Four stars****
How is it possible to watch a movie with little story, hardly any plot and yet want it to go on for another hour after its 130 minutes were over?
The answer hides within the incredible Beatles’ songs. Actors Evan Rachel Wood, Jim Sturgess, Joe Anderson, Dana Fuchs. Martin Luther McCoy and T. V. Carpio bring their own skills to the well known Beatles’ songs. Dana Fuchs brings more life out of Helter Skelter and Why Don’t We Do It In The Road than the Beatles originally envisaged. Evan Rachel Wood is selected for songs that match her voice. Jim Strugess nails everything except Revolution, where it’s more the lack of punch to the music rather than his vocal performance that lets it down. I also took exception to Eddie Izzard’s Mr Kite, but he did make it fun rather than sing-able.
31 great Beatles songs and one almost not known rendition of Hold Me Tight take us on a ride where we might want to compare the songs to the originals, but we find ourselves marveling at how well crafted the lyrics are to the movie we’re watching. Dick Clement and Iain La Frenais have writer’s track records that exceed most people and while it’s obvious they made the story fit the Beatles’ lyrics, they still had to make it all glide together. Using the character names from Beatles’ songs was a nice touch, but whatever happened to Rita or did I miss the meter maid?
They’ve chosen to take us on a ride through the late sixties and early seventies in both England the US. They’ve kept the story simple and the dialogue easy to make the links through the music of the Beatles’ songs. They work strongly on the peace and war movements of those times, but don’t ram it down our throats.
The revenue didn’t make enough to cover the budget, but that may be down to the marketing as back in 2007 the movie and CD didn’t make many marketing waves.
The producers added Bono, Eddie Izzard and Salma Hayek to the mix, but their short visits were not enough to make their own fans run to buy tickets again and again.
The CD will be in my car for the next few weeks. Even though no-one can better the Beatles originals, this selection have been tastefully re-produced to avoid clashing with the songs we all know and love.
At least sympathy didn’t get Joe Cocker to modify his previous Beatles’ hit here, but to give him different songs was a better touch of emphasis to the songs performed.
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April 13th, 2010 at 8:48 am
Really liked your intro for this article.
The Beatles were the greatest!
April 28th, 2010 at 9:12 pm
The intro was a brilliant summary!
But still, unless the covers are done in a way that is different to the Beatles originals – a huskier voice here, or a country slant, eg, I almost always ignore them, as they have a tendency to fall flat.;)
July 18th, 2010 at 5:26 pm
I guess it’s most strange knowing that Paul never, at least late in his career, aged as a “cool” guy. He always held his artistic credibility, but did many things that are quite cringe-worthy. That cool factor kind of dropped a bit. In recent times, though Paul’s cool temperature is red hot. He’s got several artistic and adventurous solo albums, and has also produced a remix album, and avant-garde album under a different moniker that would make the coolest hipster nod in approval. Maybe a Fireman tune or two will make a Coachella appearance as well, it’s nothing too much just out of sight.