I like the idea of a singalong movie actually, and if I felt like that was a thing that would happen I’d be more likely to go see it - I’m not interested in a dry autobiographical pic. Incidentally, catching Rocky Horror in the theater with a group of enthusiasts is the right way to see it, and definitely worth doing at least once.
The poor reviews aren’t saying that that is what they want. What they are saying, is, like above, there is like no info on why the band did what it did. It’s just a tour of events. Like they don’t want you top really see him live in full bloom developing his act before they do the Live Aid sequence.
I am a big Queen Fan, and I may just save this for Netflix. If it was a band I didn’t care as much about, I’d probably not be disappointed about with stuff like that.
Re Rocky Horror, I agree 100%. For this film though, I wanna hear Queen sing, not people in the theater.
I am not a big Queen fan, and I’m not a prospective viewer of this movie. But I could be convinced if the spectacle was big enough.
It might be the film for you then. Seriously, it looks like they aimed for very casual fans, or people who don’t even know a thing about Queen with a spectacle and some music. But did a bare bones on: Who the Band was, how they developed their sound and performance style, what made them tick. Stuff fans would want. Viable commercial move, but they could have done both.
The problem is that I’m probably not even a big enough fan to be interested, it would be like if someone made a movie about Journey. Oh, how nice, it’s one of those bands I hear on the radio sometimes.
Gotcha. But for the fan, it looks iffy. I know you and I are big B-52 fans. It’d be like if they did a B-52 biopic and completely ignored Ricky’s sounds, musicianship and tortured hidden sexuality. Or barely mentioned it. But talked all about Fred and the girls and the showy stuff.
EDIT - I shall now ponder writing a treatment for a B-52’s Biopic.
Sure, I understand there are some huge fans out there and they have expectations. Maybe I should have stayed out of the discussion completely, not really being one of those fans, but the idea of an audience sing along got my attention.
This seems weird to me, but I don’t like biopics in general, so maybe I’m not the best judge. If you want to see Freddie Mercury the showman, just watch concert footage.
Watching concert footage in the theater would be awesome, yes. Is there such a concert film coming out soon? I’d rather watch that.
Your comments are always invaluable nd make me think, every time. The Rocky Horror thing made me think that we do need more of that kind of thing at the theater.
Ah right, didn’t realise the emphasis was on “big screen”.
I worked at a theater that, every Saturday, did the live things. Since I was part of the server staff (the theater was also a restaurant that served you food while you watched) I got to know the crew pretty well.
Let me tell you, they know how to party.
I saw it yesterday, three of us went. We discussed the movie afterward over dinner. It is very undeserving of those reviews, it’s a good movie, perhaps not stellar, but as a fan of their music I was quite entranced by it. First, Rami Malek, holy crap he projected Freddie in everything he did on screen. What a fantastic choice for the actor to play him. Then again, I love Mr. Robot, so I’m biased.
Full disclosure: All three of us who went to see it are 50 or over. All three of us missed that particular time period between liking Queen music, and actually getting to see them in concert in the US. But also, all three of us very much remember that period when AIDS was an actual epidemic. When it was both a death sentence, and a period when doctors and people didn’t know how to handle it, or know how to handle someone with it. And though there were many before and after Freddie that died of AIDS, for me and many, Freddie was the face of it.That person you loved but lost, you actually KNEW who he was and that his personal loss meant quite a bit. So going into the movie, you know that it’s a potential tragedy. You know the story, you know what happens. It’s hard to balance so many powerful things of the life of that band with the afterlife of Freddie Mercury, the Queen superstar dying of AIDS. Those memories for many of us of that time are inseparable. They are the story. How can any movie balance all that in a couple of hours? Spoiler: It most likely cannot.
They nailed so many parts of the performances, the over the top stage presence of the band, and even the glimpse into extravagant behavior by Freddie himself, so much so that this movie wasn’t about the band itself so much as Freddie and his struggle with himself. The music and scenes with it were powerful, but so too were the ones of Freddie and his eventual self-awareness of his life and ultimately health clashing with his extravagant sexual behavior that distanced him from those who actually loved him as friends. That’s the real gist of the movie. It’s not a biopic on Queen, nor the song itself, though that takes a large part of it. It’s a biopic on and leading to Freddie and his death.
And I think that is a legitimate gripe for the movie. That it could not balance all of those things. Was the movie about Queen, about Bohemian Rhapsody, about Freddie Mercury, or about his eventual death from AIDS? And it wasn’t quite any of those things, it floated between them. Portraying Freddie with uncannily accurate scenes, but also only briefly touching on the band itself and how they were a group, when they weren’t spatting with each other at practice or over songs and lyrics.
So each person seeing this movie and eventually reviewing it is trying to decide why they wanted to see this. As a history of the band itself? Of the formulation and performance of their songs? Of Freddie, his life and death? Or of one particular performance, song, album or concert? It is none of those things.
And yet, we all laughed, we jammed, and even cried. It was a great performance, and you walk away at the end of that movie realizing how larger than life Freddie and Queen were and how amazing it must have been to see them play. I certainly wish I could have. My girlfriend and I came home and watched this full Live Aid performance afterward. It was amazing how so many of the details from this were covered in the movie, but man, to have seen that in person would have been even more amazing.
If you like Queen, or Freddie, or their songs, see this. You don’t have to blow a fortune at the theater, but see it.
And watch this:
I took my kid to see The Grinch today. It’s about an ethnically homogeneous town who force their only ethnic minority to live in a ghetto outside of town. Eventually, though, they allow him to join their society once he fully accepts their culture and forgets his upbringing.
Just kidding, it’s not about that. It’s a silly kid’s Christmas movie. The kid (9 years old) liked it, I was reasonably entertained (it drags a bit in the middle). There are at least a couple callbacks to the Christmas specials of the 70’s/80’s for the adults.
Danny Elfman does the music, but as far as I can tell it is mostly pre-existing music. This is no Nightmare Before Christmas!
Thanks, Skipper. Great review.
I almost posted something earlier in the week as my wife dragged me to this movie last Saturday and I was very reluctant and was also the last movie I have seen in the theater in the past 10 years maybe. I was never a big fan of Queen, but always respected them.
I have read some of the reviews and I think they are really missing the point. You summarized it well more eloquently than I could even imagine, @Skipper, and my wife and I walked out very thankful for the experience. I am far from a critic, and am also a huge Rami Malek fan from Mr. Robot, but damn it sure looked like an Oscar winning performance to me, and that was all I could think of when I walked out of the theater. I feel like I am a better person for seeing that movie, and I can’t remember the last time I said that.
It makes me wish it WOULD have been a fantastic movie. The band and Freddie deserved more. As it stands it will probably hold back any other true band biopic, something that I think many would have truly enjoyed, and more importantly, would have involved a lot more people than those like my group who found it powerful, but only because we remember that brief period of time towards the end of the band and Freddie’s life.
As it stands, I do truly wish I’d seen them. That movie really strikes me as the love project of someone who did and was moved by Freddie’s death. I think that’s possibly a key reason not everyone walked away with a positive feeling from the movie.
Yeah, there was a musical genius and acknowledged child prodigy and virtuoso in that band whose father helped him make a guitar out of a hundred year old ash when he was a boy, right? :) Just sayin’…
Please don’t think that quick summary should dissuade anyone from seeing it. As @Kelan mentioned, it’s still quite powerful and affecting.
I learned a bit about the other band members during the movie, though for sure, Freddie was the star, then and now. Brian May, however, was something special. A jamming astrophysicist who wrote a good amount of the hits for the band and is considered one of the great rock guitarists of all time. He deserved more time in the movie. Also whoever that actor was looked uncannily like May.