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Across the Universe
Columbia Pictures


7.4

based on 29 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 165 votes
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FILM:

Frida
Titus

MPAA 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)

GENRE(S):	Drama \| Musical \| Romance
WRITTEN BY:	Julie Taymor (story) Dick Clement (& story) Ian La Frenais (& story)
DIRECTED BY:	Julie Taymor
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: February 5, 2008 Theatrical: September 14, 2007
RUNNING TIME:	131 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

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...

100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Here is a bold, beautiful, visually enchanting musical where we walk INTO the theater humming the songs.

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.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

The film is a strange, nostalgic, suitably outrageous ode to a very real revolution in consciousness.

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.

Empire Ian Nathan

A load of kids singing Beatles tunes? You better believe it.

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub

While the songs are recycled, Across the Universe stands out just by existing.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Taymor's flower-powery phantasmagoria is ambitious but ultimately tiresome.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

A bizarre counterculture jukebox musical.

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.

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."

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.

New York Post Kyle Smith

An interesting failure, not a fascinating one.

USA Today Claudia Puig

While style trumps substance, something in the way this '60s tribute moves attracts us.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Disarming, discombobulating and disappointing.

Film Threat Mark Bell

The film does not know what it is, tonally changing within and between structural acts.

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.

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.

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.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Goofy, pompous, annoyingly boomer-myopic Fab Four musical.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

A yawn and most unforgivably features some appalling arrangements of the Beatles' best-loved songs.

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.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

If a bullet hadn't killed John Lennon, this Beatles-scored musical might have.

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.

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.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.4 (out of 10) based on 165 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

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!

Dav gave it a10:
As all the 10's out there realize, art is for arts sake and this was true art. The arrangement and integration of each seen to the subject matter blending music to storyline was truly masterful. Riddance to the naysayers!

Brittany A gave it a10:
Amazing movie, awesomely arranged songs of The Beatles and perfect matching with the songs and scenes. Crazy, out-there, over the top and astounding.

Eric G. gave it a10:
Any movie that could so successfully polarize an audience must be on to something. It's pretty apparent from the start of the film that this is pure emotion in cinematic form - definitely not one for the "intellectual" crowd (and by intellectuals I mean people who are good at over-analyzing things they can't understand on an intuitive level.) But for those who are willing to just "let go" and ride the wave, well, you're in for a visually arresting treat set to some wonderful interpretations of classic Beatles songs. A good majority of the performances were sung live during the actual filming, lending them an intimacy that just seems to flow off the screen and into your heart. And as for the large number of violently negative criticisms which this film has garnered - well Bono puts it best in the movie when he says "You're either on the bus or you're off the bus." Thank you Julie Taymor for slipping one past the man and into our theatres.

Across the Universe Columbia Pictures

Across the Universe
Columbia Pictures