Yesterday [Blu-ray]

In Yesterday, The audience sees various realities bundled in a way that recalls similar alternate universes as in It's A Wonderful Life. But in this movie, the audience is teased that reality is not so real after all. Himesh Patel is a singer songwriter who has spent years trying to hit it big. He is a talented singer but he is close to quitting until the Impossible happens. He is shifted from one universe to another in a manner that is not much different from the means Mark Twain used to relocate temporally his Connecticut Yankee to the court of King Arthur. With Patel. called Jack Malik, a bit of scientific plausibility is inserted. A world wide failure of electricity lingers for twelve seconds, causing a truck to hit Jack and when he wakes up, he is no longer in his base reality; he is is a universe where the Beatles have never existed. It is just as well that the script does not logically follow through on such an event. Twelve seconds is more than enough time for planes to fall out of the sky and car accidents in the millions. Further, the script wisely ignores what happened to the Jack Malik who must have been transported from the non-Beatle reality to one where the Beatles were famous. Finally, the script glosses over a few other individuals who similarly made the temporal transition and well know the Beatles. Yesterday is meant as a romantic fantasy, not as a musical version of the television series Sliders. Himesh Patel is totally convincing as one who has come to a moral cross roads. Should he pass off the songs of the Beatles as his own or should he have to account for them as the true result of inter-dimensional shifting? Some critics label Jack Malik as an unlikable plagiarist who takes advantage of a unique opportunity for wealth and fame. However, he remains likable throughout. The audience is treated to Patel's ability to take the tonal inflections of Sir Paul McCartney and infuse them with his own unique style. The unifying theme of the movie does not emerge until near the end when Jack Malik meets one of the other dimensional travelers who tells him that Jack should not worry about the infringing of copyright laws of an alternate reality. Rather, in a world bereft of the Beatles, that world would be much the poorer. Thus, beauty has a right to exist and it is the Jack Maliks of all universes to provide that beauty. Yesterday deserves an Oscar nomination for Best Picture.EDIT Added 11/19/2019Since I submitted my original review, I have since read various other reviews. Most of them have negatively harped on what the reviewers saw as violations of logic and their contextual knowledge of the Beatles gained from decades of listening to their music. Typical of their objections include the following:1) Ellie would never have fallen in love with Jack in the first place2) Jack released his versions of dozens of Beatle songs in a haphazard manner that did not do justice to the thematic development of the Beatles from 1963 to 19703) The singing/song writing talent of Jack Malik, while reasonably competent, was far less than the original Beatles and would likely not have sold in Jack's non-Beatle reality4) The "silly love songs" of the early Beatles sold well but only in the temporal context in which the Beatles released them. Thus, these songs would not have resonated in Jack's new realityWhat such criticisms suggest is that Director Danny Boyle was unaware of their existence. I suggest that he was aware and chose to ignore them. It is crucial to remember Boyle was interested in a fantasy and not a gritty realistic drama framed by music. Further, current critics frame their comments inj a context garnered over decades. The audiences of the non-Beatle reality did not have this context. Jack Malik simply unleashed his torrent of Beatle songs such that the entire universe of potential fans reacted as much did the fans of the reality from which Jack emerged. this reaction was unfettered joy. Consider a few key scenes when Jack's music was heard the first time. Jack played "Yesterday" for Ellie and a few friends. They were stunned. Jack went of national tv and in a deleted scene (why it was deleted I'll never know) supposedly played a brand new "Something" to a lovely Anna de Armas. Then there was the impromptu "battle of the songs" scene in which Ed Sheerin played a reasonably competent song about penguins while Jack blew him out of the water with "The Long Winding Road." In all three cases the stunned reactions of all concerned very likely equaled the joy felt by original listeners decades ago. So when the two other dimensional travelers told Jack that beauty needs no rationale for its existence, this leads us to the long and winding road of love for beauty that cares only for welcoming ears to appreciate.Yesterday as a movie is held together by the stringing together of three related scenes, each of which suggests a showing off or a competition of a Beatle song with someone who does not know of it. The first is when Jack plays "Yesterday" to Ellie and her friends who are stunned by the haunting beauty of the lyrics. Though they joke about the power of the song no one doubts its impact. The second is the Battle of the Songs between Jack and Ed Sheeran. It is here the director sets out a number of cross purpose subtexts. This competition is supposed to be a friendly wager between two evenly matched song writers. The problem is is that both Jack and Ed bring in considerable emotional baggage. Ed is clearly jealous of the rising talent posed by Jack. Ed thinks he can win in an impromptu match of ten minutes of songwriting. He in fact turns out a well composed lyric of two penguins who cannot decide between settling a choice of hope or love. Oddly enough this penguin song forms a thematic subtext between the hope of Jack to become the next global superstar and the love of Ed for music even if his goal is the more modest one of besting an opponent. Ed has no idea of the humbling he will experience right in front of his closest friends. Jack's baggage is far weightier than Ed's. Jack is a fraud and the movie audience has knowledge lacking the competition audience. The movie audience is more willing to overlook such temporal music plagiary because Jack is a decent sort who cannot resist the once in a lifetime opportunity to go from a struggling nobody to a lionized somebody. The scruffy bearded dude and the middle aged woman function as incipient twin consciences struggling to emerge to confront Jack, a meeting which does occur later on. When Jack sings "The Long Winding Road" his version is a heart-stopping rendition that is as good as anything Sir Paul ever wrote or sang. Here, Jack has only a piano which results in a simplicity of beauty that the original lacked. But a nagging question emerges. Why would Jack choose one of the very best of the Beatles? This was clearly a case of overkill. He could just as easily have sung nearly any other Beatle song. Jack suffers a bit of a guilty conscience when he lamely adds that this effort was a bit complex. Ed gracefully admits Jack was the superior talent. Jack's persona as the good guy suffers a bit in this scene even as the audience admires Ed for his self-effacing admission. The third related scene is the deleted scene in which Jack has to make up a song on the spot just as he did earlier with Ed Sheeran. The dynamics of both scenes are very nearly identical. The audience in the television studio was similar to the audience of Ed's friends earlier. Jack's rendition of "Something" was like that of "The Long Winding Road." Both were reduced versions sung with only one musical accompaniment, such that simplicity of delivery heightened the effect. These three scenes enabled the audience watching the movie to flit in and out of the audience actually hearing Jack sing live so that the incremental result was one of astonishment to hear Beatle music involve a new generation of fans..

A story about a guy who takes advantage of a freak accident to become the world's most famous musician, posing as the writer of all the Beatles' music. I think the actor actually sings the songs, and he does a really good job. It's also a love story, and eventually the guy figures out the errors of his ways, confesses his crimes, and proclaims his love. It was sweet.

I watched this movie at the theatre when it came out. I bought it on prime and was disappointed that the TV version from Amazon edited out a portion of a scene where James Corden asks Hamish to sing something. That being "Something" the Beatles hit. Otherwise, I enjoyed the movie (I am a Beatles fan) with my bag of popcorn. Here is a review from Wikipedia:"Yesterday is a 2019 musical romantic comedy film directed by Danny Boyle and written by Richard Curtis, based on a story by Jack Barth and Curtis. Himesh Patel stars as struggling musician Jack Malik who suddenly finds himself as the only person who remembers the Beatles and becomes famous for performing their songs. The film also stars Lily James, Joel Fry, Ed Sheeran, and Kate McKinnon."

If you like the Beatles, this movie is for you. Different in a really good way.

We ran across this and didn't quite know what to expect but ended up really enjoying this movie - even bought it as a gift afterwards for my brother. Recommend!

If you like the Beetles, Dont hesitate, watch it!

So this movie is teaching the world that white culture is available to be stolen as well as culturally appropriating white music, but god forbid, don't do any rapping if you're white, that's for bros only. The movie is intellectually low although entertaining. It's the story of a British/Indian mediocre musician who ends up stealing all the Beatles songs to become famous in an alternate reality where the Beatles are not known to the world. Also felt like a movie made by Ed Sheran an actual musician who appears in the movie a lot. Not to be a spoiler alert, just watch it if you have 90 min to waste and if you, like me, like the Beatles. Absurd story that makes little sense even in that alternate surreal reality, so take it with a grain of salt, not much to expect from it. Weak love story with the girl, who in real life has clearly no chemistry with the actor and you can see that in the movie so much it hurt, but good enough acting to fool an audience into believing there is real love there, no chemistry but def some love. Fun movie overall, with some cringy British humor to fill time

Absolutely love this movie! Easy to suspend reality with such charming characters. A really feel good movie.

この映画に娘がニュースキャスター役で出ているので、記念に😊👍

Som vanligt bra förpackat och snabb leverans

le film est très bon , mais il aurait été bien que paraisse dans ce film ne fut qu'un court instant Paul Mc Cartney le compositeur de Yesterday

【映画そのもの】う〜ん実は期待はずれかな？ビートルズが人々の心を掴んだのは曲の良さだけではなく、演奏・歌唱・4人の個性などが大きかったからですが、その事実がスルーされています。かわぐちかいじさんの「僕はビートルズ」の方がその点リアリティがあります。でも「あの人」が出てくるところは、ちょっと泣けた。十分楽しめましたので★★★★☆【フォーマット】自分に届いたのはドイツ盤Blu-ray1枚で、普通透明な青のケースが、不透明な黄色でした。リージョン不明ですが、日本製Blu-rayプレーヤーで普通に再生出来ました。Blu-rayとDVDのセットが届いた方もおられるようですので、何パターンかあるようです。音声・字幕は英語・ドイツ語・トルコ語でした。ドイツにトルコ移民が多いから？極右政党が問題視しているそうですが、こんなところにドイツの国内事情が伺いしれます。【日本語がないときの開き直り】日本語字幕・音声はありませんが、単純なストーリーなので画面見てればなんとかついていけます。日本語の予告編見た上で、ビートルズの知識が一通りあれば、英語字幕を追いながら、中二程度の英語力で概ね理解可能です。分からない部分はスルーでも楽しめました。それにしてもPAL・NTSCとかリージョンコード、廃止して欲しいです。著作権意識の低いアジアの国々で勝手に上映する悪徳業者は、リージョンフリープレーヤーを入手するでしょうから、対策になってません。お金を出して買った人が、見れずに涙を飲む、など本末転倒かと思います。

俺が悪かったと思うけど、日本語対応してないのには、まいったね