I never should have doubted this one..

Rating: 8/10 (2 October 2007)

I was a little hesitant about seeing this, but it exceeded my expectations.
Being a fan of Oldies' music, I was deathly excited to see what Julie Taymor would create from a script almost entirely based around Beatles' music. The first portion of the movie was phenomenal; I was sitting in the theater thinking "alright, this one is totally going on my favorites list." The creativity put into these music sequences was incredibly. I loved the bowling scene especially; I thought the guy who played Jude was great, especially with his quirky smiles and fairly decent singing voice. The whole idea of remaking the Beatles' music with the actual actors was also a good idea. I actually like some of these remakes (namely "Hey Jude", "Girl", and even "I want to hold your hand") as much or better than the originals. Probably the only pitfall for me was some unnecessary questionable content. A few downfalls... parts of the movie seemed like it was just thrown together using because Taymor was trying to stick too much to just music instead of creating a decent plot. Also, I'm fairly certain that the film could have been just as decent or possibly better without so many excessive drug and sex implications. I understand that this is an image of the 1960's, but Across the Universe could appeal to a larger audience if they cut out a bit of the nudity and such. Not to mention, I really don't understand how this film could have received a rating of PG-13; it certainly should have been R. However, all in all, I was highly pleased with the outcome, and am actually going to see it again on Friday. Cheers