topic Re: YESTERDAY - MOVIE REVIEW in TV and Movies

YESTERDAY - MOVIE REVIEW

Pearlee — Fri, 28 Jun 2019 18:46:53 GMT

I know there is a thread already about anticipating this film's release but this is a review of the movie thread. Today is opening day, but

I saw it at an advance showing last night! (Although the advance showing was not publicized, the manager told me there were only four seats left in the theater so it was well attended).

First off, it's really for people who love Beatles music and who also know lyrics to the songs and some history behind the songs (e.g. for Hey Jude song why it was written and for whom; lots of references to lyrics in Eleanor Rigby so if you don't know the lyrics those scenes won't mean much). I would not esp. recommend this film to people not really, really familiar with the Beatles music. Also, as anyone who has seen trailers or promos for the film already know, the premise of the film is preposterous (a worldwide power failure means apparently only one man remembers the Beatles) and that's fine - you buy into that ridiculous premise for a fun film.

The film is really a romantic comedy, and a mediocre one at that (for me it was hugely lacking in chemistry between the two people involved). It's love of the Beatles that "makes" the film for those of us who do. The people behind this film were also behind Love Actually, and Four Weddings and a Funeral and, Beatles lover that I am, I have to say those films were better. There were some very funny lines and scenes in this film, but not enough of them - I wish there had been more. (For example, the funny scene about prospective album covers). Scenes with the lead's parents were not funny, even though supposed to be. The acting was all good and Ed Sheeran did a nice job with his role. But as I say, it's a mediocre rom com that's fun because of all the Beatles music and references. I will also say that every time the star (Himesh Patel) Googles something, it's pretty darn funny. And there's a good line about Back in the U.S.S.R. so listen for that.

However, near the end of the film, something very unexpected happens that helps the main character come to a resolution of how he's going to get out of becoming famous by passing Beatles songs off as his own. I will not spoil that for anyone (and please nobody else do either - I'm not even going to offer that option in a gray spoiler alert here) but for me it completely shifts the lighthearted tone of the film for a few minutes and it was appalling to me and in very bad taste (some will probably disagree with me). That scene was something I would not have included in the film. I sat through the entire film wishing I were seeing it with Sir Paul McC., but when it got to that near-the-end scene I really wondered what he thought about that - I didn't think he'd like it either (but could be wrong). Folks reading this - you'll know the scene I mean when you see it.

Lastly, I will put in this post a minor spoiler that occurs during the credits at the end, and a comment about that. Reading it - and my comment about it -will spoil a pleasant little surprise for you during the credits, but doesn't do any harm about the film to read:

Sir Paul himself is singing Hey Jude over the end credits, from when he was still a Beatle, in that sweet, cherubic voice of his. It was wonderful, but it also made me think the rest of the film's Beatles music sung by the lead actor Patel, paled badly in comparison to the real Beatles. While Patel has a good voice, the Beatles music he sang of course had none of the charm, energy, exhuberance, or fabulous harmonies, of the Fab Four as a group. It made me truly long for Yesterday (i.e. The Beatles, all four together).

Speaking of which, I wondered why he was singing Hey Jude rather than Yesterday and thought it might have to do with the rights to each of those songs. Whatever, it was lovely to hear Sir Paul and brought tears to my eyes over the credits.

Re: YESTERDAY - MOVIE REVIEW

Alter Ego — Fri, 28 Jun 2019 17:01:15 GMT

Most movies no longer open on Friday, but have advance showings that usually start in the early evening the night before. Oftentimes, the movie times work out better for me on Thursday vs the official Friday opening and I often go then.

That being said, I’m planning on seeing it tonight. Unlike you, I do not know much about the history of Beatles music; I basically just know the big songs. Based on your comments, I’m guessing that I’m going to miss some of the deeper meaning of the movie. My morning critic gave it a B+

Re: YESTERDAY - MOVIE REVIEW

Pearlee — Fri, 28 Jun 2019 17:04:30 GMT

@Alter Ego wrote:
Most movies no longer open on Friday, but have advance showings that usually start in the early evening the night before. Oftentimes, the movie times work out better for me on Thursday vs the official Friday opening and I often go then.

That being said, I’m planning on seeing it tonight. Unlike you, I do not know much about the history of Beatles music; I basically just know the big songs. Based on your comments, I’m guessing that I’m going to miss some of the deeper meaning of the movie. My morning critic gave it a B+

@Alter Ego Then I'll be esp. interested in what you have to write about it. You may prove my comments wrong about needing to know a lot about the Beatles/lyrics. I hope you enjoy the film and again, I'll be interested in reading your comments about it.

Re: YESTERDAY - MOVIE REVIEW

Alter Ego — Fri, 28 Jun 2019 18:36:44 GMT

@Pearlee There’s a possibility that I may like it more because I don’t know what I’m missing. For example, I personally was very disappointed in Alladin because I know how great the stage version is and I was comparing voices to that. But others, who didn’t have that frame of reference, enjoyed it much more.

Re: YESTERDAY - MOVIE REVIEW

Pearlee — Fri, 28 Jun 2019 19:45:26 GMT

@Pearlee wrote:
I know there is a thread already about anticipating this film's release but this is a review of the movie thread. Today is opening day, but
I saw it at an advance showing last night! (Although the advance showing was not publicized, the manager told me there were only four seats left in the theater so it was well attended).

First off, it's really for people who love Beatles music and who also know lyrics to the songs and some history behind the songs (e.g. for Hey Jude song why it was written and for whom; lots of references to lyrics in Eleanor Rigby so if you don't know the lyrics those scenes won't mean much). I would not esp. recommend this film to people not really, really familiar with the Beatles music. Also, as anyone who has seen trailers or promos for the film already know, the premise of the film is preposterous (a worldwide power failure means apparently only one man remembers the Beatles) and that's fine - you buy into that ridiculous premise for a fun film.

The film is really a romantic comedy, and a mediocre one at that (for me it was hugely lacking in chemistry between the two people involved). It's love of the Beatles that "makes" the film for those of us who do. The people behind this film were also behind Love Actually, and Four Weddings and a Funeral and, Beatles lover that I am, I have to say those films were better. There were some very funny lines and scenes in this film, but not enough of them - I wish there had been more. (For example, the funny scene about prospective album covers). Scenes with the lead's parents were not funny, even though supposed to be. The acting was all good and Ed Sheeran did a nice job with his role. But as I say, it's a mediocre rom com that's fun because of all the Beatles music and references. I will also say that every time the star (Himesh Patel) Googles something, it's pretty darn funny. And there's a good line about Back in the U.S.S.R. so listen for that.

However, near the end of the film, something very unexpected happens that helps the main character come to a resolution of how he's going to get out of becoming famous by passing Beatles songs off as his own. I will not spoil that for anyone (and please nobody else do either - I'm not even going to offer that option in a gray spoiler alert here) but for me it completely shifts the lighthearted tone of the film for a few minutes and it was appalling to me and in very bad taste (some will probably disagree with me). That scene was something I would not have included in the film. I sat through the entire film wishing I were seeing it with Sir Paul McC., but when it got to that near-the-end scene I really wondered what he thought about that - I didn't think he'd like it either (but could be wrong). Folks reading this - you'll know the scene I mean when you see it.

Lastly, I will put in this post a minor spoiler that occurs during the credits at the end, and a comment about that. Reading it - and my comment about it -will spoil a pleasant little surprise for you during the credits, but doesn't do any harm about the film to read:

Sir Paul himself is singing Hey Jude over the end credits, from when he was still a Beatle, in that sweet, cherubic voice of his. It was wonderful, but it also made me think the rest of the film's Beatles music sung by the lead actor Patel, paled badly in comparison to the real Beatles. While Patel has a good voice, the Beatles music he sang of course had none of the charm, energy, exhuberance, or fabulous harmonies, of the Fab Four as a group. It made me truly long for Yesterday (i.e. The Beatles, all four together).

Speaking of which, I wondered why he was singing Hey Jude rather than Yesterday and thought it might have to do with the rights to each of those songs. Whatever, it was lovely to hear Sir Paul and brought tears to my eyes over the credits.

So, I'm now reading other reviews of the film (which I don't recommend doing until you've seen it since something may be ruined) and I now see that Peter Travers over at Rolling Stone magazine, agreed with what I thought (in red above) by stating:

"...The film takes some seriously wrong turns, such as an awful surprise ... near the end ..."

Glad to see I'm not the only one.

Re: YESTERDAY - MOVIE REVIEW

Pearlee — Fri, 28 Jun 2019 19:28:33 GMT

One thing I forgot to mention in my first post is that I missed quite a few words at the beginning of the film, due to thick English accents! ( @dulwich - I needed an interpreter!) , After I while I got used to it and didn't have trouble understanding/ hearing the main characters, but at first I did.

Re: YESTERDAY - MOVIE REVIEW

Pearlee — Sat, 29 Jun 2019 02:37:00 GMT

Has anyone else seen this yet?

Re: YESTERDAY - MOVIE REVIEW

Alter Ego — Sat, 29 Jun 2019 04:49:10 GMT

@Pearlee I just got home and I didn’t have the same reaction as you. LOL

As I said, I don’t know the history of the songs and, instead, the story of the movie was about Jack’s guilt for telling this big lie. However, even though I’m looking at the film in possibly a more superficial way, one thing I noticed that would probably annoy someone with a deeper interest was...

the fact that Jack didn’t have a good explanation for the songs and what they meant.

Pearley comments, for example, on Eleanor Rigby, and I guess I don’t know if there’s supposed to be anything more than someone trying to remember the lyrics. Because I don’t know, I don’t think I missed anything. (If that makes sense.) I think NOT being a mega fan may be a good thing.

i agree about that scene at the end.

I thought it brought up more questions about what you’re supposed to believe in the overall world of the movie.

I did like the scene beforehand, with the yellow submarine.

The googling was great fun!

It wasn’t my idea of a rom-com, although several reviews call it that. I guess it did have a quintessential rom-com ending for boy and girl, but it was also one of those slower, arty films that I’m not sure I would recommend to everyone.

The people to my right walked out mid-movie. The people on my left liked it and thought it was a “cute movie”.

Finally, can we agree that Kate McKinnon practically ruins the film? I felt like she was channeling Elizabeth Banks character from Pitch Perfect for an SNL skit.

Overall, I liked it with a B grade.

Re: YESTERDAY - MOVIE REVIEW

countrylady — Sat, 29 Jun 2019 11:44:55 GMT

Thank you for your excellent review!

I'd seen the trailers and was wondering about the film.

Re: YESTERDAY - MOVIE REVIEW

Lisa now in AZ — Sat, 29 Jun 2019 16:23:12 GMT

I am seeing this on July 4th with a friend. Looking forward to it and won't read any reviews because I don't want to be spoiled.

Re: YESTERDAY - MOVIE REVIEW

Pearlee — Sat, 29 Jun 2019 20:10:34 GMT

@Alter Ego wrote:
@Pearlee I just got home and I didn’t have the same reaction as you. LOL

As I said, I don’t know the history of the songs and, instead, the story of the movie was about Jack’s guilt for telling this big lie. However, even though I’m looking at the film in possibly a more superficial way, one thing I noticed that would probably annoy someone with a deeper interest was...

the fact that Jack didn’t have a good explanation for the songs and what they meant.
Pearley comments, for example, on Eleanor Rigby, and I guess I don’t know if there’s supposed to be anything more than someone trying to remember the lyrics. Because I don’t know, I don’t think I missed anything. (If that makes sense.) I think NOT being a mega fan may be a good thing.

i agree about that scene at the end.

I thought it brought up more questions about what you’re supposed to believe in the overall world of the movie.
I did like the scene beforehand, with the yellow submarine.

The googling was great fun!

It wasn’t my idea of a rom-com, although several reviews call it that. I guess it did have a quintessential rom-com ending for boy and girl, but it was also one of those slower, arty films that I’m not sure I would recommend to everyone.

The people to my right walked out mid-movie. The people on my left liked it and thought it was a “cute movie”.

Finally, can we agree that Kate McKinnon practically ruins the film? I felt like she was channeling Elizabeth Banks character from Pitch Perfect for an SNL skit.

Overall, I liked it with a B grade.

@Alter Ego Thank you so much for "reporting back" about what you think -- I found your comments very interesting and thorough. Actually, what you thought the movie was about is quite valid. A lot of the reviews I've read (after I saw it) say that the film doesn't quite determine what it wants to be --- rom com, what you mention above, fantasy (possible explanation for "the scene" near the end) or what. So I think it's both what you stated and what I stated (although in the end I conclude it's rom com with Beatles as background but that didn't seem to be where it was going at first, at all!).

I don't think it's spoiling anything to make the point you did in one of your spoilers. Actually, Jack did know what the songs were about, at least Hey Jude, which he explains correctly in the film (one reason I stated it helps to have background about the songs). His explanation wasn't real detailed, but it was correct. Hey Jude was written when Julian Lennon's parents (John and Cynthia) were divorcing and the song was to console him. It was originally "Hey Jules" (for Julian) but then Paul thought Jude sounded better. "For any time you feel the pain, Hey Jude, refrain...." is about Julian's pain. Anyway, Jack did give a brief and more general explanation about the song which was true. But you make a good point, elaborating a bit on what you wrote, that the film doesn't really go into why Beatles music was so great and important culturally. The filmmakers just think that's understood because everyone must know that and agree about it the importance of the music (which of course I do but not everyone does.)

I too love the yellow submarines - it made me chuckle. I wasn't going to mention those (so they'd be unexpected to those seeing the film) but since you did, I have to agree with you!

Did you find that scene that I don't want to give away also surprising? It kind of jolted me it was so unexpected!

Re: YESTERDAY - MOVIE REVIEW

Alter Ego — Sat, 29 Jun 2019 20:27:08 GMT

@Pearlee It’s hard to talk about the scene you’re referring to. I’ll elaborate on my comment about it above in the spoiler.

Please do not open the spoiler unless you have seen the movie...

I’ll talk generally, but is still a MAJOR SPOILER

I think it’s one thing for people not to exist (and thus what they created to never exist), but, if they do exist, then why didn’t they write their songs (or books?) They seemed to want the character Jack visited to be kind of the same person emotionally and spiritually. (Wasn’t he even playing a guitar when we first saw him from behind?) And if that person existed and was the same, then so did everyone else in the same time line. That kind of didn’t make sense to me and I think the main premise of the film loses something because of it. It opens up too many holes.

One thing I didn’t mention that bothered me was that they showed the lights going out around the world. Now, I can’t remember everywhere they showed, but it didn’t seem possible for it to be nighttime across so many different time zones around the world! Surely this happened during the daytime in some locations, but I guess that wouldn’t have looked so impressive. And, I may just be outright wrong as maybe they didn’t show as many time zones as I thought.

Re: YESTERDAY - MOVIE REVIEW

Pearlee — Sat, 29 Jun 2019 20:32:53 GMT

@Alter Ego Thanks. And you are right, I won't talk about or ask about that scene again. I just wondered whether you were surprised by it, as I was. I didn't mean for anything to be given away about it. (I wouldn't mind if you deleted that spoiler - I was only asking if the scene was surprising to you since as I say it jolted me.

And LOL at your other observation. I think if we are "buying into" the preposterous premise in the first place, the details of the preposterous premise that don't make sense don't really matter!

Re: YESTERDAY - MOVIE REVIEW

Pearlee — Sat, 29 Jun 2019 21:03:26 GMT

By the way, I read online that Chris Martin was the first choice for the role that went to Ed Sheeran.

Re: YESTERDAY - MOVIE REVIEW

Alter Ego — Sat, 29 Jun 2019 21:36:08 GMT

@Pearlee That’s interesting, as Ed Shereen is such a natural fit given how well known he is as a song writer.

Anyways, I wanted to pop over here to tell you there is an article on ew.com you may be interested in. Can’t post the link because the title may be spoilery. Was on the front page of the mobile site, so hoping it’s easy to find what I’m talking about whichever device you use.

Re: YESTERDAY - MOVIE REVIEW

patbz — Sun, 30 Jun 2019 00:02:01 GMT

DH and I was "Yesterday" today. We loved it ( a lot but not as much as "Love Actually"). Most in the large audience were North of fifty and seemed to enjoy it. I disagree with previous poster in that we loved Kate McKinnon (think she has a big future in cinema ( a la Steve Carvell). On the way out I talked to an older audience member who was from Liverpool and knew John Lennon well.

Re: YESTERDAY - MOVIE REVIEW

Pearlee — Sun, 30 Jun 2019 01:50:36 GMT

#
@Alter Ego Thanks about the article will look for it. I forgot to reply about McKinnon. I usually really like her but I thought her character was over the top and not believable. Too exaggerated.

Re: YESTERDAY - MOVIE REVIEW

Pearlee — Sun, 30 Jun 2019 18:31:21 GMT

@patbz wrote:
DH and I was "Yesterday" today. We loved it ( a lot but not as much as "Love Actually"). Most in the large audience were North of fifty and seemed to enjoy it. I disagree with previous poster in that we loved Kate McKinnon (think she has a big future in cinema ( a la Steve Carvell). On the way out I talked to an older audience member who was from Liverpool and knew John Lennon well.

@patbz And speaking of Love Actually, the Beatles are mentioned in that film also. Remember the scene where the Prime Minister (Hugh Grant) redeems himself in a press conference with the American President and talks about England's greatness? He mentions England gave us Shakespeare, the Beatles, David Beckham's left foot, David Beckham's right foot, etc. etc.

Re: YESTERDAY - MOVIE REVIEW

Pearlee — Sun, 30 Jun 2019 20:46:02 GMT

Still reading reviews online; I agree with sentence:

"Yesterday certainly isn’t a game changer, but a well-done Beatles tribute is hardly a chore to watch."

Re: YESTERDAY - MOVIE REVIEW

DrKelli — Mon, 01 Jul 2019 14:46:46 GMT

I enjoyed it very much--not like Bohemian Rhapsody, but still, I liked it. There was little Rom or Com, but the lead actor was a likeable guy and was about the right amount of clueless. I read that his audition required him to play the guitar and sing, so once again, he was doing the actual playing and singing. I have the soundtrack and the song Something is on the soundtrack, but I don't recall it in the actual movie?

The Kate McKinnen character rubbed me the wrong way, but she did have one funny line after he sang The Summer Song when she said "I dislike it so much that I don't want to listen to it again to figure out why I hate it."

The premise was ridiculous, but I don't overthink movies--I go to be entertained and given the fact I didn't look at my watch once, I'd say mission accomplished.

@Pearlee you seem to know a lot about the history of the Beatles and their songs and I had a question about Eleanor Rigby--I kind of knew the back story about the grave, but who actually saw the gravestone and what was the background of why the song was written?