Across the Universe-now on DVD

[Northerner]

Katie rewatched, and I watched for the first time, last night. Reviews were mixed when this came out, and I don't think it ever opened around here, but we were intrigued with the idea of setting Beatles songs in a kind of film musical setting. It mostly works, and is well worth seeing for several very awesome and powerful scenes, especially for those of us who grew up in the 60s. The cast is excellent, and the actors sound great together in the songs.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ent ... 41401.html

After the movie, we were trying to figure out how long the Beatles were together, and I was shocked to find it was only a decade (except for the brief reunion). I was never a huge fan, liked some of their stuff, but it's amazing how many incarnations the band went through in 10 short years.

PG13 for some drug use, and very limited nudity.

[Primula Baggins]

I saw this in theaters, and I'm glad it's out on DVD in time for Mr. Prim's birthday next week. Our whole family loved it.

[samwarg]

I wanted to see it in the theater but couldn't get others on board. I rented it and will be watching it tonight. I was a big Beatles fan and saw their very first US exposure on the Jack Paar show, November '63, I believe it was. Even my 16 year-old son realizes that the really great groups came out of the sixties and seventies. Long live rock and roll.

[Primula Baggins]

It was our then-17-year-old who pulled the entire family into the theater to see this. He just said, "You have to."

[samwarg]

I enjoyed it, probably just because it was great to see Beatle music get so much attention. Many of the characters were pale shadows of the ones they supposedly represented. (ie, J.J. and Hendrix) I think that was an old Aqual lung-looking Joe Cocker I saw flexing his cement mixer chords. The makers threw everything but Lennon's granny glasses into the mix that might make someone think of the sixties or the fab four. I don't regret watching it, but I was hoping for something better.

[Alatar]

I watched last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. I found the Bono/Eddie Izzard section a bit tiresome, but I see why the whole psychedelia thing needed to be touched on.

When it worked it was awesome, when it didn't it was still very watchable. I'll be recommending it to certain friends, but not all!

[Primula Baggins]

I thought it was visually gorgeous. I ended up not buying it for Mr. Prim, because we just <looks both ways> bought our first HDTV, and it occurred to me that this might be a good film to own in Blu-Ray—not that we're getting a Blu-Ray player right away; got to save up for that (and hope the prices come down now that the format war is over).

[Maria]

Looks like the format war is pretty much over, and HD lost.

I wonder if we can return our player?

[Primula Baggins]

I was pretty impatient while we were saving up for the HDTV, but now I'm glad—if I'd bought a player last year I would have made the same choice, Maria. This is why I don't like format wars. I don't understand them. Two companies had to make parallel huge investments, parallel deals with studios, turn out players with parallel features for parallel prices—and lots of people didn't buy either one, because we've all been messed over by making the wrong choice one time or another.

And in the end? One company takes a huge loss, consumers are angry, and we have something else that geeks will still be wrangling about in five years. High-def DVDs will grow a lot more slowly as a share of the market than they could have (partly because they're way overpriced, partly because all the companies that chose HD have to regear and retool and put out their products all over again on Blu-Ray). It's dumb and wasteful.