Eleanor Ripoff

Well I didn't walk out on it.
I had been avoiding watching the movie/musical/music video/ripoff "Across the Universe" since I first heard girls going gaga over it. Tonight I relented and my honest review is this: it didn't make me want to leave, but it made me appreciate The Beatles that much more. I'm not saying the cover versions were terrible, rather there were some I didn't mind and dare I say liked. But it just didn't do for me what it did for the rest of the craze it garnered. Even Bono fell short in his try at "I Am the Walrus" and I generally like Bono's covers (see "Helter Skelter"; "Live Aid 2007"). The plot was... er... unoriginal? Another hippy, protest movie. How cute. But no one watches "Across the Universe" for the love story or "anti-establishment" message, they watch it for the music. And with that in mind I came away thoroughly disappointed.
My expectations were sky-high after having the movie hyped up by all the musical mavens in the house. And by that I mean those who called me out as being too close minded for not wanting to ruin my image of Beatles songs by hearing a bad cover. "Just becauuuuuuse they arennnnn't the Beeeeeeatles doesn't mean they're baddddd." OK, well I'll be the judge of that. And they were kinda sorta right. But when those who baited me into watching kept glancing my way for some reassuring sign they could use against me at the end of the movie, I offered them instead a stoic glance as if I was waiting for a song to melt my icy glare. I never heard one. I tapped my toe and sang along when I felt so inspired, but Hillary Clinton could be belting out "Strawberry Fields" and I would still probably join in for the chorus (though I couldn't tell you for the life of me on what occasion I'd be with Hillary Clinton let alone one where she'd be singing, but you get what I mean).
So that's that. Now excuse me while I throw on my iPod and cleanse my eardrums with some REAL Beatles. Nothing is real.