Ralph's Movie Reviews: THE U.S. VERSUS JOHN LENNON

Sunday, October 8, 2006

THE U.S. VERSUS JOHN LENNON

Documentary

FEATURING
Beatle John Lennon
His wife Yoko Ono
Journalist Carl Bernstein
Noam Chomsky, political activist
Walter Cronkite, retired CBS television news anchor
Black Panthers Bobby Seale and Angela Davis
U.S. Senator George McGovern, outspoken opponent of the Vietnam War
Tom Smothers, half of the musical comedy televison showThe Smothers Brothers
President Richard Nixon
Social activitsts Jerry Rubin and Abie Hoffman
Gore Vidal, famous American writer
Mario Cuomo, former Mayor of NYC
G. Gordon Liddy, Chairman of the Committee to Re-Elect the President
H.R. Haldeman, White House Chief of Staff under Nixon
Geraldo Rivera, a Fox News correspondent

REVIEW
Although the soundtrack includes some of Lennon’s songs this movie is not about his song-writing career. Instead it’s about his post-Beatles involvement in the peace movement back in the ‘70’s. Not surprising, this caused him some difficulties with the authorities with many people displeased by his unconventional methods.

To many the movie will be an overview of those times. To some it will be an insight to what really happened.

CLASSIFICATION

for some strong language, violent images and drug references.

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my ratings system

I've always thought that telling too much about a movie or warning someone about a "twist" at the end deprives the person the pleasure of seeing it as it unfolds, so I don’t do it. You may not always agree with my rating of course, but at least it is an unbiased opinion unlike some of the full time professional reviewers who are on the studio’s payroll.

A few movies you won’t see any review from me:

Scary movies: I’m the world’s biggest chicken and just hate getting the crap scared out of me. I can handle an unexpected door slam, that kind of thing, but a movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat…not for me. Sorry.
Movies geared to the young teen and pre-teen crowd with dialog comprising mostly of crude remarks, awful jokes and lots of rude, socially unacceptable body noises. "The Spy that Shagged Me" comes to mind. (I wonder if the kids know what the British verb to shag someone really means? They probably do; I bet you it’s the parents who haven’t a clue).
Sometimes Hollywood gets on a roll and they produce a series of movies that are all very much alike. For example movies about the CIA were very popular and so we had The Bourne Identity and Bad Company and The Sum of All Fears. They all had the same basic theme and it becomes repetitive. I will see some, but not all of them.

FYI this is my rating system:

0 stars = Terrible: so bad it’s not worth talking about; in fact, I’d pay you not to go
= Lousy: I actually got up and walked out before the end it was just that bad (no kidding)
= Not so good: thought about walking out but hung in just in case it got better (but it didn’t)
= A so-so good movie: I enjoyed it somewhat but wasn’t all that crazy about it
= A really good movie: I recommend seeing it
= An excellent movie you just got to see! I suggest you put it on your "To Do List" it’s that good.

some favourite websites

For those into it, Nitpickers at

has more movie mistakes than you could ever imagine. My contributions can be seen if you check out the Nitpickers Registry and click on the link Nitpickers Listed by Nitpicker Number, select the group 45,401 - 45,500 and drill down to number 45411. Although I have 56 nitpicks to my credit, some have almost 2,000. You wonder sometimes where they find the time to do it.