Across the Universe

Across the Universe is a musical about a boy from england looking for his long lost father in america, a free spirited college guy dealing with being drafted, and a girl who questions her government, and how their paths cross during the 60's and 70's. However, instead of breaking into regular old musical numbers, they break out into songs from the beatles. The songs themselves are changes, not in words, but in meaning, some taking to their literal extreem, others a vague montage of an emotion or time or place. each one is sung beautifully by a new and amazing cast of youngsters, and put in VERy interesting situations. "I wanna hold your hand" for example, is sung by a cheerleader at a peprally, to her lesbian crush. Another, and one of the most emotional sequences ever put to film, is "LET IT BE" sung by a gospel choir over images of the detroit race riots, and the dead soldiers being sent home from vietnam. Visually, it is filmed as if every single shot and frame is a painting. you could pause any moment, and frame it, and it would comfortably sit on the wall of any art museum. it is THAT jaw droppingly beautiful. The characters however drive the film, and their story is origional, and stirring. Each is givin something completly different to stand for, and as they clash with eachother, they remind you as an audience member of just what YOU stand for, what you WOULD stand for, and what you would do in the horrible situations they ultimatly find themselves in. The ONLY complaint i can possibly find with the film is the middle section. Bono of U2 shows up as a druggie revolutionary and his performance is fine enough, but his character is pointless, and used meerly to progress the plot from one location to another. His part drags a little slower than it should have, and i will probably be skipping his portion when it comes out on dvd. Other than that. 5 stars out of 5 stars. you owe it to yourself to catch this motion picture!!!!
The kingdom is a very amazing episode of Law and Order, with about 45 minutes worth of terminator 2 thrown in for good measure at the end. thats not to say there is anything wrong with it. A u.s. encampment is bombed in saudi arabia, and some FBI agents are sent in to investigate under EXTREEM pressure and constraints. as the clues mount, and tension builds, much like an episode of the excelent Law and Order program. Instead of an understated denouncement however, this film ends with one of the most bombastic, explosive, tense 45 minute action sequence that you feel exhausted just from watching everyone run around. A car chase that destroys about 98 cars leads to a chase on foot, to a building, which turnes into a shoot out of epic proportions, which turnes itno another chase through the building, ending in a mano e mano fight to the death, only to have another suprose twist and yet ANOTHER shoot out. Once again, nothing wrong with it, and it's done with so much expert craft, i defy anyone to not be on the enge of their seat. Is there lofty messages of world peace or political opinionation? not really, despite the commercials and markieting for the film, it is merely an entertaining thriller/actioneer. Thats fine, especially when it goes fro broke the way this does. Highly recomened
Pushing daisy's is a new show on ABC that is incredible, it's about a man born with a gift/curse. Anyone he touches, they die. Anything for that matter aswell. Likewise, anything he tjouches thats dead, comes back to life. However, there's a catch (there's always a catch!) if he brings someone back to life, he only has a minute to touch them, putting them back to death again, before someone ELSE dies. Example. he touches his mom as a child. she dies. he touches her again, she comes back to life, but his sweethearts father drops dead one minute later. He also has only 2 chances. example, once he killed his mom and brought her back to life, his next touch will kill her forever. Confusing, but brilliantly put out in the pilote episode. The show follows this guy (who works as a pie maker at a pie shop) moonlighting with a detective. they go around touching dead victims, finding out who killed them, puting them back to death, and then collecting on the rewards. When one of the victems is his childhood sweetheart, he chooses to keep her alive at someone else's expence. However, she doesn't know who killed her (a juicy ongoing mystery) and if he ever touches her agian, she's dead for good. It's dark humor and sweet veneer make this one of the most origional and amazingly hypnotic shows ever. it's truely unlike ANYTHING you'v ever seen before.