Across the Universe DVD Review

[horrorview]

Hey folks! This is my Across the Universe DVD review from another site I work on called southcoast247.com. It's my local newspaper's "young people" site. LOL....



Across the Universe 2-Disc Special Edition (2007) (Sony DVD)
Director: Julie Taymor
Cast: Evan Rachel Wood, Jim Sturgess

Movie: C+ Extras: A

In the latter half of the 1960’s, a young Liverpudlian named Jude (Jim Sturgess) makes the trek to America to find the father he’s never met, and ends up smack dab in the middle of a revolution. The Vietnam War protesters have taken to the streets, the civil rights movement is picking up steam, and the lazy, hazy days of free love are in full effect. It’s a far cry from the shipyards of Liverpool, and, with a little help from his friend, Max (Joe Anderson), Jude takes up residence in New York City, where he and Max move in with a potpourri of counterculture stereotypes. There’s Sadie (Dana Fuchs), the sexy soul singer; Jo Jo (Martin Luther), the ghetto-born guitar god; Prudence (T.V. Carpio), the lovestruck Asian lesbian, and, of course, Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood), Max’s idealistic little sister with whom Jude has fallen in love. Throughout the years we spend with the characters, we see them grow together, then apart, then back together again, while the turbulent history of the late 60’s unfolds behind them.

This is the world of Julie Taymor’s “Across the Universe”, a musical fairy tale inspired by the songs of The Beatles that combines the trippy imagery of “Pink Floyd’s The Wall” with the insipid, completely unsympathetic characters of “Rent”. While the musical numbers look and sound great, the cues for each song are oftentimes so overtly literal as to border on silliness, as when dejected Prudence locks herself in a closet, and the cast gathers around to coax her out with a wistful rendition of – what else? - “Dear Prudence”, or when Jude barges in on a protest group meeting singing “Revolution”. Then there’s the absurd image of a group of half-naked recruits carrying the Statue of Liberty across a miniature Vietnam landscape to the strains of “She’s So Heavy”. Luckily, these musical misfires are nearly balanced out by nifty twists like Bono’s electric take on “I Am the Walrus”, and Eddie Izzard’s hilarious spoken word version of “For the Benefit of Mr. Kite”. Joe Cocker also pops up in an extended musical number, although I doubt anyone under the age of 40 will even notice.

As a series of nicely filmed musical vignettes, Across the Universe works well, especially if you’re a Beatles fan. However, as a proper film, Universe’s threadbare plot does little to sustain interest or generate any sense of compassion for any of its characters. Much like the aforementioned “Rent”, Taymor’s characters aren’t really fleshed out enough to generate much by way of sympathy, so when, say, Max is carted off to Vietnam, or Jude and Lucy’s relationship is threatened by the latter’s involvement in protests, it all feels very hollow and underwritten, and we find ourselves waiting for another musical number to rush things along. Taymor also litters the spoken bits of the film with overly obvious and oh-so-precious bits of Beatles lyrics - example: When Prudence arrives, and Sadie asks where she came from, Jude tells her “She came in through the bathroom window.” Depending on how big of a fan you are, these lines will elicit either knowing groans or clueless shrugs.

Across the Universe will no doubt please Beatles fans looking for new twists on their favorite songs, and, to the film’s credit, the performances are top notch, as are most of the visuals that accompany them. Still, each of these numbers are bookended by a clichéd and trite story that had me wishing Taymor had followed the example of Alan Parker and The Wall, and simply let the music do the talking.

[kheffelf]

First time I saw this movie was when it first hit theaters in my area. Really excited about it and was hoping for a great film, but left the theater pretty disappointed with the movie, but I loved the soundtrack. I thought some of the scenes in the movie seemed forced because they just wanted to get a song in the movie. But I had a second chance of watching the movie at a cheap dollar theater a couple months back. This time I loved the movie and it seemed to flow so much better for me the second time then it did the first. I bought it and rewatched it for a third time and hold by second opinion of the movie. It is great. My first rating would be like yours around a 3 on a 5 scale, but my second opinion would be a 4 on a 5 scale. If you are a Beatles fan it is kind of a must see or any fan of a musical would really like the film as well.