Not as good as you'd think

Rating: 3/10 (8 January 2008)

Take a whole bunch of songs by The Beatles. And then make a film around them using the songs & character names. Doesn't sound like much of an idea for a film does it? But somehow they managed to sell it.
When I saw posters and adverts for this film I had the feeling it was an animated feature, not live action. How wrong I was.
It hasn't got any actors or actress's I know much about so I can't really talk about how this compares to previous movies they've been in. There are a couple of basic plots of a boy called Jude who goes to America to find his father who'd been a GI stationed in England during the war. There's also a plot about a guy who gets drafted and decides to have a final blow out before he leaves to go to Vietnam.
The plots are intertwined with Beatles songs & characters who feature in Beatles songs.
There are nice locations that do look very 1960's but nice locations and a good soundtrack aren't enough to make for a good film. Trying to use The Beatles songs to link the plot together makes for a bit of a weird plot to be honest.
Even with guest cameos from people like Bono, Joe Cocker & Eddie Izzard doesn't make for a good movie. It's just too weird to make for a decent enough film to follow. The whole idea of wanting to be a free spirit during the era of protest and freedom and peace are all good themes but nothing is ever explored thoroughly enough to make a decent or lasting plot thread.
The film is just too surreal in places and to be honest there are too many songs sung by the cast constantly breaking up the thread of the film itself making it harder than ever to follow.
It's fine to have an Anti-Vietnam film but the fact that the cast keeping bursting into song every 5 minutes is exceptionally distracting from what little actual plot exists.
Dr Robert's (Bono) rendition of "I am the walrus" does nothing but allow the film to move from New York out to the middle of no-where for pretty much no reason. He's only in the film for 2 scenes linked by his song, Izzard gets 1 scene and 1 song, Cocker gets a tiny cameo in 1 scene singing 1 song.
If this had a lot more plot and a few less songs it might make for a half decent movie. I'd cut at least half the songs out, not have any of the characters singing at all(the music could stay but just as behind the actual action) and then it might stand a chance of being a movie people might actually be able to watch and enjoy.
Comparing this to other Beatles related movies? This makes "A Hard days Night" bearable. Avoid, even if you are real huge Beatles fan.