Bohemian Rhapsody

[Frodo]

Anyway...

I'm glad the film is doing so well, and audiences are loving it. Malek deserves all the praise accolades this awards season and I was afraid he wasn't going to get it due to bts drama. But if the film continues to smash, it can't be ignored.

I really enjoyed the film, and it received a round of applause from my audience .

 

[Spider-Fan]

Critics were wrong on this one. It was very good. Best music bio pic film ever? No, but it was a very good movie about Queen.

 

[Spider-Fan]

Radio Gaga is my second fave after A Kind of Magic. I was listening to Queen's Platinum Greatest Hits album the other day and heard "You Don't Fool Me" for the first time and have had it on repeat ever since. I love that after all this time, I'm still discovering their music.

Radio Gaga is prob my 2nd fave Queen song only to Bohemian Rhapsody. Hard picking favorites because I love so many of their songs.

 

[psylockolussus]

I love, Love of My Life. We Will Rock You is fierce and I liked how it was first used in the film.

 

[AResistor]

I entered fearing it’d be homophobic like some reviews say it is and left wondering what movie they watched. Sure there was one gay bad dude in it, but there were other great examples in at as well. Plus, I loved the lgbtq fan moment at the end.

However, the end concert could have been better. As someone else said, it just felt like Malek was still finding the character which makes sense it was the first scene shot - I think it would have been more powerful if it was the last scene shot. But that may have been done for logistical and special effects reasons?

 

[Drizzle]

Critics were wrong on this one. It was very good. Best music bio pic film ever? No, but it was a very good movie about Queen.

I have to agree. I thought this was well done. Malek was incredible and the guys playing the rest of the band were great as well, especially Tim from Jurassic Park as John Deacon. The worst I can say about it is that it felt rushed in the beginning and it might have benefitted more from an R rating but I thought it was on the same level as Straight Outta Compton and Walk the Line as far as music biopics go, which is high praise in my book.

 

[InvisibleWoman]

I entered fearing it’d be homophobic like some reviews say it is and left wondering what movie they watched. Sure there was one gay bad dude in it, but there were other great examples in at as well. Plus, I loved the lgbtq fan moment at the end.

However, the end concert could have been better. As someone else said, it just felt like Malek was still finding the character which makes sense it was the first scene shot - I think it would have been more powerful if it was the last scene shot. But that may have been done for logistical and special effects reasons?

I honestly don't get the criticism about the movie being homophobic. At the end of the day Paul Prenter wasn't a very nice person who happened to also be gay. Being gay didn't make him not nice. Also Jim Hutton is clearly shown as the shining light in the movie and there's an obvious correlation between Freddie pulling himself together and ending up with Jim.

EDIT: Just heard this won the weekend Box Office. Glad people are ignoring the critics and seeing this for themselves.

 

[warhorse78]

Do you guys really want an ins and out see all of Freddie's personal life on film?. I get that he was an interesting man who got up to a lot of outlandish stuff but Freddie was a very private man who hated reporters digging in on his life. The way I see it Brian and Roger are respecting that by simply making a movie celebrating his life and the band's achievements as a whole. Remember how Freddie was reduced in his last days of sticking to the lodge as he was being harassed by pathetic parasites hounding him outside?. Do you think that because he's been dead 27 years that we as fans should still not respect that?. Anyone who makes a movie the way Sacha Baron Cohen wanted it done would only be doing it to exploit the man for money, so F them. Just go to the movie to enjoy a great tribute to Queen and their legacy and have a fun time with your family.

Exactly. It's what drew me into wanting to watch the movie. It looked like it was going to be positive, and with all the negativity surrounding us all of the time, it's nice to truly escape and enjoy something for a change. I particularly loved the way this movie was set up. It's nice to be able to go to the movies with your mom and enjoy something without all of the shock that make enjoying a movie, or even a TV show, kind of difficult.

I don't think there was one disappointed person leaving the theater. I think the critics, like they always do, seem to miss the whole point behind movies. Entertainment. I don't know about you, but most of us are not entertained by suffering and misery.

 

[warhorse78]

Eager to see this, the critical response just reminds me why I don't regard critical reaction to film/ music anymore.

Funny thing, I would watch critic reviews from Siskel and Ebert from back in the 80's, and it was amazing how many movies they gave thumbs down that today are considered classics.

 

[DACrowe]

It is very glossy and feels like a commercial for Queen. I understand the criticism of it being hagiographic, as well as refusing to show Freddie sleeping with men or exploring his relationship with Jim Hutton with any depth while painting his failed engagement with a woman as the love of his life...

With that said, Rami Malek slays and the music is awesome. So I see why audiences could care less what critics think. I think it's a calculated, inoffensive film thrown right down the middle. Make of that what you will.

 

[samsnee]

Didn’t expect this to be so profitable. Makes you wonder if the Elton John movie will also do as well.

 

[terry78]

Didn’t expect this to be so profitable. Makes you wonder if the Elton John movie will also do as well.

Not a fan of Egerton but if the content works, maybe.

 

[Dave McFly]

my fave was always Who Wants To Live Forever and I LOVED how it was used in this

 

[Filmfreak]

while painting his failed engagement with a woman as the love of his life...

She wasn't just any woman though. She was his partner for several years and a lifelong friend. In fact his only true friend according to Freddie himself. She stood by his side all those years and supported him in many ways, especially during his illness. He left her almost everything when he passed and even decided that she would be the one to bury his ashes in a place only she would know. I think it's pretty clear that his relationship with her was far more important than the one with Hutton. I understand it could potentially be interesting to see more of that side of his life, even though I honestly I see nothing wrong with a movie mainly focusing on his talents and him as an artist. That quote however, severely undermines how important Mary Austin was to his story. After all he really did say he wrote the song Love of My Life for her.

 

[sueb1863]

Saw this last night, loved it! Malek was awesome, and boy, the guy who played Brian May looked just like him!!

For some reason I found the wigs used to be rather poor. Or was it just me? Everything else was great but for some reason the hair and facial hair just looked fake.

 

[moviedoors]

I did not expect to love this as much as I did. The last 20 minutes was incredibly moving.

 

[Spider-Fan]

my fave was always Who Wants To Live Forever and I LOVED how it was used in this

That song was brilliantly used in the movie, I must agree.

 

[Aximili86]

It's not really that it's "homophobic", it's more just that they messed with the way they actually met in the movie for seemingly-pretty-arbitrary reasons, and they make way less a big deal of him in the movie than they do Mary Austin. And she deserved to be a big part of the movie, absolutely, but there were definitely a couple weird choices made in the movie.

Not sure it was like "we can't show much of the gay stuff, too controversial and it'll alienate the straightz!" though, it felt more benign than that.

 

[terry78]

Well, it was a PG-13 movie, they weren't gonna have them banging each other and talking about where they were gonna put what, etc.

 

[Schlosser85]

I don’t think anyone expected a graphic gay sex scene, it’s just that Hutton feels really downplayed.

 

[InvisibleWoman]

It's not really that it's "homophobic", it's more just that they messed with the way they actually met in the movie for seemingly-pretty-arbitrary reasons, and they make way less a big deal of him in the movie than they do Mary Austin. And she deserved to be a big part of the movie, absolutely, but there were definitely a couple weird choices made in the movie.

Not sure it was like "we can't show much of the gay stuff, too controversial and it'll alienate the straightz!" though, it felt more benign than that.

I think that's because he probably WAS less of a big deal. Freddie pretty much left everything to Mary. She was the love of his life (even if it wasn't necessarily a romantic love) and she's the only person who knows where his ashes are scattered (I'm not sure even his family know)

I think it's more a case that people don't know about his relationship with Mary and therefore assumed it was being glamourised for the movie in place of his relationships with men. To me, it shows that the members of Queen understood the importance of Mary in Freddie's life better than most.

 

[Aximili86]

Well, it was a PG-13 movie, they weren't gonna have them banging each other and talking about where they were gonna put what, etc.

Yeah, of course not. But I think people seem to be taking issue with him being pretty minor here, when he wasn't in real life (pretty sure he was with the guy up until his death, right, through most of the 80s?). That doesn't mean Mary's not a huge factor in any Freddie story, but yeah.

I dunno, I was sort of fine with it other than the movie seemingly making changes for the hell of it, where you don't really gain anything from the changes.

 

[Schlosser85]

I think that's because he probably WAS less of a big deal. Freddie pretty much left everything to Mary. She was the love of his life (even if it wasn't necessarily a romantic love) and she's the only person who knows where his ashes are scattered (I'm not sure even his family know)

I think it's more a case that people don't know about his relationship with Mary and therefore assumed it was being glamourised for the movie in place of his relationships with men. To me, it shows that the members of Queen understood the importance of Mary in Freddie's life better than most.

I think a lot of people have the impression Mercury was gay, when he had affairs with both men and women.

 

[Spider-Fan]

Yeah, of course not. But I think people seem to be taking issue with him being pretty minor here, when he wasn't in real life (pretty sure he was with the guy up until his death, right, through most of the 80s?). That doesn't mean Mary's not a huge factor in any Freddie story, but yeah.

I dunno, I was sort of fine with it other than the movie seemingly making changes for the hell of it, where you don't really gain anything from the changes.

My counter to this is the movie doesn't chronicle that particular period of his life. For the time period that the movie chronicles, his role was done just fine. Summing up a person's life in 2ish hrs is hard. You're always going to miss stuff. But for what/when they chose to focus on, it was fine. Any of 100 different Freddie Mercury films could have been made, and may even be made one day. Makes this take no less valid.

 

[InvisibleWoman]

I think a lot of people have the impression Mercury was gay, when he had affairs with both men and women.

Agree. Also Freddie wanted people to perceive him based on his music. For him, it was ALL about the music. He was outrageous and openly camp but I don't believe he ever "came out" so to say. So to make a movie about his life driven by his homosexuality and AIDS might have been the most un-Freddie thing ever. He obviously wanted to keep his private life private... so how disrespectful would it have been to make a movie all about something he considered incredibly personal and didn't want to share when he was alive?