Across the Universe (Two-Disc Special Edition)

I've been a fan of the Beatles since birth so I was a little skeptical at how they were going to change the songs and do a musical. But it turned out way better than expected. Great song versions including "I wanna hold your hand" and "While my guitar gently weeps". Liked the story. Shot and directed beautifully.

The common link I find to all of the negative reviews of this horrible film is that the people who hate the film are huge Beatles fans. Also, all of us went to see this movie WANTING to love it. And like many of the other reviewers, I left the movie thirty minutes into the film. As soon as that dude began singing into the camera, I knew someone had brewed up and concocted a disaster. THE MOVIE HAS NO PLOT. All the filmmaker did was tape together one song after another, hoping that a plot would emerge somehow from the order in which they were connected. Also, the renderings of the songs are toothless. What horrifies me most, however, is the large number of rabid fans who are turning this movie into their cult classic, claiming to revere this band called the Beatles they'd previously never encountered. Having all of these idiots running around "loving" the Beatles based on this film is an embarrassment to Beatles fans and the Beatles. I am not religious, but I now finally understand why Christians are prone to such anger over other "Christian" groups who espouse beliefs that have no relation to Jesus' teachings. Horrible. Horrible. Horrible. Horrible movie.

This pretentious nonsense preaches socially conscious lessons straight from the hippy manifesto as an excuse to stitch together hallucinogenic music videos featuring a variety of performers singing Beatles songs. The songs vary in quality dramatically, with the very worst being "Let It Be", "Come Together", and "I Want You" (as an Army recruiting musical), although given the breadth of material it's hard to single out a true low point.

There is lots of very plastic dialogue about revolution, etc. (e.g. "We need to radicalize!"), which would be easier to take seriously if the characters weren't named Jude, Prudence, Lucy, Jojo, and other obvious starting points for musical numbers. While the film is ostensibly a love story, it it's really more an excuse to revisit the radicalism of the 1960's, with spoiled self-important whiny brats providing self-indulgent and brainless commentary on world events, with Vietnam at the obvious forefront.

Several things should be obvious takeaways from this cinematic Hindenburg: Bono shouldn't act, Joe Cocker should never be backed by a choir, and Julie Taymor should never, ever be allowed to make another movie. Ever.

This would be the last movie I would recommend to my worst enemy.

Julie Taymor has done a remarkable job of capturing the essence of the 60's; the color is right, the sequence of events is right, the escalation of emotions is right and the music is right. I was 23 in 1967 and lived on the lower East Side of New York City where most of the scenes in the film takes place. It all happened the way Taymor describes from the street people, to the draft, to the Bread and Puppet Theatre marching down Fifth Avenue. So if you want to experience or relive that moment in time or explain to your children why that moment made such a difference watch this movie.

This film is utterly painful. The dialogue is abysmal, the plot non-existent, the "hallucinatory" special effects sequences laughable, and the Beatles songs are crudely shoehorned in whether they fit or not, complete with some of the worst choreography I've ever seen in a film. I've liked Julie Taymor's other films, but she scraped the bottom of the barrel on this one. As far as recreating a vision of the late 60s, this film makes HAIR look like CITIZEN KANE in comparison. If you want to see a brilliant film that uses classic popular music as its core, check out Todd Haynes' I'M NOT THERE, but avoid this piece of crap at all costs...