Goodbye Across The Universe

I am totally in Love!

With a Movie.

A really great Movie.

The name of my new favorite movie is "Across the Universe". You have probably heard of it. It came out around November or December of last year. Courtney and I had seen the previews for it and we both really, really wanted to see it but for some reason we never did. Well fortunately for me, we happen to have a few premium channels.

And with those channels comes the ON DEMAND feature.

That means that HBO and Starz, have movies that you can watch whenever you want to. Since I'm not usually much of a TV watcher I haven't really used On Demand all that often.

Well that has sure changed.

A few weeks ago I was tired and bored. An interesting combination. I was actually tired, bored and restless. For once I wasn't in the mood to read. So I turned on the TV to find something to watch. I had quite a few movies recorded from HBO and Starz that I imagine were feeling pretty neglected.

I do that.

I record something with the DVR that I want to watch, sometime, but somehow, that sometime never seems to come.

Is it weird to feel bad about neglecting those previously recorded movies?

Probably, but that's how I sometimes feel. Sorry movies, you will get watched eventually, but not today.

So anyway, here I was in my bedroom scrolling through all these programs that I had recorded just for times like this, and since none of them are what I wanted to watch, I end up checking out the On Demand. I tried Starz first.

They are of course listed alphabetically.

That means that without even needing to scroll down, there it was! Across The Universe.

Now I was interested!

For some stupid reason though, I also felt a little apprehensive. Why would I feel that way???? I'm not sure, but I think it was mostly because I had wanted to see it so bad, and now without even meaning to I had found it and was going to watch it. I guess I was experiencing a kind of reverse buyer's remorse.

To sum up, I decided to not expect too much. I also figured there was a good chance I wouldn't like it after all, and would want to turn it off after 20 minutes or so.

Now one thing I want to emphasize is that this is a movie that is great to watch for the first time, but it is better with each repeated watching. That is because the first fifteen minutes or so are mostly establishing sequences. Or in other words introducing you to the main characters. I was confused by it a bit. There also are so many little things you probably won't catch on your first time that you will discover on subsequent viewings.

Oh foolish me, to think I may not like it.

In case you don't know anything about it, the story is set in the late sixties and early seventies.

My time!

It is also a tribute to the Beatles music.

My music.

The basic story concerns Jude (played by the delicious Jim Sturgess, just try to not fall in love), a young man from, of course, Liverpool, who comes to the states to find his unknown father. Unknown, because Jude was conceived when his father was in England during World War 2. Daddy went home to America never knowing he had left a little bun in Jude's mother's oven. Jude makes his way to America, where he tracks down his father at Princeton. Jude is expecting his dad to be a professor but instead he is Princeton's maintenance man.

Jude is more surprised than upset by that, after all he is a working stiff himself.

While at Princeton Jude meets Max (Joe Anderson, thoroughly enchanting). A rich, privileged, student who is basically a bad but lovable boy who plans to drop out of school. They become best friends. Jude accompanies Max home for Thanksgiving. This is where he meets Max's sister Lucy(Evan Rachel Wood, She is PERFECT). Lucy's boyfriend has just gone off to Viet Nam. Jude is instantly smitten with Lucy and it is obvious that there is a real chemistry between them. Jude and Max move to New York. (This is after Max tells daddy that he is dropping out of Princeton.)

Before too long Lucy's boyfriend has died in the war. She graduates and goes to New York to spend time with big brother Max for the summer before she goes off to college in the fall. She and Jude fall in love, and she never ends up leaving New York.

I won't tell anymore of the plot, but trust me it is so good.

I can't really recommend it for those of you that are uncomfortable with PG13's, at least the ones that really deserve the rating. There is drug use, there is a small bit of swearing, there is some violence as well as some beautifully and tastefully filmed nudity. I admit that I watch R and PG13 movies.

And I don't like them filtered either.

I'm not comfortable with letting someone else decide what is inappropriate for me to be watching. If there is excessive swearing, especially repeated use of the F bomb, I won't watch it. I actually hate that. I love words and I can't stand listening to characters whose speech is so limited that all they can say is F, F, F, ten times a minute. So don't worry, it's not like I watch every R movie that comes out, I just don't limit myself if it's something that grabs my attention.

Across The Universe, has definitely GOT my attention.

I loved it so much that after 10 minutes I knew that there was no way I would be turning it off. In fact even though I love the WHOLE movie, I would have to say that the first 15 minutes is probably my MOST favorite part of the whole film. That is also the part of the movie that has most of my favorite songs.

Sadly, On Demand only will show a movie for so long.

When I first came across it about the middle of August it was a NEW movie. Meaning that they had just put it on the On Demand menu. I was happy for that because I intended to watch it a few more times. After those few more times, I loved it so much that I have now watched it close to 20 times in all.

What can I say? I have a very addictive personality.

A week ago they put up the "ends on this date" notice besides it on the list of A movies.

OH NO!!!!!!!!!

The final day was the 17th of September.

NO, NOOOO!!

I realized that I was running out of time to watch my new obsession. Oh BTW, in the meantime I had ordered the deluxe CD of the soundtrack from Amazon. It took forever to get here, but I've had it now for almost a week. I have burned a copy of it to listen to in the car. I don't want anything to happen to the actual CD itself, and, yes that's right, I haven't leapt into the 21st century and gotten myself an MP3 player.

I'm a little old school I still like CD's.

Well today is Wednesday. It is Wednesday the 17th. But then I'm sure you knew that. You probably weren't aware however that, that means today is the LAST time On Demand will be showing Across The Universe. Yes, yes, I guess you could say I'm in a little bit of mourning.

Why don't you just buy the darn movie I can hear you saying.

Well I planned to. But Courtney told me NO WAY. You see my loved ones have a hard time on gift giving occasions, because I usually go buy the things I want for myself so I can't ever think of anything for them to get me. So for Courtney's gift giving sake, I have decided to hold off on purchasing it so that she will have a sure bet for what to get me for Christmas.

Is that noble or what?

My only hope is that Starz will put it back on their On Demand lineup again. And pretty quick, too. Because I don't think this is going to be an easy withdrawal. In the meantime of course I do have my CD that I can listen to whenever I want.

I will just have to find other things to do to take up the time that I have spent in the last month watching my New Favorite Movie.

It's going to be a long month.

Exciting UPDATE!!!

Well here it is Thursday the 18th and guess what??? That's right!! Across the Universe is on again as a NEW movie. Happiness is me. Of course the thought does occur that now we will see just how obsessed I really am. I mean if it's going to become a permanent fixture on Starz on Demand, I wonder how long I'll keep watching it almost every day. Hmmm, it sounds like more research will be needed.
So goodbye for now, I'm off to, umm, watch something on TV?!?