Across the Universe
Columbia Pictures | Release Date: September 14, 2007 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
56
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 29 Critic Reviews
Positive:
18
Mixed:
7
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Here is a bold, beautiful, visually enchanting musical where we walk INTO the theater humming the songs. Read full review
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. Read full review
83
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
The film is a strange, nostalgic, suitably outrageous ode to a very real revolution in consciousness. Read full review
80
The New York TimesStephen 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. Read full review
80
EmpireIan Nathan
A load of kids singing Beatles tunes? You better believe it. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneJessica 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. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChroniclePeter Hartlaub
While the songs are recycled, Across the Universe stands out just by existing. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene 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. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
It's a funny thing: On the one hand, you fault Taymor for going out of her way to create some of the more disposable sequences. On the other, you can forgive her: Who wouldn't get carried away given the opportunity she has been given here to play with one of the world's greatest song catalogs? Read full review
70
VarietyJustin 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. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubTasha 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. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
Taymor's flower-powery phantasmagoria is ambitious but ultimately tiresome. Read full review
63
New York PostKyle Smith
An interesting failure, not a fascinating one. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia Puig
While style trumps substance, something in the way this '60s tribute moves attracts us. Read full review
63
TV Guide MagazineMaitland 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." Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsJack 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. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
A bizarre counterculture jukebox musical. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter Travers
To call it trippy would be an understatement. Your head might explode. Just don't accuse Taymor of playing it safe. Read full review
58
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Disarming, discombobulating and disappointing. Read full review
50
Village VoiceElla 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. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames 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. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterStephen 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. Read full review
50
Film ThreatMark Bell
The film does not know what it is, tonally changing within and between structural acts. Read full review
42
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Goofy, pompous, annoyingly boomer-myopic Fab Four musical. Read full review
40
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
A yawn and most unforgivably features some appalling arrangements of the Beatles' best-loved songs. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeTy 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. Read full review
30
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
If a bullet hadn't killed John Lennon, this Beatles-scored musical might have. Read full review
25
PremiereGlenn Kenny
Director Julie Taymor's gargantuan all-Beatles-songs musical is that rarest of animals, the perfect disaster that fulfills expectations by defying them. Read full review
20
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Across the Universe will have ardent defenders, but in the long run, it will do nothing to infuse life into the current mini-revival of movie musicals and is as soft-headed as the wishful refrain “All You Need Is Love.” Maybe that works in real life but not in the movies, sister. Read full review
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