Disappointing movies built around Beatles songs

I am staggered by how such great music as the songs of the Beatles has managed to lead to some poor to appalling movies: "All This and World War II," "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," "Yesterday," "I Am Sam," "Across the Universe" and might also include "Give My Regards to Broad Street" and "Yellow Submarine" in there.

What for you is the worst movie based on the Fab Four's songs?

 

Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band or Yesterday

 

all of 'em?

 

We have a winner!

 

Yellow submarine, too?

 

VH1's original movie Two of Us. Remember that one? Here's why it was so disappointing to me:

The movie was promoted as a fictional "what if" reunion. What if John and Paul actually met again in 1976. When I saw a behind the scenes look at the making of the movie, I was led to believe that we were actually gonna see John and Paul perform on TV at the very end. The narrator in that documentary even said "what happened next would have changed rock and roll forever", or something to that effect. But the final moments of the movie ended up being nothing like that.

A major letdown, for sure.

 

i liked YS, but not the rest listed.

 

Let It Be. Because it was true-to-life and so damn bleak and depressing! So sad to think the same guys who made AHDN were reduced to this five years later. Yellow Submarine was unrelieved joy times a thousand compared to their final film together.

 

Yellow Submarine disappointing? With a 95% Rotten Tomato score? Granted it didn't do well at the box office. But it's an amazing and influential work of art.

Then there's this:

 

Across the Universe. Awful, awful film!

 

My daughter took me to see this. Not great but I didn't mind it.
As a thank you I got her the soundtrack CD. When I bought it the clerk asked me if I knew the original versions of the songs and said the ones in the movie were " like, way better "

 

Love Danny Boyle movies, but Yesterday could have been so much more!
Idea was great, but the movie not so much.
Waiting for a new Peter Jackson's documentary

 

Does "THEEE Help" count?


They should do a 'prequel';
"The A Hard Days' Night"!

 

I love Across the Universe and Yellow Submarine.

 

I think it’s a great soundtrack. Probably my favorite spin on Beatles music found in a movie soundtrack. Of course Beatles original versions will always be my favorite but I found the arrangements refreshing. For example, I love the sincere melancholy of I Want to Hold Your Hand. And anything that reaches younger listeners to the catalogue is a good thing.

 

I don't know what your criteria for a movie rating poor to appalling is, but including I Am Sam shows I shouldn't make any decisions based on your choices. Granted all of our choices are subjective. In my view I Am Sam is wonderfully entertaining, despite it being a bit sappy and Sean Penn gives an absolutely (to me) and almost (to others) Oscar-worthy performance. The soundtrack of Beatles covers by a host of performers is solid and most enjoyable.

 

Both "The Simpsons" & "Family Guy" have made the joke about a character getting ready to sing a Beatles song, stopping the action of the episode because they know how expensive it would be if said character starts to sing it!

 

Simpsons did the Be-Sharps episode based on the Beatles' history and I didn't think it was funny or really get it at all. I didn't know much about the Beatles when it aired in the early '90s though and I haven't watched it since. "Babyyy...on board..."

 

I haven't seen this yet...but it seems like a fun concept.

Yesterday (2019)

 

I Am Sam is an appalling movie? How so?

 

Its not fun at all. Far from it.

 

Maybe it was a misunderstood film. Maybe the true concept of the movie wasn't "what if only one person knew about the Beatles", but instead "what if your friend/manager who waits patiently on you to come around was literally the hottest girl in the country." Eh, either way, a too far fetched.

 

Haven't seen it but Lily James is a cutie.

 

Yesterday was a fairly disposable but fun romantic movie, not sure why it gets the dislike here - though nothing should surprise me. Despite its necessary use of new recordings of Beatle songs for plot purposes, I found the movie to be very, very respectful of The Beatles and their music, and is essentially about how their songwriting has transcended generations with its profound appeal. It also has a sequence with an old retired Beatle in its sort of alternate timeline, which could have been offensively disastrous, but I found it quite touching.

Across The Universe is a bit hit or miss for me, but it had at least one sequence I thought was beautiful and unforgettable.

Yellow Submarine is a classic, my young kids have loved it and (quite voluntarily!) re-watched it many times in just the past few years.

Can't Buy Me Love uses the title song for soundtrack but beyond a general premise has nothing to do with the Beatles or their music. But it was a fun, borderline-classic 80's high school comedy.

Again I get a sense that anything deemed not the original article here (i.e. Beatles had little direct involvement in YS) is necessarily crap to some people.

 

I forgot about this one, Robert Zemeckis' first movie and Spielberg's first producing credit. I never saw it. It was a flop at the box office and qualifies as a forgotten movie, but it's highly rated on Rotten Tomatoes. Roger Ebert didn't write a review of it but in his Used Cars review he said he "really enjoyed" it. Siskel and Ebert reviewed it on TV but that episode is lost.