Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)

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Warrik

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It's funny that one of the band members wanted Freddie to die in the middle of the movie and have the second half be about Queen carrying on without him. Freddie Mercury is probably the most iconic and irreplaceable front man of all time. Who gives a shit about Queen without Freddie?

Since I was a kid, Queen has been my all time favorite band. I don't mean the hits. I mean the deep tracks. I adored Freddie.

That said, Sacha hit the nail on the head on the head. This film is pure tripe. What the world NEEDED was the real Freddie Mercury story, warts and all. I wanted to see a film about Farrokh Bulsara and how he become one of the most iconic front men of all time. A guy whos lifestyle was as unpredictable and wild as his persona on stage.

We didn't need a piece of shit, run of the mill, band makes it big movie.
 
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Vandyn

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Saw this last night. I thought it was pretty good although to be fair I'm not the most die hard Queen/Freddy Mercury fan, just like their music. It was neat that they showed the entire 20 minute set for Live Aid.
 

pharmakos

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I saw it today, it was okay. The pacing was super bad. There was a lot of stuff left unexplained, and a lot of things focused on more than they should have. But overall, just the fact that Queen is so good brought the score up to a solid C.
 

Vandyn

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I saw it today, it was okay. The pacing was super bad. There was a lot of stuff left unexplained, and a lot of things focused on more than they should have. But overall, just the fact that Queen is so good brought the score up to a solid C.

Me and the wife were talking about that (the pacing) and I agree, the movie really flies through the years at some points. I'm a little too young to really remember Freddy Mercury especially in the 70's but a lot of what I've read is that despite the movie, Rami nailed his persona pretty good.
 
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pharmakos

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Me and the wife were talking about that (the pacing) and I agree, the movie really flies through the years at some points. I'm a little too young to really remember Freddy Mercury especially in the 70's but a lot of what I've read is that despite the movie, Rami nailed his persona pretty good.

Thought about it more after reading your other post, and as cool as getting the full 20 minute LiveAid set was, I think they should have cut it down so they could afford the screentime to give more attention to the early scenes.

Maybe the BluRay will have a longer director's cut version so we can have our cake and eat it too.
 

Aaron

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Saw this yesterday. While I've been a fan of Queen since I was as a young lad and watched the FM memorial concert live on MTV back in the day, I'm not a die hard fan, or know a lot about their story. So, for me, this was a decent film. Lots of good music. And Rami did an absolutely amazing job as Freddy, award material there. Was not too thrilled when I first heard SBC was to play Freddy since he's too tainted as a comedian for my mind. I also expected there to be far more gay shit in it considering both the director and [current year], so I'm kind of glad it was relatively toned down. I'd recommend it to any Queen fans out there.
 

Miguex

The lad himself
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Very good film. Was hoping for a little more fill in on how they composed some of their more elaborate opera type songs besides the title track, and it seemed to gloss over large swaths of time, but it was thoroughly enjoyable. Some pretty incredible acting, Rami Malek crushed it, and I can't believe they found someone who looks so like Brian May for that part. The build up to, and Live Aid performance, were fantastic.
 
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sakkath

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Saw this with the wife and we both thought it was marvelous. Rami really seemed to embody Freddie. I felt like the movie was heavily edited.. as was mentioned the pacing is really off.. Maybe there is 2 hours we didn't see.
 
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Zweischneid

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Was a good movie. Rami was fantastic. They did take a lot of liberties with the story, timing of events, etc.. and clearly skewed it in favour of the non-Freddy band members.

The entire Freddy-leaves-Queen, gets-lost-in-the-dark, redemption-at-live-aid arc is pretty questionable.

Clearly it was Roger Taylor who decided to go solo with Fun in Space, followed by Brian May with Star Fleet Project, even while still working on Queen's 1982 album. Freddy only went solo after they split.

And while Freddy solo wasn't as successful as Queen, his stuff still was a gazillion times more successful than the other band member's solo stuff.

Not an expert, but up to this movie, I always assumed it was more the other guys resenting being in Freddy's shadow and resenting the synth-sound he introduced in the early 80s, before realising they couldn't do shit without Freddy and crawling back to him. Freddy also continued doing solo AND Queen stuff for the second half of the 80s, so I think he clearly "won" that fight.

Freddy also wasn't diagnosed with AIDS until 2 years after Live Aid and the re-united Queen had already been touring on The Works Tour for a solid year or so, before they did Live Aid. They certainly weren't squeezed in last-minute. But I guess all that fit the "fall-from-grace", "Freddy-at-his-lowest", "redemption-coming-back-to-queen" arc better, hence the shuffle.
 
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gauze

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Granted I knew it wasn't going to happen, but I was really hoping for a Bowie appearance as a small surprise. Instead Under Pressure was a throwaway song to highlight the mood of the moment.. Oh well. 25+ years until a Bowie biopic haha.
 
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False debate. Does the film portray Roger Taylor well?

I love me some Freddie, but in my opinion Roger was key to the Queen sound. Galileo.
 

Ronaan

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Going to see this tomorrow night in a standard small-town cinema. Would have preferred luxury super dolby surround imax ultra whateveryouhave but that's a one hour drive there and another hour back and we get up at 5AM on weekdays so no. Either way, excited. I think I shall put on a Queen LP tonight.
 

spronk

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saw this in dolby today, forgot it was veterans day and the theater was 100% packed at 1pm, damn. Enjoyable but man its such a milquetoast movie, the first half is absolutely dreadful and just going from A to B to C with no setbacks. Second half is better, but really the movie is just 10 minute crap dialogue scenes followed by a huge queen song, rinse and repeat till the last 20 minute live aid concert remade with shitty CGI crowds.

I walked out pretty much knowing nothing new about Queen or Freddy Mercury, and I'm not a huge fan just know the major songs and that he loved dick. Really disappointing in that regards, he seemed like an amazing guy and deserved a better story and director. Rami was pretty good but I'm not really convinced he nailed the part, but that was probably more the writing and director. It definitely feels like the living Queen band members had complete veto power over the script.

Still fun to watch with friends and family, its definitely very PG with just one minor kiss scene, I wish they had explored more of his family and background and what he thought of himself rather than so much time spent on bullshit, insipid band stuff. Very little of the movie felt authentic but at least it sounded good.

Biggest take away for me is that I really wanna watch Highlander again, that song for the movie is the tits

 

Ronaan

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Going to see this tomorrow night in a standard small-town cinema. Would have preferred luxury super dolby surround imax ultra whateveryouhave but that's a one hour drive there and another hour back and we get up at 5AM on weekdays so no. Either way, excited. I think I shall put on a Queen LP tonight.
Yeah well so we won't be doing this on a weekday. Bummer, but on the other hand now I have the chance to go to a real cinema, not the one in bumfucktown that still looks like it did 50 years ago. Nothing against that, but some movies just don't work in that cinema.
 

Zapatta

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Guessing this is a Disney PG-13 version just like the NWA movie was? I love me some Queen. but pass.
 

Warmuth

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False debate. Does the film portray Roger Taylor well?

I love me some Freddie, but in my opinion Roger was key to the Queen sound. Galileo.

Everybody in that band was brilliant and an important piece. Freddy gets the spotlight because he’s probably the best frontman ever and so unique. The others were integral to the sound, imagine queen without that Brian May tone, but it really is support for Freddy to do his thing.