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Blair Brown, Jamie Glover, Christine Kavanaugh, Daniel McGowan, Philip McQuillan ... see more see more... , Mark Rice Oxley , Christian Ealey , Christine Kavanagh , Gillian Kearney , Lee Williams , Mark Rice-Oxley , Scot Williams

In Liverpool in the 1950s, a young man named John Lennon (Philip McQuillen) combats the traditional education system and the wishes of his well-meaning aunt, Mimi Smith (Blair Brown), to become a musi... read more read more...cian in the incipient field of rock & roll. He forms a number of bands and with each new effort his local audience grows. Soon, he's teamed up with Stuart Sutcliffe (Lee Williams, George Harrison (Mark Rice-Oxley), Pete Best (Scot Williams), and Paul McCartney (Daniel McGowan), and collectively known as the Beatles, they draw the attention of music promoter Brian Epstein (Jamie Glover) who ushers them into the big time. Sutcliffe and Best are dropped from the band, Ringo Starr (Kristian Ealey) is added, and the rest is musical history. ~ Buzz McClain, Rovi

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65% liked it

831 ratings

PG-13, 1 hr. 28 min.

Directed by: David Carson

Release Date: December 3, 2000

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DVD Release Date: July 24, 2001

Stats: 56 reviews

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John Winston Lennon
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Flixster Reviews (56)

  • Sunshineyness
    November 30, 2009
    Sunshineyness
    It's actually... not that bad. It's pretty melodramatic and all the "dramatic" parts are really over-sold but it doesn't give us the tale of St. John the poet martyr that some like to tell or the evil jerky mcjerkson John that others have done. It was actually pretty even handed ... read moreand the actor (though looking closer to 35 than 21) plays him as a charming prick most friends and relatives describe Lennon as having been- especially in his youth.

    There's a lot of cheesy parts (freeze framing the guys walking across the street a la Abby Road cover, the Strawberry Field thing actually is all right because he really did use to hang out there, but the Eleanor Rigby grave was really dumb.) and rarely do the Liverpudlian accents and colloquialisms show up. But... it's probably one of the more decent portrayals of John's personality, relationships with Mimi (who's not QUITE as cruel as she's been said she was, but it's not a cuddly performance) Cynthia (although the actress plays her as a bit dumb and hyper critical which I didn't like) and his mom Julia (which seems pretty genuine.) On the downside the other Beatles get shoved to the side and not much is said on the budding friendship and song writing dream team of Lennon and McCartney but his relationship with Stuart Sutcliffe is pretty well done.

    It's worth checking out. Hopefully the upcoming "Nowhere Boy" will do this story infinitely better, but until then this isn't a bad primer of the early life of Lennon.

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