Sorry, I don't know what you mean? What's "being hit on the head lessons", and "You want room 12A, just along the corridor."?
My wife just saw this film again at the IMAX theater (the genuine IMAX at Navy Pier not the pretend IMAX that they tend to put in existing multiplexes). She said it was absolutely awesome on the huge screen with the huge sound system. This was her last opportunity as Tuesday it gets replaced by The Crimes of Grindelwald.
Just got back from seeing this. 70 ft screen, JBL speakers in the surround format. Wasnt quite expecting it to tug at the emotions so much, but it was a very good movie. There was applause after the Live Aid sequence, and again after a clip of the real band did Dont Stop Me Now as the credits rolled. Yes, some timeline liberties were taken, but the film moves along pretty good, never dragging. I thought it was well acted all around. And it wraps on a high note, then still photos and captions to provide a bit more factual closure. The music....well its Queen, and it was loud and exhilarating to hear it as it was presented.
I'm not surprised. I felt the emotion, too, a kind of welling up feeling. Couldn't explain it. It made me want to jump up and yell like at a pep rally like the Live Aid audience in the movie. In my youth and mostly throughout my 59 years I've only been to three live musical events...ZZtop at the Summit in Houston, Tx., Blood, Sweat & Tears at the Villarreal dance hall in Mission, Tx and the funk group War at some well known bar that had a small stage in Brownsville, TX. All of them sounded like crap. Wanted to go home and listen to their studio produced cassettes. Bohemian Rhapsody movie gave me the bigger than life live concert that delivered the emotional impact I'ld perceived of other huge musical events covered in the media like Woodstock, Live Aid and others. It just might turn into another Rocky Horror Picture Show type venue in the future.
Given all the mediocre/bad reviews, I planned to skip "Rhapsody". However, all the glowing word of mouth prompted me to give it a look. After all, can 50 million Elvis fans be wrong? In this case, yes - yes, they can. "Rhapsody" isn't just a bad movie - it's a trainwreck, a mess of such epic proportions that I can't even vaguely comprehend all the positivity sent its way. Spoilers ahead - you're warned! Let's get it out of the way: the factual errors really do become a problem, as so much of "Rhapsody" comes built on fiction. I don't even mean the supposed "nitpicking" about song release dates - I mean the invented nature of the drama. The screenwriters decided to use Live Aid as the band's ultimate moment and build the entire film around that - fair enough, I guess, as Live Aid was arguably Queen's last real moment in the global spotlight prior to Freddie's premature death. Unfortunately, this choice means the screenwriters then need to shoehorn in so much imaginary content that the movie becomes a mess of cliches and melodrama. "Rhapsody" actually manages decent entertainment during its first act. Sure, it embraces the usual "band comes together" cliches, and the underdrawn relationship between Freddie and his dad reeks of "Jazz Singer", but the story moves at a fast pace and gets swept up in the excitement of the band's ascent. The story starts to collapse around the time of the "Rhapsody" song itself, mainly because that's when it decides it needs to a) seriously rewrite history, and b) veer toward standard rock band movie melodrama. Essentially the story eventually decides it must pit Freddie against his bandmates, so it creates artificial tension and a breakup that never actually happened. We're told that Queen hadn't played together for years prior to Live Aid, whereas the long "Works" tour ended barely two months before Live Aid! Conveniently, this allows the movie to ignore Queen's controversial performances in apartheid-era South Africa, though I'm not convinced it would've included that information anyway. "Rhapsody" doesn't want to tell the Queen or Freddie Mercury stories - instead, it wants to give us a cliche "rock star gets too big for his britches" tale with the requisite schmaltzy ending. Never mind that little of this appears to be accurate. The portrayal of Freddie's relationship with Jim Hutton is laughably fictionalized, especially when the movie reunites them on the day of Live Aid. And then Freddie brings this guy he doesn't know at all to meet his parents, all while a global audience of millions awaits! Crazy stuff, and it doesn't stop there. Live Aid presents a reunited band (that never broke up) and posits that Queen saved the fundraising side of things. The scene in which Bob Geldof glumly surveys a bank of silent phones caused massive eye-rolling - and it acts as a huge insult to the other bands, as it implies only Queen could shake money out of the punters. The whole made-up conflict within the band really grates the worst, as it forces the movie to completely leave the realm of reality. I know, I know - it's not a documentary. Nonetheless, "Rhapsody" presumes to give us a tale with at least decent grounding in facts, and the leaps of truth just become far too much. One more time: the band that "reunites" for Live Aid played a massive tour that finished two months earlier. This fact bothers no one else? Even if "Rhapsody" boasted 100 percent accuracy, it'd be a mess because it traffics so heavily in schmaltz. I thought I accidentally tuned into some sappy weepy chick flick on the Hallmark Channel, as the movie makes every cheap heart-tugging move it can muster. These don't work. Like I said, I took moderate enjoyment from the first act, but once "Rhapsody" went down the "egotistical Freddie goes out of control" path and all the cheesy melodrama that produces, it heads off the rails. On the positive side, the acting works well, and Malek does nicely as Freddie. I don't think he deserves an Oscar, but that's due to the massive flaws of the screenplay. By this I mean the script leaves Malek with such a thin, simplistic character that he doesn't get room to breathe. He delivers a charismatic performance but not one with great inner life because the screenplay doesn't allow him the chance to blossom. Otherwise, I can't find much to praise about this inane, mawkish mess of a movie. There's a fascinating story to be told about Freddie and Queen, but this simplistic tripe doesn't do the job...
At age 53, I can remember a good chunk of Queen's tenure and thus remember them in "real time." Their peak spans the time from my adolescence to just after college. Consequently, they epitomize "youth and Rock & Roll" for me.
Possibly, and for similar reasons. Rocky Horror was a wonderful thing for LGBTQ kids, and Freddie was, for many, their first flamboyant gay man. Sure, Bowie and Jobraith played with gender, and rock stage clothes had borrowed fabulousness for decades, but Freddie owned it.
No, not really, but I didnt go into the movie to fact check it, just enjoy it for what it was. You know what my wife liked besides the weepy schmaltz? The cats. (Women, they're so not like us....) Any problems with the music?
I liked your post for other reasons, but I had to answer this. Seriously? Nearly 60 and you have only been to three concerts? That is utterly tragic. I get twitchy if I go more than a week without hearing live music. I'll go check out bands and I've never heard before just because live music it's an amazing experience that I need to have. Sound engineering has improved dramatically over the last two decades, and unless it's being pushed to insanity, any venue can present a band with excellent quality. The speakers, the microphones, the monitor systems... every single element the live concert sound system is so much better than it had been when I was a young man (at 59 we're peers).
I should've been more specific. I meant I've never went to more that the three live concerts mentioned that involved paying for a ticket to see established Top 40 Hit bands. I just don't go to these big venues any longer due to not only poor sound quality but to avoid unruly big crowds (i.e. the ZZtop concert back in the early '80's I attended had an audience member stabbed.) I agree sound quality has greatly improved as far as I've seen in my local park's free "Concert In The Park" venues paid for by NB Parks & Recreation dept. where a long list of local bands play a wide range of musical styles from folk and country to rock. The sound clarity is much improved especially the beefier bottom end of the kick drums which I like. I must have that kind of drum sound to balance out the rest of the overall loudness. And the crowds are generally small where kids run loose and adults lounge around in their lawn chairs.
Okay. The average sound company now has what is called a "line array" system, a packaged set of identical speakers from one manufacturer. Over the last 10 years the principal improvement has been in bass with new cabinet designs and placements that can give you the kick without filling the room with tubbiness. I would still encourage you to go out and see some live music at a good venue. I have several that I love, that I go to all the time. I have a sound pressure level app on my phone, and at most of the venues, the audience is not subjected to a sound pressure level of above 92 decibels.
This thread got me to bump a post I made last year about an article in the New York Times about the "gay architects of classic rock." New York Times: The Gay Architects of Classic Rock
Honest and thorough write up. You just might motivate people to go see it just to see how bad it really is. I guess from that POV there really is no such thing as bad press.
In addition to everything you said, I'll add that it can be an "event". Kind of like going to a sporting event even though the view is much better on TV. Some things are even better live. Plays for example. They would suck on TV but can be sublime in person. (Not that listening to the recorded music isn't great.)
Edit: I just realized I strayed way off topic. I saw Queen live and was in high school during their peak which is another reason I am not really interested in the movie. My memories are intact. Edit again - I edited wrong
I really liked it, and there were some tears here and there for me, so it did its job. I also heard some sniffing here and there in the theater. I kind of wish there was something in it about their work on Flash Gordon or Highlander. I wouldn't mind seeing it again. I give it a solid B.
I took it as a very entertaining movie. My son and I are huge Queen fans, we didn't let the inaccuracies interfere with the entertainment. We jus sat back and really enjoyed the ride!
