Paul May Be Dead But This Film Is Boring

The Last Testament of George Harrison is a feature documentary narrated by an audio recording allegedly made by the late titular Beatle. Apparently, Harrison just before his death decided to expose a massive cover-up that plagued him and his former band-mates for decades. The terrible secret is the fact that Paul McCartney died in an automobile accident back in 1966 and the remaining three Beatles conspired successfully with MI5 to cover-up the accident. Lucky for the filmmakers that they were the recipients of the mysterious recording and luckier still that it runs 100 minutes-a standard time for a film feature. But, lets not get fixated on the preposterous nature of the tape, its fun to concede the point, ignore the fact that Harrison’s voice sounds as British as Kevin Costner in Robin Hood, and enjoy the ride. The Beatles’ decision to cover-up McCartney’s death was motivated by a hysterical fear of a rash of teenage suicides that MI5 convinced them would inevitably follow the release of the news. Thankfully for Beatlemaniacs the fab three decided to share the information with true fans by using clues that were both bizarre and numerous. The clues became the raison d’etre of the band and angered MI5 so much that they put the remaining Beatles’ lives in peril-apparently killing off the other Beatles was okay even if telling the world that Paul had died wasn’t. But the Paul is dead facts grow tedious fast. Add to this the almost exclusive use of stock photos and footage in painfully edited visuals and a score that is uninspired and replete of Beatles music and the film is a ridiculous lesson in pattern recognition. The Last Testament of George Harrison would be a fun romp if only the filmmakers had put as much effort in the execution as they had in dreaming up the outrageous premise.