Movie Review: A Star is Born (2018)
Synopsis: Jackson Main, a famous musician suffering from both alcoholism and hearing loss, stops for a drink at a randomly-chosen drag bar following a concert and witnesses a performance by a waitress and aspiring song writer named Ally. After convincing her to perform one of her songs with him on stage and go on tour with his band, the two quickly fall in love and are married. However, as Ally's music career takes off at the same time Jackson's career is in decline, his increased drinking and drug use threaten to destroy them.
Who's in it? The movie stars Bradley Cooper, Lady Gaga, Sam Elliott, Dave Chappelle and Rafi Gavron.
Review: My wife and I got this DVD through Netflix nearly two months ago and it pretty much just sat by our TV until this past weekend. Part of the reason for this was the movie's 136-minute run time (which made it a little difficult to work in on busy evenings). But, a larger part of it was the fact I honestly wasn't as interested in watching it as my wife was.
It's not as though I don't like movies of this nature. It's just I'm always hesitant to watch a remake of a film that already has two other remakes. However, I finally caved in on Saturday evening and watched this with my wife. Unfortunately, it did nothing to make me regret waiting so long.
I'll start out by saying Lady Gaga is a talented performer and the songs from the movie were really good (I even have one stuck in my head as I write this). It's just her performance and the songs just weren't enough to make this movie anything special in my book.
In fact, the overall plot of this film was actually pretty similar to dozens of other movies I've already seen, even without including the original film and the other two remakes. Man meets woman, they fall in love, man does something to screw the whole thing up yet the woman still ultimately stays in love with him. The only difference between this film and the other movies, other than the songs, is it doesn't have a happy ending.
Actually, to tell you the truth, upon further reflection, I think the thing I hated most about this film had to be the ending. It was emotional, and I'll give it points for that. But, I just feel as though there was a lot that wasn't resolved. For example, Ally's (Gaga) manager (Gavron) was kind of an ass and I would have loved to have seen him get his comeuppance. I also would have loved to have seen evidence of Ally perhaps taking some of Jackson's (Cooper) advice about keeping her own voice/message when singing.
In other words, the ending just felt incomplete. And, that's taking into account the movie already being longer than it really needed to be.
Final Opinion: Just to be clear, I'm not saying it's a bad movie. It's just a story that has been told way too many times before and, because of that, isn't anything overly special.
My Grade: C
Who's in it? The movie stars Bradley Cooper, Lady Gaga, Sam Elliott, Dave Chappelle and Rafi Gavron.
Review: My wife and I got this DVD through Netflix nearly two months ago and it pretty much just sat by our TV until this past weekend. Part of the reason for this was the movie's 136-minute run time (which made it a little difficult to work in on busy evenings). But, a larger part of it was the fact I honestly wasn't as interested in watching it as my wife was.
It's not as though I don't like movies of this nature. It's just I'm always hesitant to watch a remake of a film that already has two other remakes. However, I finally caved in on Saturday evening and watched this with my wife. Unfortunately, it did nothing to make me regret waiting so long.
I'll start out by saying Lady Gaga is a talented performer and the songs from the movie were really good (I even have one stuck in my head as I write this). It's just her performance and the songs just weren't enough to make this movie anything special in my book.
In fact, the overall plot of this film was actually pretty similar to dozens of other movies I've already seen, even without including the original film and the other two remakes. Man meets woman, they fall in love, man does something to screw the whole thing up yet the woman still ultimately stays in love with him. The only difference between this film and the other movies, other than the songs, is it doesn't have a happy ending.
Actually, to tell you the truth, upon further reflection, I think the thing I hated most about this film had to be the ending. It was emotional, and I'll give it points for that. But, I just feel as though there was a lot that wasn't resolved. For example, Ally's (Gaga) manager (Gavron) was kind of an ass and I would have loved to have seen him get his comeuppance. I also would have loved to have seen evidence of Ally perhaps taking some of Jackson's (Cooper) advice about keeping her own voice/message when singing.
In other words, the ending just felt incomplete. And, that's taking into account the movie already being longer than it really needed to be.
Final Opinion: Just to be clear, I'm not saying it's a bad movie. It's just a story that has been told way too many times before and, because of that, isn't anything overly special.
My Grade: C
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