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Across the Universe

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 29 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 167 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama | Musical | Romance
Written by:
Julie Taymor (story)
Dick Clement (& story)
Ian La Frenais (& story)
Directed by: Julie Taymor
Release Date:
Theatrical: September 14, 2007
DVD: February 5, 2008
Running Time: 131 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for some drug content, nudity, sexuality, violence and language
Starring Evan Rachel Wood, Jim Sturgess, Joe Anderson, Dana Fuchs, Eddie Izzard, Martin Luther, T.V. Carpio, and Bono
Across the Universe is a love story set against the backdrop of the 1960s amid the turbulent years of antiwar protest, mind exploration, and rock and roll. The film moves from the dockyards of Liverpool and the creative psychedelia of Greenwich Village to the riot-torn streets of Detroit and the killing fields of Vietnam. The star-crossed lovers, Jude and Lucy are swept up into the emerging antiwar-counterculture movements. They are also joined by a small group of friends and musicians, with "Dr. Robert" and "Mr. Kite" as their guides. Tumultuous forces outside their control ultimately tear the young lovers apart, forcing Jude and Lucy--against all odds--to find their own way back to each other. (Columbia Pictures)
Also On Metacritic
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Here is a bold, beautiful, visually enchanting musical where we walk INTO the theater humming the songs.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
This much is inarguable: In the more than two flamboyant hours of Across the Universe, Julie Taymor doesn't cheat us for a single second.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
The film is a strange, nostalgic, suitably outrageous ode to a very real revolution in consciousness.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
Somewhere around its midpoint, Across the Universe captured my heart, and I realized that falling in love with a movie is like falling in love with another person. Imperfections, however glaring, become endearing quirks once you’ve tumbled.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub
While the songs are recycled, Across the Universe stands out just by existing.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
Across the Universe can't achieve the transcendence and exhilaration musicals strive for, but it often generates a singular kind of magic you've never experienced before.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
It's a funny thing: On the one hand, you fault Taymor for going out of her way to create some of the more disposable sequences. On the other, you can forgive her: Who wouldn't get carried away given the opportunity she has been given here to play with one of the world's greatest song catalogs?
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Jessica Reaves
If you're a Beatles fan who's not offended by people taking serious liberties with the arrangements of your favorite songs, the unrepentantly exuberant and seriously tuneful Across the Universe is pretty much a sure thing.
Read Full Review >Variety Justin Chang
All you need is love -- for the Beatles, for psychedelic visuals, for ideas about being young in the ‘60s -- to fully enjoy Across the Universe.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson
It's all very clever and thought-through, but all the allusions don't much bolster the bland central romance or the paper-thin treatment of '60s social issues.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
Taymor's flower-powery phantasmagoria is ambitious but ultimately tiresome.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
To call it trippy would be an understatement. Your head might explode. Just don't accuse Taymor of playing it safe.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
And yes, that is Salma Hayek in the chorus line of sexily sinister nurses, perhaps repaying Taymor for lending her dramatic credibility with "Frida."
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
Julie Taymor says the idea for her Across the Universe was "to create an original musical using only the songs of the Beatles." That's like saying you're going to create a new element using only gold.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
While style trumps substance, something in the way this '60s tribute moves attracts us.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Mark Bell
The film does not know what it is, tonally changing within and between structural acts.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Ella Taylor
Across the Universe, which filters the cultural revolt through a blizzard of early Beatles songs, ends up both reductive and smugly condescending to a presumptively know-nothing audience.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
Elements of Across the Universe are shockingly awful and the film lasts at least 30 minutes past the bearable stage. But if you like the Beatles and the idea of hearing about 20 covers of their work fills you with a perverse joy, this may be the movie for you.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Stephen Farber
Julie Taymor's visual gifts are very much in evidence in Across the Universe, an ambitious, only partly successful attempt to reinvigorate the musical genre.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Goofy, pompous, annoyingly boomer-myopic Fab Four musical.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Ann Hornaday
A yawn and most unforgivably features some appalling arrangements of the Beatles' best-loved songs.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
Hobbled by its vaguely insulting comic-book version of the '60s and by a humorlessness that can only come from talented people convinced they're creating work for the ages.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
If a bullet hadn't killed John Lennon, this Beatles-scored musical might have.
Read Full Review >Premiere Glenn Kenny
Director Julie Taymor's gargantuan all-Beatles-songs musical is that rarest of animals, the perfect disaster that fulfills expectations by defying them.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
Across the Universe will have ardent defenders, but in the long run, it will do nothing to infuse life into the current mini-revival of movie musicals and is as soft-headed as the wishful refrain “All You Need Is Love.” Maybe that works in real life but not in the movies, sister.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.4 (out of 10) based on 167 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Matt K. gave it a10:
A wonderful movie with some of the Beatles' best hits. It was all put together really well, with a dynamic storyline encompassing all of the seemingly random characters of the movie into one, moving plot. I loved this movie and even sang along to some of my favourite songs. Plus the cameos were pretty cool (Look out for Bono and Selma Hayek).
Morgan F gave it a9:
One of the most orginal, imaginative movies I've ever seen. The musical numbers were simply mindblowing. Sure to please Beatles fans, and perhaps make new ones. My only complaint was that sometimes you had to work hard to piece together the jigsaw puzzle of a plot. Overall, a very enjoyable, entertaining film that captured the spirit its subject.
Joseph M gave it a10:
I loved this movie! I thought I would completely hate it but I was wrong. I'm a huge Beatles fan and I love watching this movie over and over to catch all the tiny references to Beatles lyrics.
Sarah M. gave it a10:
I absolutely love this movie!!!
Lynn W gave it a10:
Pretty amazing. The most creative film I've ever seen, but never indulgently, never just for its own sake.
Shane M gave it a0:
A thoroughly appalling, wasteful mess. The movie consists of a series of poorly executed, horribly arranged music videos connected by a shoe string plot and a cast of caricatures. One of the biggest movie disappointments I could ever imagine seeing.
Ruby Ruby gave it a10:
One of the bests movies of the year!
