Bohemian Rhapsody

alantig said:
I thought it was great as well. Rami Malek was awesome as Freddie - it’s a hard thing to pull off with a guy that well known, but I forgot a couple times that it was Malek. The guy who played John Deacon absolutely nailed it, from the facial expressions to the sarcastic comments to the fact that he was easy to overlook in the movie.

I’ve seen a few complaints that some of the songs were out of order - as much as I am a stickler about that stuff, it didn’t bother me because this isn’t a documentary. Let’s face it - this stuff was primarily 40 years ago, and in the story they were trying to tell, it wasn’t important that “Fat Bottomed Girls” came after “We Will Rock You”, they were trying to build up to WWRY being a thank you to the fans. Showing FBG after that would have been anti-climatic, plus it wouldn’t have played as well with the lead-in to the era when Queen was somewhat down (if not as inactive as portrayed). Same thing with the AIDS reveal - it happened some time after Live Aid, but it wouldn’t have worked as well to have that story after the Live Aid scene.

It reminds me of one of my favorite (stolen) lines, and one that my wife reminds me of whenever I object to something in a movie or TV show. I’ll say, “Why on earth would character X do that?” And she’ll say, “Because that’s what the writer told them to do.”

The thing that actually bugged me more about this film is the idea that they “glossed over” Freddie’s background (they didn’t) or his sexuality (again, they didn’t). The information was there, it just wasn’t drilled into your skull. There’s a difference between ignoring a story point and not making it the focal point.

I’m not sure if my daughter has seen it, but I told her I’d absolutely go again if it’s still in theaters next time we’re together. This will be a no-brainer Blu-Ray purchase for me. FYI - rumor is they filmed a full recreation of the Live Aid performance and it will all be on the home video release. That’s cool, and I’ll enjoy it, but I saw the real thing on TV that day, and I’ve got it on DVD and BD.
Click to expand...

Great write up, Alan,
 
Great interview with Rami Malek on Graham Norton (UK version of Jimmy Fallon), where he explained that he and the other actors depicting the band members, lived/worked together to get that band vibe for real. He also explained that the idea of the movie was to show Queen and not for it to be a biopic of Freddie and his sexuality.

He also said that the Live Aid performance was as verbatim as they could possibly make it!
 
Here is my review.

Typically, I'm not a fan of biopics because they rarely do the subject justice. However, this not the case with Bohemian Rhapsody. The acting was great, the casting was terrific and the story line was compelling.
A couple of highlights for me. (semi spoiler alert) 1) When Freddie makes his first appearance with the band and they play "Keep Yourself Alive", it raised the hair on my arms. 2) When Brian was in the studio recording the solo for "Killer Queen" (My favorite Queen song), 3) When Freddie and his father make amends. 4) When Freddie sits down at the piano at Live Aid and begins to play Bohemian Rhapsody. Chills.

Two thumbs up
 
alantig said:
The thing that actually bugged me more about this film is the idea that they “glossed over” Freddie’s background (they didn’t) or his sexuality (again, they didn’t). The information was there, it just wasn’t drilled into your skull. There’s a difference between ignoring a story point and not making it the focal point.
Click to expand...

Agreed! I made that same point to my wife in our discussion on the way home.
 
Shawn@PRS said:
Here is my review.

Typically, I'm not a fan of biopics because they rarely do the subject justice. However, this not the case with Bohemian Rhapsody. The acting was great, the casting was terrific and the story line was compelling.
A couple of highlights for me. (semi spoiler alert) 1) When Freddie makes his first appearance with the band and they play "Keep Yourself Alive", it raised the hair on my arms. 2) When Brian was in the studio recording the solo for "Killer Queen" (My favorite Queen song), 3) When Freddie and his father make amends. 4) When Freddie sits down at the piano at Live Aid and begins to play Bohemian Rhapsody. Chills.

Two thumbs up
Click to expand...

Me, too!
 
Shawn@PRS said:
Here is my review.

Typically, I'm not a fan of biopics because they rarely do the subject justice. However, this not the case with Bohemian Rhapsody. The acting was great, the casting was terrific and the story line was compelling.
A couple of highlights for me. (semi spoiler alert) 1) When Freddie makes his first appearance with the band and they play "Keep Yourself Alive", it raised the hair on my arms. 2) When Brian was in the studio recording the solo for "Killer Queen" (My favorite Queen song), 3) When Freddie and his father make amends. 4) When Freddie sits down at the piano at Live Aid and begins to play Bohemian Rhapsody. Chills.

Two thumbs up
Click to expand...

I choked up several times during the Live Aid section. The one that surprised me was when Freddie reached up to adjust the sound of the piano. It’s a small detail, but it was burned into my brain for some reason. I fully expected it to be there, I just didn’t expect to have that reaction. The hand claps during Radio Ga-Ga - I got chills watching Live Aid when it happened, and I got them again during the movie. It’s just such a powerful moment. And when they started Hammer To Fall - it’s one of my favorite Queen songs, and when it started, my wife reached over and patted my arm.
 
I got to play Hammer to Fall in a band last year, love that riff so much, so powerful!

Brian May openly attributes it to the fact that they would play “Alright Now” as a warm up at rehearsals and that’s where the musical idea came from for the song.
 
Wife and I saw the movie last night. I would say it is a great movie. There were a couple of things that annoyed me but it was great.

I too thought the piano adjustment on stage was cool and something most people wouldn't even notice.
 
I saw this a couple weeks ago and really enjoyed it. The monkeying with the order of events was my only issue with the movie. I get why they did it -- they needed to address Freddie's AIDS diagnosis, but they wanted to end with the Live Aid concert, which was 2-3 years before that diagnosis -- but it's still twisting the facts a bit.

There are a few reviews of this out there that make me think the reviewers saw a different movie than I did, though. At least one of them seems to be upset that this got made without the Borat guy, which IMNSHO would have been a colossal mistake.
 
I saw it opening night here in Hawaii. I am not a queen fan and I was actually dreading going for 1. opening night, 2. Queen. But I came away very pleasantly surprised. They treated the audience intelligently with regards to Freddies proclivities, we all knew it so it didn't have to be drilled into your face at every turn. I found it a solid performance from Rami Malik and it should be in contention for an Oscar. The rest was good, very good.

I don't listen to critics for this very reason. They all hated it for various reasons, yet everyone I've spoken to that has seen it loved it.
 
alantig said:
I thought it was great as well. Rami Malek was awesome as Freddie - it’s a hard thing to pull off with a guy that well known, but I forgot a couple times that it was Malek. The guy who played John Deacon absolutely nailed it, from the facial expressions to the sarcastic comments to the fact that he was easy to overlook in the movie.

I’ve seen a few complaints that some of the songs were out of order - as much as I am a stickler about that stuff, it didn’t bother me because this isn’t a documentary. Let’s face it - this stuff was primarily 40 years ago, and in the story they were trying to tell, it wasn’t important that “Fat Bottomed Girls” came after “We Will Rock You”, they were trying to build up to WWRY being a thank you to the fans. Showing FBG after that would have been anti-climatic, plus it wouldn’t have played as well with the lead-in to the era when Queen was somewhat down (if not as inactive as portrayed). Same thing with the AIDS reveal - it happened some time after Live Aid, but it wouldn’t have worked as well to have that story after the Live Aid scene.

It reminds me of one of my favorite (stolen) lines, and one that my wife reminds me of whenever I object to something in a movie or TV show. I’ll say, “Why on earth would character X do that?” And she’ll say, “Because that’s what the writer told them to do.”

The thing that actually bugged me more about this film is the idea that they “glossed over” Freddie’s background (they didn’t) or his sexuality (again, they didn’t). The information was there, it just wasn’t drilled into your skull. There’s a difference between ignoring a story point and not making it the focal point.

I’m not sure if my daughter has seen it, but I told her I’d absolutely go again if it’s still in theaters next time we’re together. This will be a no-brainer Blu-Ray purchase for me. FYI - rumor is they filmed a full recreation of the Live Aid performance and it will all be on the home video release. That’s cool, and I’ll enjoy it, but I saw the real thing on TV that day, and I’ve got it on DVD and BD.
Click to expand...
Nice review, Alan.

There was a fantastic interview with Rami Malek by Terry Gross the other day on NPR. Go lookup that podcast...it’s amazing.
 
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