Across the Universe

[PearlySweetcake]

livviebway said:

There is a Mr. Kite. Played by Eddie Izzard.

Eddie?? Squeeeeeeeee! livviebway, you are me, and we are all together.

Eddie Izzard and Bono, in one movie. Dammit, a girl can only resist so much. *heads off to Fandango*

[Maddiemoo]

I have to admit, I have the soundtrack and I'm really liking it. I'm usually not huge into musicals and, having been born in 1987, can't really appreciate the '60-baby-boomer business, but it just looks so puuurrdy. If it ever ends up playing in my town, I'm gonna have to check it out.

[Deleted]

I saw it last night, and I thought it was quite good. I liked Moulin Rouge much more, but that could have been because I was younger when I saw it. For me, the narrative in this movie didn't hang together all that well, and it seemed to drag on a bit too long (the movie is just over 2 hours). The visuals were amazing though, and the music was quite good.

[johnboysmole]

My husband is dying to see this.

I know this is blasphemy, but I don't care too much for most Beatles music. I'm intrigued because the visuals do look stunning and I'm hoping they do something different with the music. Also, I am Eddie Izzard's bitch. I never saw "Hair" so I really don't have anything to compare it to and I am very forgiving of cheesiness. I think I might like it.

I'm interested in hearing more opinions from people who have seen it though.

[Deleted]

The Eddie Izzard bit is awesome, it's completely surrealistic and just so so cool. Plus there's Bono with an hilariously bad American accent singing I Am The Walrus. I had the freaking chorus stuck in my head for days. And yet I didn't mind.

[huntergrayson]

Jim Sturgess is amazing -- it's a star-making turn if I've ever seen one. But my friend, who had seen it before (she's a bit obsessed with Bono), warned me that there's no narrative whatsoever and she wasn't kidding. 5 characters are introduced without any hint as to how they're connected until at least 45 minutes into the film. The entire middle section of psychedlica goes on far, far too long and IMO, resorts to a lot of cheap/excessive tricks to seem "trippy" without actually being trippy.

That said, a lot of the quieter/softer moments are affecting -- ERW's rendition of "If I Fell" is beautiful.

Taymor does have an eye for some startling imagery, but she has no sense of when to really stop -- the Strawberry Fields thing being a prime example (bleeding strawberries pinned to a canvas? Nice. Strawberries as bombs with newsreels projected everywhere? Huh?) - so they don't resonate as much as they could.

[memememe76]

Hmmm, I thought Jim Sturgess looked a lot like Ashton Kutcher. That is not a good thing.

[tamaradixon]

huntergrayson said:

Jim Sturgess is amazing -- it's a star-making turn if I've ever seen one. But my friend, who had seen it before (she's a bit obsessed with Bono), warned me that there's no narrative whatsoever and she wasn't kidding. 5 characters are introduced without any hint as to how they're connected until at least 45 minutes into the film. The entire middle section of psychedlica goes on far, far too long and IMO, resorts to a lot of cheap/excessive tricks to seem "trippy" without actually being trippy.

That said, a lot of the quieter/softer moments are affecting -- ERW's rendition of "If I Fell" is beautiful.

Taymor does have an eye for some startling imagery, but she has no sense of when to really stop -- the Strawberry Fields thing being a prime example (bleeding strawberries pinned to a canvas? Nice. Strawberries as bombs with newsreels projected everywhere? Huh?) - so they don't resonate as much as they could.

So glad that someone else loved Jim Sturgess. He was amazing. I'm off to check IMDb to what's next up for him.

Regarding the strawberries as bombs thing, according to Taymor (and I haven't checked up on her) she says that those types of bombs were actually called strawberry bombs and so the scene seemed to write itself.

[Deleted]

Jim's voice sounded a lot like McGregor's from Moulin Rouge. I liked the movie ok, but i felt it could have been an hour or 5. IT didn't have enough story to keep me interested, but the songs are soooo awesome and I love their lyrics and melodies, I just enjoyed each one as they came at me. However, my husband and I left about 1:45 into it, because it was a "School night" and we had a sitter at home and I didn't want to keep her too late. I think we missed about the last 30 minutes or so. But I didn't feel like I would really miss much other than probably Hey Jude or something. I do want to see the end, I'm most likely to tivo it on cable and FF to where we left off.

[ijustworkhere]

Wow, I've been listening to the soundtrack on itunes and Wood's got a great voice. The songs sound fantastic. I might brave the cheese to see this one.