (on-screen, at least).3/10
I wasn't looking forward to a 3rd remake. Not just because I didn't like any installment up until this point, but also because many movies in the last 40 years have been inspired by this franchise. However, the directing, writing, cinematography and song score in A STAR IS BORN 2018 is good enough to make the story feel fresh. Lady Gaga, Bradley Cooper, Sam Elliott and Andrew Dice Clay's performances are great. The beginning plays out like one of those indie movies that take place in a short period of time showing 2 people going to different places while talking and falling in love. The lead actors get to show off their amazing chemistry. Later, we see JACKSON MAINE & ALLY (the protagonists) playing rock music with instruments not really caring about how they look. As she becomes famous, she leans over the pop genre, computerized music and exagerated makeovers. This parallels the change of predominance in the music industry that started around 10 years ago. Therefore, it would've been obvious for the movie to follow the "She rises to fame while he hits rock bottom, causing him to drink more" plot that its predecessors followed... but it doesn't. Hell, it doesn't even portray ALLY's change as something truly negative. JACKSON's career is fine (I hate to say it, but he probably wouldn't be so popular in 2018 if his songs didn't have a slightly country sound), but his insecurity causes him to drink more, which is what starts to ruin his career.
I knew it was going to be hard to top the death scene in A STAR IS BORN 1976, which left ambigious whether JOHN killed himself or not. There's no ambiguety here, but it's still a clever example of visual storytelling, partly by (ironically) not showing everything.
9/10
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You can read comments of other movies in my blog.