I'm a lifelong Paul McCartney fan but it's taken me this long to steel myself to finally watch this justly maligned vanity project of a movie wot he wrote. To say it might have been written on the back of an envelope is to overstate proceedings, try the back of a stamp.
McCartney has to deliver his next album on time or else his parent record company will fall into the ownership of a big bad businessman who wanders about everywhere scowling in shades just so you know that this is somehow not a good thing. At the last minute, the master tape goes missing. Last person to hold it was newly employed gopher Harry, who big-hearted Paul has just lately employed despite having a history of petty crime. For some reason the tape has to be found before midnight so that Macca, in the middle of a busy day making a promo video, being interviewed at the BBC and recording songs, tries to locate the missing Harry and save the day.
Basically just a loosely connected travelogue in and around London with lots of McCartney music interspersed in between, it's one long yawn from start to finish. The musical numbers are mostly misconceived, as we see Paul trying to elevate some of his fair-to-middling recent material ("Ballroom Dancing", "So Bad" and especially "Wanderlust" which is inexplicably and unworthily tacked on to the end of a medley featuring "Yesterday" and "Here There And Everywhere") to the level of his illustrious Beatles past. It also just seems a sign of desperation that he felt the need to raid his Fab back catalogue for other songs too.
Worst moments, of many, for me were the Flock Of Seagulls mock-up for a robotic version of "Silly Love Songs" (don't ask), or an extended dream sequence which sees our hero got up in mutton chops and period costume (I said don't ask) to an instrumental version of "Eleanor Rigby". The little bit of new music we do get is actually okay, two knockabout rockers "No Values" and "Not Such A Bad Boy" and the strong power-ballad "No More Lonely Nights" which is promptly ruined by a voguish dance-mix over the end titles.
Elsewhere the cast includes such incongruities as Sir Ralph Richardson, Tracey Ullman and U.K. wrestler Giant Haystacks all with a few meagre lines which amply demonstrate in wide-apart descending order, the differences in their respective acting capabilities. McCartney himself tries to project his chipper, fab-wacky-Macca-thumbs-aloft demeanour and finds roles for wife Linda and old mate Ringo and his wife Barbara Bach but it's not just that you can see them all acting, you can actually see them all trying to act.
It's well seen that apart from a cameo in one of the "Pirates Of The Caribbean" movies, the only time you ever saw McCartney in front of a video camera after this was for one of his pop promos. This however was 100 minutes or so of absolute tedium which should have stayed as a home movie.
McCartney has to deliver his next album on time or else his parent record company will fall into the ownership of a big bad businessman who wanders about everywhere scowling in shades just so you know that this is somehow not a good thing. At the last minute, the master tape goes missing. Last person to hold it was newly employed gopher Harry, who big-hearted Paul has just lately employed despite having a history of petty crime. For some reason the tape has to be found before midnight so that Macca, in the middle of a busy day making a promo video, being interviewed at the BBC and recording songs, tries to locate the missing Harry and save the day.
Basically just a loosely connected travelogue in and around London with lots of McCartney music interspersed in between, it's one long yawn from start to finish. The musical numbers are mostly misconceived, as we see Paul trying to elevate some of his fair-to-middling recent material ("Ballroom Dancing", "So Bad" and especially "Wanderlust" which is inexplicably and unworthily tacked on to the end of a medley featuring "Yesterday" and "Here There And Everywhere") to the level of his illustrious Beatles past. It also just seems a sign of desperation that he felt the need to raid his Fab back catalogue for other songs too.
Worst moments, of many, for me were the Flock Of Seagulls mock-up for a robotic version of "Silly Love Songs" (don't ask), or an extended dream sequence which sees our hero got up in mutton chops and period costume (I said don't ask) to an instrumental version of "Eleanor Rigby". The little bit of new music we do get is actually okay, two knockabout rockers "No Values" and "Not Such A Bad Boy" and the strong power-ballad "No More Lonely Nights" which is promptly ruined by a voguish dance-mix over the end titles.
Elsewhere the cast includes such incongruities as Sir Ralph Richardson, Tracey Ullman and U.K. wrestler Giant Haystacks all with a few meagre lines which amply demonstrate in wide-apart descending order, the differences in their respective acting capabilities. McCartney himself tries to project his chipper, fab-wacky-Macca-thumbs-aloft demeanour and finds roles for wife Linda and old mate Ringo and his wife Barbara Bach but it's not just that you can see them all acting, you can actually see them all trying to act.
It's well seen that apart from a cameo in one of the "Pirates Of The Caribbean" movies, the only time you ever saw McCartney in front of a video camera after this was for one of his pop promos. This however was 100 minutes or so of absolute tedium which should have stayed as a home movie.