Too Long

Rating: 5/10 (8 April 2008)

Across the Universe Evan Rachel Wood, Dana Fuchs, Jim Sturgess
Too Long
Jude (Sturgess), a young Englishman comes to America and gets involved with Lucy (Wood) who becomes caught up in the Viet Nam War protests.
Well, Beatle fans must be happy. They get to hear Beatles music thru most of the movie. Sometimes it worked with the script, sometimes it didn't. Oh, the scriptwouldn't this have been better if it were produced 20-years ago or so? Right now we are dealing with a more current war (Iraq) and do we really need to go backwards in time and be reminded of more turmoil? Apparently some think so. I do believe that if the Beatles music was not used, this movie would not have been made. Like I said, sometimes the music worked with the script.
The music was more than good and what made the music so was the background accompaniment - more instruments than those used by you-know-who. Made a difference with me. The singers were rather good and we were even given a little of Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix performed by others, of course.
However, there were just too many songs and the story suffered because of that to the point we didn't care about the characters anymore. And, it was just toooooo loooooong. At one point everything was just a kaleidoscope of.ofof I am not sure what of. The bus trip and aftermath visuals were nice (read boring), but didn't need to be included here. Kind of pointless I thought and it was taking up my time, and remember, I have to get back to watch Judge Judy (TV show).
Perhaps if some humor was injected in certain places, maybe, just maybe this wouldn't have seemed too long. I take that back. It still would have.
The acting all around was very good when no one was singing. Told you there were too many songs. The movie was nominated for Achievement in Costume Design probably because of that bus trip they all took. Didn't win.
And, with a main character (Sturgess) to have a name like Jude in a movie with Beatle songs I guessed correctly what one of last songs would be. Is there a prize for that? ............I thought not.
If the truth be known, because of the title I thought I would be seeing a space adventure movie. Silly me.
Violence: Yes, Sex: No, Nudity: Yes, Language: No,