A movie so inventive and varied in its badness that it's almost good.
Comment
12/29/04
Beyond the Sea (2004)
43
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:148
Fresh:63
Rotten:85
Average Rating:5.2/10
Consensus: Kevin Spacey’s bio of singer Bobby Darin is either a fearless piece of showmanship or an embarrassing vanity project, according to critics.
Theatrical Release:26-11-2004
Synopsis: For BOBBY DARIN (Kevin Spacey), performing was his life. It kept his heart beating. He came alive onstage, even when he was near collapse offstage. In BEYOND THE SEA, Bobby tells his own story.... [More]
Starring: Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth, Brenda Blethyn, Caroline Aaron
Director: Kevin Spacey
Reviews for Beyond the Sea
Spacey's singing turns out to be the most plausible and appealing element of Beyond the Sea. It's just about everything else that needed rethinking.
12/29/04
A movie that gets a few things absolutely right while getting quite a few other things very, very wrong indeed.
12/29/04
Fails to persuade us that its subject is significant enough to be worth a movie.
12/29/04
Jaw-droppingly awful.
12/29/04
The film never gives you a real sense of what drove Darin on.
12/29/04
In Beyond the Sea Kevin Spacey manages to achieve his life's ambition of portraying Bobby Darin, without managing to communicate why it was his life's ambition.
12/29/04
So self-indulgent and all over the place that it never truly finds its feet.
12/28/04
It lacks passion and joy, replacing them both with something that smells a lot like mid-life crisis.
12/28/04
Click to read the article
12/27/04
Mr. Spacey clearly has an impassioned and intense love for this Bobby Darin biopic, and like a parent, he will be devastated by its sure failure
12/27/04
Falls short in many ways, from its vaudevillian-esque sensibility to the look-at-me-Ma attitude pervading every frame.
12/27/04
The triumphs and tragedies of Darin's life are undercut by a playful, carny-barking tone that out-overdoes even its main character's show-biz sensibilities.
12/23/04
Like a lounge revue on a second-class cruise ship.
12/23/04
For those who aren't Darin aficionados, the reason to see this biopic is another outstanding performance by Spacey.
12/22/04
The lack of any real artistic commitment on the part of its subject ultimately raises the question of why we need a film about Darin in the first place.
12/22/04
Spacey has crafted a vanity project of appalling proportions.
12/20/04
The Very Special Bobby Darin Tribute episode of The Kevin Spacey Variety Hour.
12/20/04
Click to read the article
12/19/04
Spacey’s tinkering is perplexing, and conspires against the real reason any film about Darin should be made: to showcase Darin’s sublime natural abilities.
12/19/04
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