- May 18, 2001
- 7,882
- 380
- 126
This weekend my wife and I rented "Across the Universe" for our home-viewing pleasure. In case you aren't familiar with this film, it is a love story / rock musical that features some of the more popular songs originally performed by the Beatles in such a way that the songs help the narrative along. I was a Beatles fan when I was a lot younger, and even though I kind of fell away I've recently begun to rediscover and appreciate them. I recently saw Cirque du Soleil's Beatles-based "Love" in Las Vegas, which I thought was an awesome show. When I rented this movie, I was hoping for more of the same psychedelic weirdness that I thought was so bizarre and cool on the stage.
I was sorely disappointed.
Before I gouge the living crap out of this film, let me stress that it has its strong points and pleasures. First off and foremost, the music of the Beatles is eternal and transcends the mediocrity of everything else in this film; I looked at my wife more than once during the film and said that we really had to buy some more Beatles music. Also, at times the artistic direction in the movie is incredible; there are several scenes where the vodka I was drinking wasn't the only reason I felt super-groovilicious. Finally, many of the acting performances were top notch, which is especially notable because many of the cast performed their own renditions of Beatles classics.
So what was the problem I had? Whoever wrote the script needs to be forced on a short hike into the Jersey woods. The plot is horrendous - it is completely unoriginal and is a complete mess.
What plot there is can be summed up here (spoilers!): Boy meets Girl. Boy and Girl fall in love. Boy and Girl hit rough times. Boy and Girl break up. Boy and Girl realize how good it was. Boy and Girl reunite. All the while, the banality of the plot is disguised by some of the best music ever written while spurious sublots shoot off in various directions.
I've seen that movie a thousand times before and I'm getting really tired of it. If you are going to invoke the majesty of the Beatles, shouldn't you have spent a little time coming up with a plot that has the least hint of originality? Shouldn't just a little imagination have crept it's way into the script-writing meetings, or was it banned by the studio heads? Can't we do a little better than this nowadays?
Just an example of subplots that go nowhere: what's up with the gay Asian chick? Basically, she shows up, has "Dear Prudence" sung to her (which, since her name is Prudence is the only reason she's even in the movie), then she disappears only to show up in a cameo at the end. How did that help further the main narrative in any way? The only thing I can figure is that someone was grasping at straws for how to get their fave Beatles song included. Either that, or they wanted an obligatory gay subplot - who knows?
This was a frustrating DVD to watch because it had so much potential in my opinion. I really wanted to like or even love this movie. Instead, I have to give it only 5/10 mostly due to the merits of the artistic direction and the music.
Bleh.
I was sorely disappointed.
Before I gouge the living crap out of this film, let me stress that it has its strong points and pleasures. First off and foremost, the music of the Beatles is eternal and transcends the mediocrity of everything else in this film; I looked at my wife more than once during the film and said that we really had to buy some more Beatles music. Also, at times the artistic direction in the movie is incredible; there are several scenes where the vodka I was drinking wasn't the only reason I felt super-groovilicious. Finally, many of the acting performances were top notch, which is especially notable because many of the cast performed their own renditions of Beatles classics.
So what was the problem I had? Whoever wrote the script needs to be forced on a short hike into the Jersey woods. The plot is horrendous - it is completely unoriginal and is a complete mess.
What plot there is can be summed up here (spoilers!): Boy meets Girl. Boy and Girl fall in love. Boy and Girl hit rough times. Boy and Girl break up. Boy and Girl realize how good it was. Boy and Girl reunite. All the while, the banality of the plot is disguised by some of the best music ever written while spurious sublots shoot off in various directions.
I've seen that movie a thousand times before and I'm getting really tired of it. If you are going to invoke the majesty of the Beatles, shouldn't you have spent a little time coming up with a plot that has the least hint of originality? Shouldn't just a little imagination have crept it's way into the script-writing meetings, or was it banned by the studio heads? Can't we do a little better than this nowadays?
Just an example of subplots that go nowhere: what's up with the gay Asian chick? Basically, she shows up, has "Dear Prudence" sung to her (which, since her name is Prudence is the only reason she's even in the movie), then she disappears only to show up in a cameo at the end. How did that help further the main narrative in any way? The only thing I can figure is that someone was grasping at straws for how to get their fave Beatles song included. Either that, or they wanted an obligatory gay subplot - who knows?
This was a frustrating DVD to watch because it had so much potential in my opinion. I really wanted to like or even love this movie. Instead, I have to give it only 5/10 mostly due to the merits of the artistic direction and the music.
Bleh.
Facebook
Twitter