Across the Universe: EYES WILL ROLL

[Duzzy Funlop]

No kidding, I just spent 2 and a half hours rolling my eyes. Some highlights which you shouldn't read if you plan on seeing it:

-all characters named after songs. "Jude," "Lucy," "Max," etc. every time a character was introduced it seemed like the actors were all about to turn to the camera and wink.
-Someone jokes about "Max"(played by kurt cobain) killing his grandmother with a hammer. This makes absolutely no sense.
-Asian lesbian "Prudence" COMES IN THROUGH THE BATHROOM WINDOW. oh lol. despite the fact that the window she comes in through is supposedly at least 7 stories high. how she does this, they don't explain.
-At one point, Prudence locks herself in a closet. She is supposedly depressed about being a lesbian and falling in love with every girl she sees because that's how lesbians work, but really they only did it so the cast could sing Dear Prudence.
-book called "I Am the Walrus, by: Doctor Robert."
-Dr. Robert played by Bono.
-plot = every cliche about the 60s known to this world.
-the writers, apparently noting the similarities between the song "I Want You" and the popular Uncle Sam poster decided that it would be genius to tie the two together. Uncle Sam sings "I Want You." When they got to the part where they start singing "She's So Heavy," it was sung by soldiers who were carrying the statue of liberty on their backs through a miniature vietnamese forest, lamenting on how heavy she is. at this point I threw up all over myself.
-half the time, the plot was stretched thin by the songs, things would only happen as the songs dictated. When Jude McLimey is singing "Something" about the sleeping Lucy, he can only start the first line(something in the way she moves) after she moves in her sleep. Then, she smiles in her sleep. Something in her smile that moves me.
-the other half of the time it was like they just gave up on trying to properly integrate the songs. Despite the fact that "Come Together" is a song made up of non sequitors, they felt that it would be suitable to describe one of the characters. They used "Happiness is a Warm Gun" in its entirety which made absolutely no sense. Jude McLimey singing about spies and mirrored boots. what. It seems like the only reason they included it was so they could have a scene where a religious person does those things they do over a recently deceased person(war vet, natch) with their hand, and then the person can suddenly WAKE UP and they can sing "Mother Superior jumped the gun." what

There was some pretty good stuff about it too. There were some times when they took risks with the music, and it mostly worked. Some sequences were really good, I've Just Seen a Face and I Wanna Hold Your Hand coming to mind. You could tell it was directed by a good Broadway director... any time there's an actual dance sequence you'd see on stage, it was really impressive.

But mostly it just sucked. I'm biased cause I hold Beatles music to be holy and not to be messed with, but I can't be alone in thinking that people should just leave this shit alone and let the music speak for itself? Instead of going to all these "celebrations" of the music and being all nostalgic, can't people just listen to the music? Same goes for Queen and Billy Joel and every band who has a musical now. Or I'm just a crotchety snob.

[DGMacphee]

Do you feel the same way about Mamma Mia!, fake webber?

(Or to a lesser extent, Muriel's Wedding?)

P.S. Across The Universe looks very Moulin Rouge-like. And I didn't like Moulin Rouge.

[Duzzy Funlop]

I've never seen either of those. I feel Mamma Mia is a bit more sensical cause the music is so dramatic and theatrical. Muriel's Wedding isn't actually BASED around ABBA, right? Soundtracking is fine and awesome. I love Harold and Maude but the movie isn't made for the Cat Stevens songs.

I wouldn't have such a problem with stuff like this if it were just like, hey, let's make some cool dances and sequences set to some good music. When they try to make a story out of songs that aren't connected to each other in that way, then things just get messed up.

[DGMacphee]

Muriel's Wedding isn't actually BASED around ABBA, right?

Somewhat. The story isn't so much based around ABBA songs, but more so the character's perspective is based around ABBA songs. But I see what you're driving at.

[Maynard,]

So this is essentially the Moulin Rouge version of the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band movie? It's like two terrible movies in one!

[emily]

I really wish this would open somewhere in WV so I could FUCKING LOVE IT and you guys could lose all respect for me that you might have had.

[Alan]

emily: I'm looking forward to this movie and can't wait to see it and love it. Screw these naysayers.

[tmbg13]

Going with notwebber on this one. My reaction throughout the movie was, basically, "oh, come on." A lot of eye rolling on my end.