A STAR IS BORN

Release Date: Malaysia, 18 Oct 2018

Genre: Drama / Musical

Running Length: 2:16

Cast: Lady Gaga, Bradley Cooper, Sam Elliott, Andrew Dice Clay, Ravi Gavron, Anthony Ramos, Dave Chappelle

Director: Bradley Cooper

Screenplay: Eric Roth and Bradley Cooper & Will Fetters, based on a story by William A. Wellman and Robert Carson

Note: The best way to enjoy the full experience of A STAR IS BORN is not to have watched any of the previous versions (this Bradley Cooper's take is the 4th, the last one was in 1976), read any reviews or even listen to any of the music from this soundtrack. 

I will keep my review as spoiler free as possible, but that said, please discontinue reading if you've yet to watch this movie.

What's this movie about?

In essence, A STAR IS BORN is about one comet rising while another crashes. 

Jackson Maine (Cooper) is a fading country rock music star who accidentally discovers a talented unknown, Ally (Lady Gaga). They started a whirlwind romance as he took her under his wings. 

We've seen this story many times, haven't we? Soon, Ally's singing career skyrockets, leaving Jackson behind. It doesn't help too that Jackson is an alcoholic.  

Highlights!

I'm in awe of Bradley Cooper's capability as a first time director. I could really feel his passion and raw-ness on every frame of the movie.   

The technical choices he makes; the camera angles, the sound and the very close-up shots of the characters, made me invested in Jackson and Ally at get go. It felt immersive - like I was right there next to Jackson and Ally when they were singing in front of thousands of audience.

As good as Lady Gaga's performance is (her acting and the her chemistry with Cooper's character is so very believable), I thought Cooper gave his best performance ever here. 

One can really feel him spiraling out of control and losing the battle to his inner demons. As a rock star, he is never cocky. In fact, he's a good man. That's why it was difficult to watch him struggle through his emotional agony. 

The supporting cast are all very capable too. 

And the songs - it's really good! A big portion of the movie's screen time is devoted to performances which ranges from familiar covers to original composition (some were co-written by Cooper himself). I read today that the soundtrack has held on to its No.1 spot this week on the Billboard 200 chart for the second straight week.

Lowlights

I thought the middle portion was a little flabby. I get what the filmmakers were trying to achieve, but yet, it was draggy at times. 

Also, I'm not sure if it was done on purpose but I couldn't seem to keep track of the timeline of this movie. There were moments I went, "Wait a minute, did months just passed by?" Maybe Cooper was trying to inform his audience that his character Jackson was so drunk, he just couldn't keep track of time? I dunno.  

And of course, the resolution. As emotionally heart wrenching as it was, I personally felt some people would take it the wrong way and may view it as a permissible way to cop-out. 

In summary

Bradley Cooper's A STAR IS BORN has Oscars written all over it. It has the package - strong performances, a very good soundtrack, capably directed and most importantly, it's relatable to today's social issues. 

This is a raw and heartbreaking movie man...

RATING: 8.5/10

PASKAL THE MOVIE (Malaysia, 27 Sep 2018)

Genre: Action

Running Length: 1:40

Cast: Hairul Azreen, Ammar Alfian, Henley Hii, Taufik Hanafi, Gambit Saifullah, Hafizul Kamal, Theebaan G. Jasmine Suraya, Amerul Affendi, Nam Ron

Director: Adrian Teh

Screenplay: Anwari Ashraf

What's this movie about?

PASKAL (Pasukan Khas Laut) is the Navy Seals of Malaysia, the elite unit in the Royal Malaysian Navy. The movie's narrative is a mix of dramatized re-enactment of actual past missions, their training regime and some very engaging action pieces. Plus, it's also peppered with some family drama.     

In all honesty, even though the trailer looked promising, I went into the cinema with the "Malaysian movies can or not wan?" cynicism. 

But boboiboy boy oh boy, was I blown away!

Highlights!

I'm so very glad the filmmakers didn't CGI the heck out of this movie. 

And I'm so very glad that most of the film was shot on location with real ships, planes, helicopters, submarine (!) and weaponry.  

From a technical standpoint, this movie is an achievement. The sound is good (the sound of the bullets hitting metal objects sounded real), the gun fires are real, no CGI explosion fakery - everything just looks organic, dangerous and realistic. 

There are some tense moments especially from the last mission which got me at the edge of my seat.

The violence wasn't glorified but necessary. 

  

I was half expecting the training scenes to be filled with "Sir, yes sir!" tropes but wow, it was different! Yeah, there's the standard Major Payne character yelling at the team but I guess it didn't feel cliche because the group's dynamic led by their de facto leader (Hairul) came across as believable. In fact, some of the lighter moments came from this part of the movie.   

And there was this NICE shot of them trying to tahan (hold their breath) underwater. 

Lowlights

I felt the main pirate baddie played by Amerul was too OTT. He's one of those froth at the mouth, ha-ha-ha, teeth gnashing type of villain. He just came across as a tad too cartoonish. 

And there's the missed opportunity of one of the characters. If the film's writer would have given him more layers, he could have come across as interesting as Erik Killmonger in Black Panther.   

In summary

What I really appreciate are the little little touches the filmmakers added to make PASKAL a Malaysian movie, for example where the team berdoa (prayed) before they embarked on a mission. 

Judging by the box office success it is currently enjoying, it's a timely release where the rakyat (citizens) is feeling all time patriotically high now. To be fair, it's doing good commercially not because the filmmakers were opportunistic but this movie is actually good. 

It's probably one of the most realistic badass local action movie I've seen in a while.     

Makes me wanna sign up to join TLDM now!

RATING: 8/10

PROJECT GUTENBERG, 無雙 (Malaysia, 04 Oct 2018)

Genre: Thriller / Action

Running Length: 2:11

Cast: Chow Yun-Fat, Aaron Kwok, Zhang Jingchu, Catherine Chau, Liu Kai-chi, Joyce Feng, David Wang, Alien Sun, Deno Cheung, Justin Cheung

Director: Felix Chong

Screenplay: Felix Chong

What's this movie about?

In PROJECT GUTENBERG, the Hong Kong police is hunting down a mysterious group of counterfeiters led by a mastermind with a code-name "Painter" (Chow). No one has seen him before. 

In order to unmask and track down Painter, the police interrogates a timid Lee Man (Kwok), a former gang member of Painter. Lee was imprisoned in Thailand. He was employed by Painter for his talent of copying paintings to a T. 

And thus begins the Usual Suspects-type of flashback where Lee reveals his time with the gang and the meticulous details of their counterfeiting operations.

Highlights!

Despite the rubbish Chow Yun-Fat has been putting out since his return to Hong Kong, he is extremely watchable here. He channels some of his most iconic screen presence here as a suave gentleman criminal who is capable of bursting out in sudden scary temper tantrums. When he is in the latter mode, Chow's Painter is rash and violent. He is convincingly menacing here. 

The ensemble cast is very capably supported by veteran Liu Kai-chi.  

What I like is also a very detailed exposition on how greenbacks are counterfeited. In fact, it's almost documentary-like with close-ups and hidden details on the US hundred dollar bill.

There are a few homage-to-the 90s action set pieces. It's always nice to see Mr Chow fires up two guns (and two machine guns, hell yeah!) while leaping in slo-mo - eventhough I personally think he's too old for this.    

Lowlights

Aaron Kwok - he is always overacting and he does it here again. He is not a terrible actor but throughout the movie, I was thinking who could have better played his role to give Chow a run for his money.

Overall, this movie is over-bloated and could have benefited from some trimming.  

In summary

Coming from the writer of the modern HK classic Infernal Affairs and starring the legendary Chow Yun-Fat, I had high hopes for Felix Chong's PROJECT GUTENBERG to catch another lightning in a bottle but alas, it's more of a case of 'lightning never strikes the same place twice'. 

Don't get me wrong, everything about the movie was original, entertaining and even educational...until the very last act. 

The last 15 minutes of the movie is a baffling choice coming from someone as capable as Felix. Some viewers would call it, "Brilliant!" but ultimately, it's very much dependent on whether one has seen this other classic movie. 

My reaction was, "Appreciation, not imitation, is the sincerest form of flattery".

RATING: 7/10