A STAR IS BORN ENCORE

I avoided the latest A Star is Born.  I've already seen three of them, they all pretty much started and ended the same.  Each depressed me.  Why waste my time and money?  So why did I yesterday go see that film?  Well, because it was advertised as A Star is Born ENCORE!  Surely, this must mean they saw flaws in the original and improved it.  

Some might remember Close Encounters:  The Special Edition, Stephen Spielberg, 1980.  Can you believe that was almost 40 years ago?  This enhanced version, which was three minutes shorter and released three years later, added a scene of Richard Dreyfuss actually entering that alien spacecraft.  That made a huge difference, for I wanted to see what was inside.  I went to both.  Click on this and you can watch 5-year old Cary Guffey being kidnapped by the flying saucer and Dreyfuss in awe inside the ship.

But back to A Star is Born, here is a comparison of the four:

                                                                                       Rotten Tomatoes

                                                                                   Reviewers  Audiences

1937   Janet Gaynor / Frederic March                               100           77

1954   Judy Garland / James Mason                                   97           83

1976   Barbra Streisand / Kris Kristofferson                        38           66

2018   Lady Gaga / Bradley Cooper                                    89           80

I most remember the 1954 version, for Garland sang The Man That Got Away, and Cary Grant (he also declined Roman Holiday and Sabrina), Humphrey Bogart, Frank Sinatra and Stewart Granger all declined the Mason role.  The movie got six Academy Award nominations, but did not win any, even the song, won by Three Coins in the Fountain, also beating out The High and Mighty.  Those were the days when these songs were memorable.

The 1976 film also had Gary Busey, who two years later played Buddy Holly, and Tony Orlando, who played himself.  Streisand had one of her biggest hits, The Love Theme from A Star is Born, or Evergreen, which won the Oscar.

The 2018 film was all about Bradley Cooper, who directed, produced and acted.  The encore added 12 minutes, but nothing particularly monumental.  Eight Nominations for the Academy Awards, but won only one, for Best Original Song, Shallow.  Oh, Cooper also sang, and well, although this was mostly Lady Gaga's song.

Tonight, I spend the night at the Waikiki Sheraton for the 25th Honolulu Festival to photograph the Nagaoka Fireworks.

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