"Bono as Dr. Roberts"

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See my interest in this movie has been so up and down, I barely knew anything about it other than the fact that there was a movie coming out with the title. Then the trailer hit, the first trailer is about two minutes of what's made to look like an interesting story about youth in the 60's, and then it randomly throws 30 seconds in of the trippy visuals, nothing really Beatles musical related, it was made to look more inspired by the lyrics, which I think would have been cooler. Then I read about it and so later trailers and I flip flopped between being somewhat intrigued and kind of put off. Now that I've seen it, it's the same I think, it's quite the experience and unlike many Beatles covers they aren't horrible (and I don't take as much offense as it was for a reason) but at the same time, the names went to far sometime Jude and Lucy was one thing but Prudence, Sadie, etc, too much, and the dialogue when its there is rather cliche as is the story. By no means is it a great narrative, and I don't love cover music but it's not spitting on the memory of the Beatles, even if it takes the words at the superficial meanings to often. The visuals are eye-popping and it's certainly different and I recommend checking it out, but it isn't a complete package.
 
Also, I just read that the budget was $45m, it's certainly not going to be any kind of smash, it's gonna take some generous viewers internationally and DVD money to recoup that.
 
Saw it last night and thought it was very good, though I agree with those who says it was a bit long. They could've cut a musical number or two and I suspect they'll do in the inevitable stage version. But overall the movie was pretty awesome. The actors could all sing very well and some of the arrangements of the Beatles songs were very creative and (dare I say it) better than the originals in one or two cases.

I didn't know Bono was going to be in the film, so I laughed out loud when I saw him pop up. It's funny, only about half the theatre realized it was him, since there was just a mild buzz of recognition. His one good monologue (basically a take-off of the 'isolation, desolation' lines from Bad) got a good laugh from everyone. Bono's American accent was worth the price of admission alone.

He's not the only surprise cameo. Without giving anything away, there's also a British comedian (his bit was one of the numbers that could've been cut, imo), a star of a past Julie Taymor movie, and a singer famous for a Beatles cover tune.
 
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