ELISHA DON'T READ THIS!!!

Elisha and I bought a copy of Across The Universe last weekend but as usual we didn't sit down to watch it right away... after waiting for months and months, for some stupid reason we decide to wait even longer. But last night I couldn't sleep and knowing Elisha would prefer me to watch 'Universe' without her over Saw 4 which was the other DVD we bought at the same time. So at 3:30 am I pretty much tripped my way down stairs (bloody mum and her empties) and cuddled up on a recliner, smack bang in the middle of the telly.

Mind you the wait was easy as Julie Taymor, the director, also directed The Lion King on stage and after Elisha and I spent $400 on a day out in town to see it, we cried all night because it was so shit, what a fucking waste of money, time, a trip into the city and professinal theatre!!!

But still, with the Beatles music in her filthy whore hands, and nothing we could do about it and after months of eagerness and trepidation.....



ACROSS THE UNIVERSE 2007 dir. Julie Taymor.

The film opens and immediately a beach somewhere and some guy, a cute guy none the less and our main antangonist, Jude, how quaint, sings about his sweetheart. Now I have two problems with this, 1. It sounds like the opening of Moulin Rouge, a guy who sounds like Ewan McGregor singing about his somewhat fated romance, in our opening narration.... and 2. HE SOUNDS LIKE EWAN MCGREGOR AND WHO IS HE??? Ok having a paper thin voice is good and all for Gerard Butler, Ewan McGregor, Johnny Depp or John Travolta, but they have names attachted to them, Travolta even flies for Qantas!!!! B ut in all seriousness if you are going to cast an unknown to lead your Beatles film, at least have him sound original with a strong voice...but I can't dwell too long then things shift, some waves crash and it feels like Pink Floyds 'The Wall', an unexplained opening montage to 'Helter Skelter' (one of my faves) which cleverly but disappoitingly uses waves of an ocean overlapping with newpapers, war protests and police, this sets it up for things to get kooky. But this montage is however unexplained and it leads us to a disco or prom somewhere in the 50's or 60's maybe possibly 70s, see things are pretty unexplained... now we move onto a punk or rock club which I'm guessing is in the UK but would be 70s or 80s. Then our cute boy who we can call Jude Mcgregor and the chicky from the disco, both kiss thier respective honeys... oh I get it, they are the two who will hook up across the proverbial universe... We find out he's goign into the navy... and will send 'All his Lovin' to his sweetums.

See, more Ewan McGregor! Oh Jude!

Now the blonde chicky which we guess is American, sends her brother off to war... but wierdly enough the Army truck drives past a high school where a bassline starts... ooh who's this ethic chicky singing 'I Wanna Hold Your Hand'??? This is beautiful? I'm swept away by the music, the composition, the singing, the lyric, her bittersweet tale of her love for a fellow cheerleader chicky, NOW I'm enjoying this movie!
The story that follows is fairly paper thin, it resembles Hair, Rent and The Wall at the best of times, and other moments are just messy. For a good part of it the new orchestrations work.

I said it before about Jim Sturgess' resemblence to Ewan McGregor but he indeed ends up carrying his own. Evan Rachel Wood was surprising and Dana Fuchs a delight. T.V. Carpio was the standout however with not NEARLY enough screentime.

Joe Cocker's little cameo was awesome and surprising and definetly a standout on the cameo front, others include Salma Heyak and Bono.

The 'I Want You' number played out with scary ass looking army peoples followed through to carrying the statue of liberty through little 'Nam and represents the drafting is a tad hit and miss but it's ideas are cleverly exec uted.

Without going into too much detail (if I tell you anymore of the plot I'll have spoilt it) Julie Taymors take on a 'Beatles rock opera' is somewhat refreshing and somewhat not, like The Lion King broadway musical, Taymor seems pent up on flashy spectacle but can sometimes get caught up in her own ideas and whilst something may look good, like a costume or puppet, sometimes the staging, well often the staging is quite messy.

A fair effort however with some hypnotic songs, kids will love this but it's really Hair and The Wall that it's about.
Ok so I'm really tired now and think I should attempt to fall asleep again,

but overall...

3 and a half stars, good, not great.