Re: Bohemian Rhapsody I'll give some lengthy thoughts here for anyone interested, but of course, SPOILERS... My wife truly loved it, as she is a casual fan, and we are both big fans of Malek's work on Mr. Robot. I thought a lot of it was far better than I expected it to be. No one can truly be Freddie Mercury but Malek comes as close as one could hope for, and he really sells the movie from start to finish. I was feeling underwhelmed during the first half, a bit cheesy, formulaic, and heavy handed at times, so I was surprised when I thought it much improved during FM's more difficult times in the second half of the film. It felt like I was watching a rather different movie in that way, and I was moved. Regarding certain struggles and problematic relationships in that second half, I thought the film did a great job, even if it's nothing ground breaking. The buzzed-about Live Aid section is the film in a nutshell for me. It works amazingly when it focuses on the band, and Freddie's personal triumph in the light of all that has lead up to it. It's fairly spectacular and moving in that regard. But the heavy handed, endless shots of the audience weeping, people in bars watching it on TV clapping and standing in formation, all that stuff around the performance feels a bit much, unnecessary and too choreographed in its execution. There's a superfluous bit about not enough people donating to the Live Aid cause, but Queen rouses them to give all, as the phones light up during their set. Maybe that happened, but it's handled a bit slapdash and tacked on, feels overbaked in that way, not needed, or could have been handled better, as it is it feels like a last minute motivation. But I give it a thumbs up, would love to see Malek get notice for this. Diehard, nitpicking Queen fans may indeed find a lot to be bothered by, but general audiences will hopefully be inspired, moved as intended, and develop a deeper appreciation for the band and their music.
...VENOM. Can we strech this to include " not strictly ' theaters ' , exactly " mass showings such as library showings and outdoor screenings?
I seriously can't remember! I think it was Finding Nemo. I took my little girl to see it when it first came out back in 2003. Holy crap...has it been 15 years?!?! I really want to say I've seen one since then, but I have no idea what it would have been, and no memory of it. But it seems like I've been in a theater at least once in the past 15 years; that seems like a long time... Obviously, I'm not much of a movie buff.
...I guess I mentioned elsewhere here seeing this anniversary theatrical showing of the Elvis Presley " '68 Comeback " plus bonuses (in the AMC theater that is the only " blockbuster " theater in Santa Cruz proper)...where the projection #!@&Ed up for a while, and, though they made that up, I guess, it seemed that the finale of ' If I Can Dream " got pushed off! Or MAYBE I dozed off and missed it. I also saw Mamma Mia II there, which went okay.
Was supposed to see Mid90s last night but there was a thunderstorm and so I stayed in. To my surprise, the movie was already gone today. I was a kid during that era and so it's one I was looking forward to checking out.
The only independent theater within reasonable distance is mainly for plays and performance arts but they do occasionally show movies. However, they're usually older catalog movies played from blu ray. Sadly there was somewhat of an arthouse theater a while back but it reportedly had terrible attendance and was not making any money. A lot of people did not even know about it for some odd reason despite it being in a high traffic area.
I saw Bohemian Rhapsody today and really enjoyed it. I would rate it very, very good but not great. For the record, my perspective is one of a casual Queen fan. Love the music but was not a superfan. Rami Malek did a great job as Freddie Mercury. Did he “become” Freddie? Eh, not really, but he came as close as I think anyone could expect, and this is a really difficult role because Freddie was larger than life. The actors playing the other members of Queen were quite convincing in their roles (from the point of view of a casual Queen fan). I thought the most interesting relationships were that of Freddie and Mary, and Freddie and his family. I almost would have preferred to see a movie focussed more on Freddie’s relationships, but those Queen songs are SO GREAT and he was a knockout performer. Thumbs up from me, and I wouldn’t mind seeing it again. Bonus fun fact for me was I learned Freddie was a great lover of cats. Who knew?
Bohemian Rhapsody Completely knocked out didn't expect it to be THAT great, but it was. Rami Malek more Jagger, than Mercury, an exotic creature for sure, stole the film.
Saw Bohemian Rhapsody yesterday in an IMAX theater. Enjoyed the movie a lot. As with any biopic, there are liberties taken with the true story, but the timeline of Queen releases is so off base — ridiculous. The story could have been told with “We Will Rock You” being released in 1977 rather than 1980 (Freddie with his look from the Game), for example.
I agree it could pretty easily have been written with the timeline of the songs being correct. As a big fan this annoyed me. We all hate seeing facts we easily know being fudged with. But, at the same time, 40 years later it doesn’t really matter. It doesn’t make a difference to the story being told one way or another when they wrote “We Will Rock You”. All that matters is that they did. I explained to my wife afterwards that they got that stuff wrong. She said “oh, that’s interesting” and that was about it. She loved the movie (I did as well). That’s all that matters. We came home and watched the DVDs of Queen’s video hits. And then watched the DVD of “A Night At The Opera”. Couldn’t get enough Queen last night.
Saw that last night. Rupert Everett was excellent as Oscar Wilde, in all his genius and self-destructiveness.
That was my wife’s reaction to the errors I pointed out as well. I *try to approach these revisions as not mattering, but then: I don’t understand willfully changing the timeline when it could be correct. Strange, but I find that offensive somehow. Also, if details such as those are changed, then can we trust the rest? From the fact-checking I’ve read so far, much of the movie is fiction or re-configured non-fiction. That’s how I see the movie then, though in the end that won’t affect how I enjoy Queen’s songs.
The question to ask is “what about the movie need we trust”? You have to ask yourself why they make choices and do they matter and would an alternative, more accurate, choice have been better? Sure, it was incorrect to show them playing “Fat Bottomed Girls” during what was probably a tour in 73 or 74, but what better song is there to use as the soundtrack for that particular montage of touring the US? They crammed writing “We Will Rock You” and “Another One Bites The Dust” into what seemed to be the same recording session, but would breaking those up into two different scenes meant much of anything except to drag out the movie? I was more bothered by them over-dramatizing a rift between the band which culminates in a triumphant Live Aid performance supposedly AFTER he’s been diagnosed with AIDS, but they would have had to come up with SOME way to dramatically end the story. The real timeline of events probably didn’t work well enough on their own, so you turn it into a better story for a movie. So I’m not really sure what it is we need to “trust” with such a film. It’s not like they had Freddie arrested on murder charges or become a vampire. I trust my wife and other novices about such things. She didn’t seem the least bit affected to find out that he was diagnosed with AIDS two years later than the Live Aid show. As both things actually happened, that’s really all that matters to her. Nothing was changed that affected her opinion of the band or her understanding of their story.
Before Bohemian Rhapsody they showed a trailer for the upcoming Rocketman, that looks to not give a damn about how things actually happened in Elton John's life, and it was made with Elton's complete cooperation.
After seeing Bohemian Rhapsody early yesterday, I ended up spending most of last evening watching Queen videos too!
So we have movie about Freddie Mercury, an upcoming movie about Elton John... So when are we going to get a movie about David Bowie?
I had just heard about this movie yesterday and then saw the trailer yesterday as well. My first thought was—-as much as I love Elton, is his life story really interesting enough for a bio pic? So I expect a good deal of dramatic license with this one. But we shall see!
I think we may watch the “Days of our Lives” doc tonight. I told my wife how good it is and she’s interested in seeing it.