Review of A Star Is Born (1954) by Brian R — 23 Jan 2013

What a very long boring movie. "A Star Is Born" reminds me of "What's Love Got To Do With It" taking place in 1954. James Mason plays the Ike Turner character Norman Maine and Judy Garland is the Tina Turner character Esther Blodgett / Vicki Lester. Maine is an alcoholic, meets Esther and wants to make her a risin acting star. Esther is reluctant at first because she belongs to a music group and is profesional singer. Should Esther throw her music career away in order to follow Norman Maine's wishes? She does and things don't go smoothly at first. Esther does a few odd jobs to make ends meet. Later on Esther meets Maine and this time he tries to get her a deal with the studio which he does, the two fall in love and then the picture goes into this melodramtic heartbreak.

This film kinda annoyed me with the distracting restoration editing techniques, Judy Garland's melodramtic acting, and the obvious things that was going to happen to Norman. "A Star Is Born" is a very long movie which didn't need to be. George Cuckor is a great filmmaker but im not sure if this material was suited for him. Great musicals were known to be epic and exciting, this film goes the opposite way making me wonder as to when on earth is this film going to end?