I liked the first half of "Beyond The Sea", with its production numbers and people dancing in the streets and love blooming all over the place and rising above adversity to achieve fame and fortune ...
... but then the second half was like a whole different movie. No more dancing in the streets, nothing to be happy about at all, just illness, alcoholism, politics, audience rejection and early death.
Okay, so maybe real life ain't all singing and dancing and fantasy but if it ain't, then why have it in the movie to begin with? What started out to be a fun film turned somber so quickly that it was distracting. I kept waiting for the fun to come back and it never did.
I had no problem with the age thing but I wish they had used Darin's original recordings. Kevin Spacey might have a fine voice but everybody knows how "Mack the Knife" is supposed to sound and Mr. Spacey changed it just enough to make his version seem somehow almost blasphemous.
... but then the second half was like a whole different movie. No more dancing in the streets, nothing to be happy about at all, just illness, alcoholism, politics, audience rejection and early death.
Okay, so maybe real life ain't all singing and dancing and fantasy but if it ain't, then why have it in the movie to begin with? What started out to be a fun film turned somber so quickly that it was distracting. I kept waiting for the fun to come back and it never did.
I had no problem with the age thing but I wish they had used Darin's original recordings. Kevin Spacey might have a fine voice but everybody knows how "Mack the Knife" is supposed to sound and Mr. Spacey changed it just enough to make his version seem somehow almost blasphemous.