A Star Is Born Encore

This Week: A Star is Born . . .Encore. . .I guess.

(dons Monocle and Hat)
We reviewing fancy Oscar Bait now!

So with this being a “director’s cut” of the 2018 A Star is Born, this officially makes it 4 versions of the movie I haven’t seen before seeing this one.

I had a slight interest in seeing A Star is Born back when it first came out, but I just never found the time.  I also wanted to check out the earlier versions first, but I never did that either.  So I don’t have a comparison for how this compares to the other 3.

I saw that it was titled ‘Encore’ but I just assumed that was just a fancy way of saying it was released again.  Apparently there is like an extra 12 minutes of movie that wasn’t in the original theatrical release.  I gotta say, they really integrated the Dewbacks and Extra Tie Fighters in really well.  I almost didn’t realize they weren’t originally there.

That was a Star Wars Special Edition joke.

For the first 30-45 minutes of this film, I thought I was just out of touch with the Oscars.  I thought the exchange between Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper was awkward and weird.  I didn’t really buy into how things progressed, and Bradley Cooper was barely intelligible in his Sam Elliot impression.  Which I thought was really funny considering later in the movie Sam Elliot accused Bradley Cooper of “stealing his voice.”  I gotta say, the only time Bradley Cooper DOESN’T sound like Sam Elliot is when Bradley Cooper is talking to Sam Elliot.

However, when Lady Gaga gets on stage and starts singing, that’s when the movie just sort of clicks into place and actually becomes really good.  You become invested in the characters, the story is believable, and the dialogue is real.

As I stated, I don’t really know much about the previous iterations of A Star is Born, but from what I understand, a lot of the problems stem from the male co-star getting jealous of the female co-star’s fame.  He feels he is becoming insignificant by her rising stardom.  This doesn’t happen here.  Or doesn’t seem to be the main focus.  Bradley Cooper’s character largely seems to struggle with his issues of hearing loss, alcoholism, and drug addiction.  The latter issues being a coping mechanism for the former.

I actually do recommend this movie.  As stated, the first half hour or so is kind of awkward as you are getting introduced to the characters and the story kind of forcing these characters to meet and try and build a believable relationship, but once you get the stretched meet-cute out of the way, it really works.

Next Week: Five State Park.  The Suspenseful thriller of aliens trapped in an amusement park being invaded by cystic fibrosis patients.