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Digital Cameras - Camcorders - Across the Universe (Two-Disc Special Edition)
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List Price: $19.94
Our Price: $6.45
Your Save: $ 13.49 ( 68% )
Availability: Usually ships in 9 to 12 days
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
Starring: Evan Rachel Wood, Jim Sturgess, Joe Anderson (VI), Dana Fuchs, Martin Luther (II)
Directed By: Julie Taymor
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Sony
EAN: 0043396194625
Format: AC-3
Label: Sony Pictures
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
Number Of Items: 2
Publisher: Sony Pictures
Region Code: 99
Release Date: 2008-02-05
Running Time: 133
Studio: Sony Pictures
Theatrical Release Date: 2007
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Great!
Comment: My granddaughter loves this movie and I finally watched it. Enjoyed it so much I think I have watched it at least 4-5 times since then. Amazing how they worked the Beatles songs into this movie. Across the Universe (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good promise.
Comment: I actually went to see this movie, hoping to hate it, because I thought it was disrespectful to the Beatles, but it turned out to be interesting.
Some of the song references were a little corny (i.e. the clerk saying "well I imagine that when I'm sixty-four....") but it made up by having a good storyline.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Welcome to the retro world we live in.
Comment: The range and change in Beatles music is mirrored in the lives of this highly charged adult fantasy that could have been real for someone. The singing is not always equal to the source, but fits the plot. Like many recent musical defined stories, this one can strain the intent of the composer/performer. That given, the characters are honest in their performances and their growth through time is adequately portrayed. This along with so many other "Baby Boomer Retros" tries hard to define that era for it's own as well as those born long after the 60's and 70's became history. I welcome the effort and admire the compositions. This is an older teen movie, or for adults...not for those who still believe in Santa Clause. It takes a bit of effort to follow and understand, so not for casual observers looking for the quick nude scenes or risque dialogue.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not for Die-Hard Beatles Fans
Comment: I am a die-hard beatles fan and I absolutely hate this movie. The songs chosen are the generic Beatles, none of the true good ones (come on, no A Day in the Life? or Sgt Peppers? or Norwegian Wood? or Back in the USSR? the list goes on and on). They throw in random Beatles songs that don't fit into the plot what-so-ever (Blackbird, Come Together, While My Guitar Gently Weeps just to name a few). Oh, but there are plenty generic Beatles songs: Hey Jude, I Want to Hold Your Hand, Something, All You Need is Love, and the list keeps on going. Don't get me wrong, those are some great songs, but the Beatles defiantly have better songs. If you are not a beatles fan or a somewhat beatles fan, I'm pretty sure you will enjoy this movie. If you are a die-hard, like myself, you will not. All of my other die-hard beatles fans haven't liked it either, but those who aren't will like it. If you truly love the Beatles, don't waste your time or money.
Customer Rating:
Summary: PLEASE, DON'T CALL THIS BEATLES
Comment: First off let me relate a story that will demonstrate my clear bias to this film going in - My wife had bought the CD based on some review that she had read or on some one's recommendation, it doesn't matter which. She played it for me in the car one night. Before it got to the third song I pulled it out of the deck and tossed it. The music was so bad it was insulting. I couldn't believe that anyone could possibly consider these basterdized renditions of some of the Beatles' greatest songs as music fitting to listen to other tan corporate CEOs who only cared about how much money they might bring in with sales.
Now, if you had to rank this film against others of its nature, say, Hair or Jesus Christ Superstar, from that era, then, you'd have to rank it 5 stars. The movie accomplishes what it attempted to do with each song matched to entertaining visuals, though more often than not the songs' content don't match to the lyrics or to what the Beatles were saying or living at the time they wrote and performed them.
But this film wasn't made in that era, it isn't that era, it is today, here and now.
Fast forward to the future, some time into the present. I was preparing to do my wash as a good documentary (Shut Up and Sing - the story of the Dixie Chicks controversy - no I am not a fan, but the film was good documentary coverage of what they went thru) had just ended. I took a quick scan of what was next offered on the movie channels that I subscribe to and saw this film's write up, thinking, a movie revolving around Beatles' songs, how bad can it be, besides, I'd be in and out of the room doing the laundry, so if I missed any of it, at least the songs would help me pass the time. How wrong I could have been never crossed my mind. Unfortunately I didn't put the CD and movie in the same context until I was well into the film.
Just to set the record straight - I stopped paying attention to this film before it was halfway through - I only wish I had a fast forward function on my set as I would have liberally used it during the time I was watching the film. I also want to state that I did not turn the film off, I did not walk out, I just tuned out.
Given there are well over 400 reviews in this Amazon posting I didn't read them all, though I did my best to read as many of the negative ones as possible, once again, showing my bias. I started by reading the positives and found that they were basically all along the same lines, praising the greatness of the artists, the director, the visuals, and the accomplishments of all of their visions. I guess they were the same people that Mama Mia was created for.
About all I could add to the line of positive thoughts about Across the Universe is that the film did its best to follow thru with an exploration of that era's look, feel, and philosophies, while attempting to include all sorts of events and music innovations (was that woman supposed to Janis and her boyfriend Hendrix), although, those were basterdized as well, ala Woody Allen's Zelig style, and later Tom Hanks as Forrest Gump.
Maybe I'm thinking of Across the Universe was a mutation birthed by a copulation of the films Hair and Godspell.
If you want to see a movie with Beatles' songs in it see Hard Day's Night, see HELP, even go see Yellow Submarine (not one of my favorites though great music) but whatever you do, don't see Across the Universe and then walk around telling people you just saw a great Beatles film because all you saw was this bad piece of crappy celluloid. If you want to hear great Beatles' songs, listen to the Beatles. Listen to any one of their songs, song by them, and then compare it to the songs in this film. If you think these were as good, came even close, or were actually better, then . . . you, my friend, are just a fool without a hill.
[Note: I'm not a fan of the films Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band and Tommy (OK, not a Beatles' film but all of these films are of the same mindset, look and feel), but this ain't no Tommy, it ain't no SPLHCB (though I guess that was what they were thinking), and it ain't a decent attempt at properly portraying the Beatles' songs.]
PS: I find it extremely unfortunate that the writer, director, and producers felt they needed to coop the aspects of British music history (the way they used the Beatles' final roof concert as a plot dressing in the closing of this film turned my stomach) that they did in this film and morph them into some sort of American basterdization of life seen thru American eyes during that era. But I guess that was what this movie was all about, morphing life into their desire to make money. Am I wrong or did this movie only last 3 weeks in theaters?
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Editorial Reviews:
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Across the Universe, from director Julie Taymor, is a revolutionary rock musical that re-imagines America in the turbulent late-1960s, a time when battle lines were being drawn at home and abroad. When young dockworker Jude (Jim Sturgess) leaves Liverpool to find his estranged father in America, he is swept up by the waves of change that are re-shaping the nation. Jude falls in love with Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood), a rich but sheltered American girl who joins the growing anti-war movement in New York's Greenwich Village. As the body count in Vietnam rises, political tensions at home spiral out of control and the star-crossed lovers find themselves in a psychedelic world gone mad. With a cameo by Bono, Across the Universe is "the kind of movie you watch again, like listening to a favorite album." (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times)
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