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26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Give my fondest regards to Sir Paul, December 21, 2001
The star of this movie, panned as a vanity project by McCartney by a certain Leonard Maltin, is not only McCartney but the music, which is a mixture of Beatles songs, Wings songs, and solo McCartney, both old and new.The plot, flimsy as it is, involves the loss of the master tapes to McCartney's latest album, which has already sold millions in advance copies. Suspicion immediately falls upon Harry, a friend with a police record who has gone straight and whom Paul lends a hand by offering him a job. If the tape is not recovered in 24 hours, businessmen who helped his record company during a cash flow crisis will take over, leaving him broke. Trouble is, Harry's gone missing, and he might have taken it to the notorious bootlegger Big Bob for a lot of lolly. The movie also is a day in the life of Paul, with a hectic schedule of stage and radio appearances, recording, etc., but in this case, the creditors go around harassing Paul and company. The medley of "Yesterday/Here There And Everywhere/Wanderlust" is a treat very early in the movie. It's a nostalgic listen for Beatles fans and for the days when producer George Martin, who appears here, was like the fifth Beatle. The scene features a funny scene where Ringo spends two-thirds of the medley time finding brushes. He finally does and gets ready, only to find himself in time for "Wanderlust," which needs drumsticks, which he already had in the first place. The "Ballroom Dancing" number is about a trio of grammar school kids who play with each other. They grow up as teenage toughs, the boys who fight over the girl. The fight then spills over to the elegant ballroom dancers. Chaos sets in as the dancers tussle with the toughs, knocking over bits of the stage in the process. Audience members watching get alarmed, wondering, "What's going on here?" The fact that it was all staged, as one of the toughs gives a hand to one of the dancers, is somewhat of a joke. Paul then calmly asks Linda, "Lunch?" after the calamity. There's a funny scene in the BBC canteen when a man dressed in a hideously grotesque monster outfits scares someone nearby. In fact there are others on their lunch break who appear to be working on some sci-fi show that isn't Doctor Who. The rock set, "Not Such A Bad Boy," "So Bad," and "No Values," are performed by the band including Dave Edmunds on guitar, and it's fun to see Barbara Bach, aka Ms. Starr, jamming out to the music while sitting down. Hearing "The Long And Winding Road" in a version preferable to Paul made up my mind that this version is better than the Let It Be version. A pensive Paul is driving down the road, while Linda, Ringo, and Barbara are anxiously waiting for word, and Sandra (Harry's wife) is sadly looking at a picture of her missing husband.
The "Eleanor's Dream" daydream sequence involves an idyllic countryside and the cobblestones of a Dickensian England. Linda is shown in a majestic sequence during her last bit in it. A brief scene between Paul and Sir Ralph Richardson, the latter's penultimate movie appearance, is touching as well as illuminating of Paul's character in the movie. Guest stars who help out are of course Richardson, Tracey Ullman as Sandra, and Bryan Brown as Paul's manager, but TV veteran John Bennett as the menacing Ratchett, pulls off the most effective performance, without saying a solitary word in the movie! Now that's acting! Fans of the Beatles and Paul in particular will give this video the rating I've given it--others might rate it 1 or 2, but who cares?
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~ Paul McCartney
DVD ~ Paul McCartney
DVD ~ Paul McCartney
~ Paul McCartney
DVD ~ Paul Mccartney
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