Don't Make it Bad...Oops, Too Late

Within the lyrics of the world's most famous songs...lives a story that has never been told.

That's the cryptic opening message that I get when I enter the site of Across the Universe, a movie opening in limited engagement this week and nationwide the next that is set during the 60s to the Beatles' music. According to the Internet Movie Database, Across the Universe is "is a fictional love story set in the 1960s amid the turbulent years of anti-war protest, the struggle for free speech and civil rights, mind exploration and rock and roll. At once gritty, whimsical and highly theatrical, the story moves from high schools and universities in Massachusetts, Princeton and Ohio to the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the Detroit riots, Vietnam and the dockyards of Liverpool. A combination of live action and painted and three-dimensional animation, the film is paired with many Beatles songs that defined the time."

Cool!!! A movie set to Beatles music!!! It sounds like a great idea, doesn't it? The problem is Across the Universe looks bad, from the clips I've seen so far on the director's MySpace page. Plus this idea was done before, with equally disastous results. Actually, I think even this 70s monstronsity looks better than Across the Universe. Bummer that someone took down Steve Martin's big musical number of "Maxwell's Silver Hammer."