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Across the Universe
Columbia Pictures

Across the Universe reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 59 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
6.9 out of 10
based on 25 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 33 votes
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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: Theatrical: September 14, 2007 
RUNNING TIME: 131 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

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...

100
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Here is a bold, beautiful, visually enchanting musical where we walk INTO the theater humming the songs.
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88
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.
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83
Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
The film is a strange, nostalgic, suitably outrageous ode to a very real revolution in consciousness.
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80
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.
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80
Empire Ian Nathan
A load of kids singing Beatles tunes? You better believe it.
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75
San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub
While the songs are recycled, Across the Universe stands out just by existing.
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75
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.
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75
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.
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70
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.
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67
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.
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67
Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
Taymor's flower-powery phantasmagoria is ambitious but ultimately tiresome.
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63
Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
A bizarre counterculture jukebox musical.
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63
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."
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63
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.
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63
New York Post Kyle Smith
An interesting failure, not a fascinating one.
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63
USA Today Claudia Puig
While style trumps substance, something in the way this '60s tribute moves attracts us.
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50
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.
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50
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.
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50
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.
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50
Film Threat Mark Bell
The film does not know what it is, tonally changing within and between structural acts.
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42
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Goofy, pompous, annoyingly boomer-myopic Fab Four musical.
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40
Washington Post Ann Hornaday
A yawn and most unforgivably features some appalling arrangements of the Beatles' best-loved songs.
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38
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.
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30
Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
If a bullet hadn't killed John Lennon, this Beatles-scored musical might have.
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25
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.
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What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 6.9 (out of 10) based on 33 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Carol C. gave it a10:
Can't wait to buy the CD, DVD and watch again the the theater. Lots of talent - the entire audience enjoyed this move.

L.J T. gave it a10:
Brilliant film; like a cross of Hair and The Wall, and coming out better!

Ron G. gave it an8:
Your liking of this movie will be mostly proportional to the love of the Beatles and your interest in the 60s. The movie is really a series of music videos, though the term is somewhat demeaning to these mostly fabulous montages. I personally enjoyed the musical covers. The characters didn't need to be called Lucy, Sadie, Rita, Prudence. It helps to have a little inside knowledge of the 60s and the New York scene. The Cafe Wha for example has been changed to the Cafe Huh. The Village Gate though is still the Village Gate. And the singing from a rooftop is reminiscent of another band's rooftop performance...

Megan O. gave it a10:
Amazing!!

Nancy J. gave it a1:
I kept thinking this would get better. It didn't. I went because I'm a big fan of Julie Taymor. Someone should have held her genius feet to the fire on this one, though. This is embarrassing..to watch, to listen to, to think money had been spent to make this enlarged Coke commercial.

Alice H. gave it a10:
This movie was not only a "tear-jerker" but it was musically phenomenal, and all in all fantastic, I would love to thank Julie Taymor, Jim Sturgess, Evan Rachel Wood, Joe Anderson, Dana Fuchs, T.V. Carpio and Martin Luther McCoy for making this movie an instant success, i look forward to more films from this "era" and artistic styling...kudos!

Matthew M. gave it a4:
WHAT A DISAPPOINTMENT.... I will admit that the directing and the message was great, but you can't have a good movie without a great script. The story is so cliche, we've seen it all before. I wish they could of said something new besides war is bad, artists are selfish egomaniacs, and all we need is love. This movie had a great opportunity to say something, but instead it preached to the choir. I'm their key audience, super liberal artist and I left two hours in. BECAUSE YOU STOP CARING ABOUT THE CHARACTERS BECAUSE NO ONE WANTS ANYTHING BUT TO BE SAD! Should of used some of that money they spent on production design to get a good screenwriter. DON'T SEE IT.

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