A Star is Born (2018)

... or where can lead a failed attempt to see the latest "Halloween", for which the management of the local cinema considers allocating large projection rooms only at late hours. Call me picky, but if I move my bones up to a cinema I want a big screen. Consequently, I preferred "A Star is Born", despite my worries towards the lethal combination for my taste in film: musical + romance. But considering that while getting older I discovered liking also movies with a simpler subject and let's say more... calmness (check out last week), considering that the latest similar experience - "La La Land" - was surprisingly original, and considering also that most reviews for this one are over the top, I said... ok, fine. But it wasn't really fine.

What we have here is the third remake (this means four movies, just to make it clear) having the same title as the original released in 1937. I don't know how much the subject varied through the years, but for what I saw I imagine it can't be much. The originality is close to zero. Jack, an alcoholic soft-rock singer meets Ally, an anonymous singer in a bar, they like each other, they marry, her career goes up, his carrer goes down, and even though towards the end we catch a glimpse of balancing the odds, all goes away melodramatically with a garage, a beam, a belt, and a song for the one who passed away. Sorry for the "spoiler", but the movie is so one-sided that it gets annoying. And I don't want to start debating now what I mean by "one-sided".

The only part that was sort of good, for a musical, is that it's not extremely boring. The songs are ok-ish, but again reminded me that I can't really like a movie in this genre - it's a matter of taste. I can watch a concert, I can listen to a soundtrack - but I don't really need a shallow script to wrap it up. About the romance, I can't even say that this was depressing as usual... You want a romance, re-watch "Jerry Maguire", we have there too a guy with a career going down... or "Stardust", might be a bit cheesy, but it's not cliche + we really have a star ;). This one was just... bland.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 (barely...)