Bohemian Rhapsody (Freddie Mercury Biopic)

homerun_homer

PTH2009 wrote: »

They all had solo careers before Freddie and Roger Taylor had this gem. Catchy song but stupid video lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YttrKkyVKyc

This is what bothers me a lot about the movie. They twist it to serve their own narrative and make Freddie out worse for it. I'm sure everyone p!ssed everyone off in the band at some point but the majority of the people who see the film will view it as gospel.

PTH2009

homerun_homer wrote: »

This is what bothers me a lot about the movie. They twist it to serve their own narrative and make Freddie out worse for it. I'm sure everyone p!ssed everyone off in the band at some point but the majority of the people who see the film will view it as gospel.

True esp with the way Brian May and Roger Taylor came out and said the movie was so life like

I still enjoyed it thought and will prob buy when its out on Blu Ray

gmisk

homerun_homer wrote: »

I thought the film was as middle of the road as they come, with such a terribly weak script. You can just see May and Taylor standing over the script-writer telling him what to add it to make them look more relevant.

"You're a legend Freddie"
"No, we're all legends"

Rami Malik is brilliant as Freddie for what the script allows, and I'd love to see him cover his final years as he battled aids and died. You know there is an oscar contender in the story that could be told right there. Hi miming was very authentic for the most part, which I worried would look bad and take me out of the movie, but watching him re-enact Live Aid and the various other live bits was not an issue. The rest of the actors always had an air of "first day on set" with every scene.

The film neither feels enough to be a Freddie biopic, or a Queen biopic, and settles somewhere in between, and fudging what happened in parts which is to the detriment of Mercury. The lads all had solo albums before Mercury. They never broke up and got back together for another stab at glory at Live Aid like it makes it appear. They were still touring before and around Live Aid, so the script really contrives this for some unnecessary drama. The idea that Live Aid wasn't getting calls until their performance was a joke. Queen certainly stood out and made a performance of a lifetime but that cut away to Geldof in a room with no calls happening, to them all ringing off the hook is completely self serving to the surviving band members making the film.

There was no drama to Queen's rise in the film. "Let's sell the van and make a record" to automatically signing, touring around the world, over and over. Throw in a few how they came up with that track in between scenes of them touring what looks like the same auditorium over and over.

It's such a shame that May and Taylor are the guardians to whether a good film can come of their story or not since they will not grant access to the band's music without their say and approval. There is a deadly film to be made about the band, but this isn't it.

I think you are pretty spot on.
However..... the music and rami Malek really swept you along and I definitely got caught up in it.
The story felt a bit all over the place, timeline all off

Paul Prenter was like a panto villian he wasn't much short of twirling his moustache at points, Mike myers was useless totally takes you out if film, the cameos of people playing real people were variable. Aidan gillen is a terrible actor there I said it, he can't do any accents not even his own

you can tell there was massive production issues, may and Taylor definitely had their fingerprints over the film (those two were never thar good-looking!) and came across as a bit to saintly.
I'd give it 7/10, worth seeing for Rami Malek and the live aid section.

branie2

The Live Aid concert was the highlight of the film

S.M.B.

Freddie and Queen had quite the day according to the movie.

I am not sure if there's anything to gain from Malek going to all that effort to capture Freddie's mannerisms and persona while accurately replicating the Live Aid show but to then surround it with complete and utter nonsense as to what happened that day.

Undercuts all that did the movie did well imo.

PTH2009

S.M.B. wrote: »

Freddie and Queen had quite the day according to the movie.

I am not sure if there's anything to gain from Malek going to all that effort to capture Freddie's mannerisms and persona while accurately replicating the Live Aid show but to then surround it with complete and utter nonsense as to what happened that day.

Undercuts all that did the movie did well imo.

Anyone ever see the tv movie 'when Harvey met Bob' ???. Tells a much different story of live aid and queen were in fact one of the first bands to be confirmed and a certain ex Beatle member was the one Bob Geldolf fought hard to get

When u think about Queens history they kind of had to make a bit of fiction for they movie as things were never too bad. In real life the Munich recording sessions were send to be tense and there was no mention of that in Bohemian Rhapsosy

Mantis Toboggan

Really liked this, as a fan of their music thought this was really good, sound in the cinema was fantastic too.

boosabum

Went to see it over the weekend and while it has some positives i thought the "dramatic licenses" use in the movie were appalling not to mention the basics of getting the chronological order of the songs correct. How May & Taylor could stand over the final story and keep a straight face is amazing. All for keeping the legacy alive but at least try to so it with some credibility.

Frank Bullitt

I'm a life long Queen fan, so naturally my bias plays a role in me saying it's a bloody masterpiece.

homerun_homer

I don't quite understand fans who say they love it because of their bias. I'm a massive Nirvana fan for example but if they made a movie about them/Kurt, I would be far more critical than the casual film-goer and would rip it apart more if it was not to a good standard. No different to Queen, I love the music but if they skewer all the details to service the surviving members as they've done here I'd be furious.

There is a lad in my work who is a massive Queen fan, he only wears Queen/Freddie t-shirts, has a calendar up by his desk etc. He loves the film and nearly went nuts when I gave a shrug to what I thought of it. I think if I was a massive Queen fan I'd think even worse about the film.

eviltimeban

If you were a massive Freddie / Queen fan, would you get past "alternative facts" like

telling the rest of the band about having AIDS a year before it actually happened

?

I get dramatic licence but something like that changes the mood of the movie, and adds a poignancy to the Live Aid performance that actually wasn't there in real life. Freddie was having a good time, he had no worries that we know of!

It would be like in a Beatles movie if, before the rooftop gig (in Let It Be), they all said "this is it boys - our last ever performance". It was, of course, but they didn't know that at the time. But it adds to the drama of the performance.

S.M.B.

homerun_homer wrote: »

I don't quite understand fans who say they love it because of their bias. I'm a massive Nirvana fan for example but if they made a movie about them/Kurt, I would be far more critical than the casual film-goer and would rip it apart more if it was not to a good standard. No different to Queen, I love the music but if they skewer all the details to service the surviving members as they've done here I'd be furious.

There is a lad in my work who is a massive Queen fan, he only wears Queen/Freddie t-shirts, has a calendar up by his desk etc. He loves the film and nearly went nuts when I gave a shrug to what I thought of it. I think if I was a massive Queen fan I'd think even worse about the film.

^ this

I've just recently watched something that is based on source material that is beloved to me and I really did not like some of the choices they made. While plenty of fans are delighted with the outcome I was left massively disappointed.

I'm more likely to say "I'm a massive x fan, so naturally my bias plays a role in me saying it's not lived up to my expectations"

maximoose

How does Aiden Gillen keep getting roles. Wtf was his accent supposed to be in this?

dr.fuzzenstein

I have seen it and I loved it. I am fully aware that the film glossed over a lot of the darker stuff, played fast and loose with the timeline (Fat Bottomed Girls being performed before Bohemian Rhapsody was even recorded) and did some major abreviations, i.e. Freddie running into Brian and Roger in the car-park, they hire him and a week later John Deacon joins.
To me it's like this. If they wanted to pack everything into the film, it would be 10 hours long, or better even, a series on Netflix.
It was never meant to be a 100% factual account of the story of Queen and Freddie, it is a lot lighter than the reality ever was and it's a bit of a roller-coaster.
Recreating almost the entire Live Aid gig was over the top and self induglent. But it was so fcuking great.
No serious Queen fan could ever complain about over the top and self indulgent.
I just enjoyed it for what it was, colorful, fun, self-indulgent, gorgeous to look at and listen to.
But what made it into something special was Rami Malek's performance. He portrayed Freddie with all his facets, from cocky to insecure.
He portrayed a man that is surrounded by people and is deeply and utterly lonely sometimes.
And they apparently went back to the 70's with a time-machine and brought back the real Brian May to cast in the movie.
If you want a complete, unabridged, detailed and accurate account of the formation and early years of Queen, I can recommend the book Queen, The Early Years by Mark Hodkinson. It is a cracking read and goldmine of information.
If you want an explicit and graphic account of Freddie's sexlife, there are relevant porn sites.
But if you want a film that is a celebration of Freddie and Queen, you cannot go wrong with this. And Mike Myers has a few fantastic scenes.
I love this film and forgive it all it's shortcomings, because it just delivers so much. I wiped away a few manly tears while wacthing it.

edit:
My 1 sticking point that I am not entirely happy with is Freddie telling his bandmates he has AIDS before the Live Aid gig. I can forgive all the other timelime errors, but this one was unnecessary and too big a deliberate mistake to gloss over. It is well known that Freddie was diagnosed in 1987. It's not quite clear if he was infected in '85.
The film glosses over everything after the diagnosis, so much more stuff happened. Maybe the band didn't want to deal with it. Maybe they didn't know how to incorporate this grim bit into a film that is quite light and fluffy (not meant as a criticism). Maybe there'll be a second part, though I doubt it.
Maybe it's just one of the things left unsaid, like the drugs and the sex, that everyone knows happened and that Rog and Brian didn't want to go into massive detail on.
They could have left it out entirely, because it wouldn't have made a difference in the timeline of the movie.

Guy:Incognito

There's no need for some of the changes from reality though. If it was being made by people that werent there then yeah, maybe, but it seems unnecessary to change things. I can't see how pretending Freddie didn't know Roger before meeting him in a car park after a smile gig and joining the band ads anything to it.

It just seems like lying to people that don't know the real story for no reason.

dr.fuzzenstein

I can't wait for the Blu-Ray which will hopefully have the full length Live Aid sequence, purely for the reason that I want to compare it side by side to my Live Aid DVD.

PTH2009

https://youtu.be/_xipkQboBAE

dulux99

Some great acting in places is undercut by some serious weak dialogue in my opinion. A really poor script with some of the blandest movie tropes I've seen in a long time. Could have been so much better as Rami Malek was immense as Mercury.

Technocentral

homerun_homer wrote: »

I don't quite understand fans who say they love it because of their bias. I'm a massive Nirvana fan for example but if they made a movie about them/Kurt, I would be far more critical than the casual film-goer and would rip it apart more if it was not to a good standard. No different to Queen, I love the music but if they skewer all the details to service the surviving members as they've done here I'd be furious.

There is a lad in my work who is a massive Queen fan, he only wears Queen/Freddie t-shirts, has a calendar up by his desk etc. He loves the film and nearly went nuts when I gave a shrug to what I thought of it. I think if I was a massive Queen fan I'd think even worse about the film.

Exactly! Im a Joy Division man and love Control because it stands alone as an excellent film, its not just extended karaoke like most biopics.

dr.fuzzenstein

PTH2009 wrote: »

https://youtu.be/_xipkQboBAE

Thankyou! I shall throw that up on the telly later, the wife won't understand a word with her English.

HandsomeBob

I haven't seen the film yet but if I do I'm kind of at the stage where I'll accept that this film is about protecting the legacy of the band.

Then again that's why I haven't brought myself to watch it yet. As I said before I do find it interesting that Deacon seems to have no interest in peddling along with Taylor and May.

Guy:Incognito

HandsomeBob wrote: »

.

Then again that's why I haven't brought myself to watch it yet. As I said before I do find it interesting that Deacon seems to have no interest in peddling along with Taylor and May.

In fairness, he completely left music when Freddie died (save for a couple of Queen bits, the tribute concert and made in heaven) . He's still involved in money decisions.

I can completely understand his decision not to be involved in music with them, it's not Queen imo. I thought briefly about going to the concerts over the last few years but it always comes back to its not Queen without Freddie (and John) . It could just as easily be called Smile or The Cross featuring Brian May and do songs from their catalogues tbh.

JKerova1

As an amateur bassist I think Deacon is the unheralded genius of that band. Didn't he write some of their biggest hits? Apparently they cut out a few scenes relating to his back story which is a pity.

Guy:Incognito

JKerova1 wrote: »

As an amateur bassist I think Deacon is the unheralded genius of that band. Didn't he write some of their biggest hits? Apparently they cut out a few scenes relating to his back story which is a pity.

Yeah, it was very much "here is Freddie this great find we have, cut to first gig. "Here's our new front man , Freddie" " and , eh, this is John, he's here too" without any reference to where he just parachuted in from.

boosabum

Check out flicks and the city on YouTube for description of deleted scenes from movie including John joing the band. 7 deleted scenes mentioned which would have improved the story

Guy:Incognito

You'd really have to wonder sometimes about scenes being cut. The film is 2 hr 14mins. Who thought " well 2hr14 is clearly the cut off, no one is going to sit in a cinema for 2hours and 17 minutes, cut that stuff"

Edit. As someone said above, hopefully a good few extra bits make it in to the DVD release. I'd like if more dvds had as many extra scenes as were completed and could be put in to the film as possible and let the person decide for themselves if they want to see them.

Ash.J.Williams

JKerova1 wrote: »

As an amateur bassist I think Deacon is the unheralded genius of that band. Didn't he write some of their biggest hits? Apparently they cut out a few scenes relating to his back story which is a pity.

He wrote some classics back in the day but struck up a partnership with Freddie later on and wrote some of the more epic pop hits, may and Taylor were the rockers as far as I know. Probably explains his absence. Hell of a bass player too. If you Google image him now it's just paparazzi shots of him buying milk

Gwynplaine

Saw this last night. Loved it.

shamrock55

PTH2009 wrote: »

https://youtu.be/_xipkQboBAE

The guy who played Freddy in this was amazing, it should have been him in the movie

PTH2009

shamrock55 wrote: »

The guy who played Freddy in this was amazing, it should have been him in the movie

The guy who played Roger Taylor in this was so irritating and a little too camp

Guy:Incognito

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

You'd really have to wonder sometimes about scenes being cut. The film is 2 hr 14mins. Who thought " well 2hr14 is clearly the cut off, no one is going to sit in a cinema for 2hours and 17 minutes, cut that stuff"

Edit. As someone said above, hopefully a good few extra bits make it in to the DVD release. I'd like if more dvds had as many extra scenes as were completed and could be put in to the film as possible and let the person decide for themselves if they want to see them.

2 hr 14 mins is the length of the movie not including the rest of the stuff you are forced to sit through in the cinema. Does that factor when they decide to cut stuff?

threein99

Saw this last night and loved it, worth it alone to hear those songs on cinema speakers

lukin

Good movie but I found it hard to ignore Rami Malek's teeth. They were so er, "prominent". Also didn't like the way Live Aid was glorified in it because it was a complete waste of time which did nothing in the long term to help famine in Africa.

klose

Just back from it there and loved it, cinema was packed too. Nearly wanted to start singing along in the cinema to all the scenes.

TomOnBoard

lukin wrote: »

Good movie but I found it hard to ignore Rami Malek's teeth. They were so er, "prominent". Also didn't like the way Live Aid was glorified in it because it was a complete waste of time which did nothing in the long term to help famine in Africa.

But, Freddie's teeth were very prominent, especiAlly when his face thinned out. He used to try and hide their prominence after his schoolmates nicknamed him 'Bucky' but he was born with 4 extra teeth so there was nothing he could do about it.

The prominence of Live Aid was highly relevant as Freddie and Queen had stolen the show in Wembley, which was of particular significance as Freddie had not been asked by Geldof and Midge Ure to do the Band Aid Christmas single due to their having broken the anti- apartheid ban on cultural visits to South Africa that year. And many ppl were still pissed at them and didn't think they should have been offered a spot at Live Aid at all. So when they brought the house down with their Wem bley performance, it marked one of the highest points of their career.

dulux99

lukin wrote: »

Good movie but I found it hard to ignore Rami Malek's teeth. They were so er, "prominent". Also didn't like the way Live Aid was glorified in it because it was a complete waste of time which did nothing in the long term to help famine in Africa.

I wasn't a massive fan of the film but their performance at live aid was one of the biggest moments of their career, if not the biggest. The issue regarding live aid itself is surely a story for another day, it would have been pointless getting into that in the film.

GBX

Saw this the other day. Brilliant. Really enjoyed it! The casting of the 4 band members was spot on. As Lukin said, its hard not to ignore the teeth - but even still, he nailed Freddie! Well worth a watch.

threein99

lukin wrote: »

Good movie but I found it hard to ignore Rami Malek's teeth. They were so er, "prominent". Also didn't like the way Live Aid was glorified in it because it was a complete waste of time which did nothing in the long term to help famine in Africa.

I think you missed the point of their Live Aid performance in the film

spurious

threein99 wrote: »

I think you missed the point of their Live Aid performance in the film

It is quite possible that without Live Aid and its relaunch of Queen this film wouldn't have been made.

threein99

spurious wrote: »

It is quite possible that without Live Aid and its relaunch of Queen this film wouldn't have been made.

They weren't relaunched at it, they had been on tour for the previous year.

Sleepy

Saw it and really, really enjoyed it. Malik is definitely in with a shout for an Oscar I reckon.

Those that are giving out about timelines / details etc: is there a "definitive" accurate biography of Freddie and Queen?

Mike Litoris

Being a lifelong fan and knowing their history inside out I thought it was awful. Timelines and truths were warped or simply made up to fit an overly sentimental and strangely bitter film. On a positive note the guy who played May was great. Looked like him, sounded like him and nailed a lot of his mannerisms.

lukin

threein99 wrote: »

I think you missed the point of their Live Aid performance in the film

Yeah I know Live Aid was probably Queen and Freddie Mercury's biggest triumph but the way they showed the phones ringing and the money pouring in when Queen were playing just annoyed me. And the guy playing Geldof was just laughable. Geldof is probably the biggest cretin that ever existed anyway, would have been better to leave him out of the film altogether.

silverharp

damn good movie, went to see it with my wife and eldest kid (14) , we basically all gave it 10/10. intro to movie sent a shiver down my spine , first half of the movie i had a big grin on my face and i found the end of the film quite emotional. the lead was great and the guy playing Brian May looked like the real deal

Steve F

Saw it last night
Fairly good on the whole but I was a little disappointed that they decided to alter important timelines. Especially the timing of his AIDS diagnosis.
Brian May has said that it was confirmed in April 87 but of course most of the general public will forever believe that he knew before Live Aid
Good job from the actors though

threein99

Steve F wrote: »

Saw it last night
Fairly good on the whole but I was a little disappointed that they decided to alter important timelines. Especially the timing of his AIDS diagnosis.
Brian May has said that it was confirmed in April 87 but of course most of the general public will forever believe that he knew before Live Aid
Good job from the actors though

You would wonder why they need to change things like that ?

Cork Boy 53

threein99 wrote: »

You would wonder why they need to change things like that ?

Artistic/dramatic licence.

Cork Boy 53

spurious wrote: »

It is quite possible that without Live Aid and its relaunch of Queen this film wouldn't have been made.

As has been previously stated the 1984/85 Works album and the following tour was what really relaunched Queen`s career. The movie just ignores this.

Steve F

Cork Boy 53 wrote: »

Artistic/dramatic licence.

Precisely this
It's done with all "factual" films sadly

eviltimeban

The artistic licence didn't bother me so much, as I knew the truth, but also because I'm not a massive Queen fan.

Saying that, I'm a massive Beatles fan, so if they ever made a movie and it showed them "relaunching" themselves with the White album or something, I'd be well annoyed!