OT: Bohemian Rhapsody movie

[ksoper]

We just left the theater. I'd go again. High art it isn't, but it was an extremely entertaining 2 hrs and Malek's performance was memorizing. Silly, superficial, but ultimately fun.

[ABECK]

I'm not sure if it's been discussed before, but I actually thought the 2 part INXS docudrama was as good if not better than Bohemian Rhapsody. They also did a good job with their Wembly performance (but with a much lower budget - so original footage is part of the cut).

 

[video:youtube]

[Tonysounds]

I can see fans loving it, but I felt that as a movie in its own right it was incredibly weak.

 

Props on the concert reproductions, for sure. The rest had me fidgeting the whole time.

I'm with MOI. I'm glad he said it first. I wonder what people will think of this movie 20 years from now.

 

When I was about 12 and taking clarinet lessons, I saw the Benny Goodman Story. (My dad was a huge Benny Goodman fan.) I thought the movie was great. When I saw the movie again many years later, I realized what a piece of bad movie-making it was.

 

Movie bios are always tough to make well. Music movie bios are even tougher, although the good side is you've always got the music. From what I've read in several places, they had to revise the events of Freddie Mercury's life so much in order to make a story that worked that the movie is closer to a work of fiction than a bio. Yes, they recreated the Live AID concert near-perfectly. But like MOI fidgeting, up until that point I kept being taken out of the movie and had to keep giving it an E for effort and a participation trophy. The high points throughout were always the music. The rest ... not so much.

 

As I said, "IF you like Rock Star".... That movie isnt gonna stand the test of time either.

[cedar]

The older films like The Glenn Miller Story set the bar high for cheesy scenes."

 

I love the Glen Miller story, because it might possibly be the cheesiest movie ever. In particular, I love the scene where he discovers the "sound" that supposedly catapults his career. My recollection is that, the night before a big show, the lead trumpeter bumped into someone, cutting his lip and making it impossible to play. Faced with a crisis, Miller then re-arranges everything so that the trumpet parts are played by some other instrument (perhaps so that the trombone somehow doubled sax). Anyway, the details aren't important. It's just priceless watching Jimmy Stewart have this revelation, followed by an adoring crowd reaction the next night.

[Zalman Stern]

Props on the concert reproductions, for sure. The rest had me fidgeting the whole time.

 

In the spirit of "hunger is the best appetizer," most of the movie leading up to the Live Aid scene being somewhere between "meh" and "yuck" made the concert scene more enjoyable. Yes, I realize this is damning with faint praise, but it sort of worked like that for me :-)

 

I might pay a dollar or two extra to just see the Live Aid scene in IMAX...

 

-Z-

 

[MathOfInsects]

Props on the concert reproductions, for sure. The rest had me fidgeting the whole time.

 

In the spirit of "hunger is the best appetizer," most of the movie leading up to the Live Aid scene being somewhere between "meh" and "yuck" made the concert scene more enjoyable. Yes, I realize this is damning with faint praise, but it sort of worked like that for me :-)

 

I might pay a dollar or two extra to just see the Live Aid scene in IMAX...

 

-Z-

 

To be fair, I did just do a night of all Queen songs, so I might just a bit burned out, and I really didn't like the movie, so I was less than charitable by the end, but...

 

While I did find the concert scenes impressively well recreated...is it OK to say that that set has not really aged that well? Radio Gaga? Blecch. I went and watched the original set right after seeing the movie. One thing I found interesting was how much MORE visible and involved Spike Edney was during the real concert. But the other thing I came away with was it just wasn't that great a set 30 years later. Sure, it was fun for the fans to see Queen. But would any of us be crawling all over youtube to see that whole performance again, were it not for the movie? I don't think so.

 

I better back out the thread!

[CowboyNQ]

I'm not sure if it's been discussed before, but I actually thought the 2 part INXS docudrama was as good if not better than Bohemian Rhapsody.

I really enjoyed the INXS "miniseries" too, for a lot of the same reasons my family and I liked the Queen flick. Entertaining, fun and liberally spiced with excellent music.

 

Again though I'm a massive fan of the band. INXS and Queen were two of my absolute favourites growing up. INXS' "The Swing" being the first album I ever owned (on cassette).

[chigson]

Saw it too. Good movie.

It seemed though that the make-up people overdid Freddie's lip in the first few minutes of a movie, but fixed it moving forward.

[Tonysounds]

But the other thing I came away with was it just wasn't that great a set 30 years later. Sure, it was fun for the fans to see Queen. But would any of us be crawling all over youtube to see that whole performance again, were it not for the movie? I don't think so.

 

Well to answer your question: your video recommendation currently has 109,663,892 views.

 

How many views you got?

 

[video:youtube]

[MathOfInsects]

I got a rock!

[retrokeys]

Great...Queen initiates the video era by half a decade..Oh yeah, hide the keyboard guy, he sounds good but is not our idiom. MTV later supplants performance. Appearance is everything. We are all so much better for it right? Not a model? Forget a meaningful musical career. Disposable pop. Let's make a movie celebrating how it began. Bah, humbug. Old guy heard from. Now get off my lawn.

[Spider76]

Saw it yesterday.

(disclaimer: Queen are my absolute favourite, desert-island band).

 

Some cheese, some artistic freedom in rearranging events, some nice moments, lots of great music.

 

I had goosebumps all over during Live Aid.

Oh, and maybe it's worth noting that Wembley Stadium doesn't exist anymore. It's unbelievable how far CGI has come.

 

About the actors: Brian is amazing, did they clone him or find a time machine? It's just identical to the original.

Rami malek was great, but...am I the only one who grimaced at every close shot of his green eyes? One of Freddies iconic features were his magnetic brown/black eyes, how could they possibly decide not to use coloured contacts?

[Spider76]

is it OK to say that that set has not really aged that well?

...

it just wasn't that great a set 30 years later.

Sure, it was fun for the fans to see Queen.

 

Ok, you admit you didn't like the movie while I admit I'm a fanboy (though I have my fair share of criticism on the movie), so we have opposite points of view.

 

But still... the highlight of the greatest musical event ever organized up to that point in history, aknowledged by everybody present (including the other bands) to have been by far the best show of the day, and almost unanimously considered one of the greatest if not THE greatest live performance ever,... "not a great set"?

 

Freddie's voice is maybe the most powerful ever, and his magnetism over the audience is almost hipnotic. Radio Ga Ga? Yes, it's pure 80's cheese and I always hated it (and I'm a fanboy). Still, the sight of the 80'000 at Wembley chanting and clapping in unison gives me goosebumps.

 

And note, that was not a Queen audience, Queen wasn't even supposed to be on the setlist when tickets were sold. Still, I suppose few people would remember Live Aid as such a big thing, if it wasn't for those 20 minutes.

 

 

Don't worry no offence meant or taken, no problem to have opinions, you have no need to back out of the thread!

[mate stubb]

Remember the Led Zep reunion set in that same show? It was awful, embarrassing, barely rehearsed, and sloppy.

 

Give Queen props for upstaging everybody else that day.

[Tonysounds]

Remember the Led Zep reunion set in that same show? It was awful, embarrassing, barely rehearsed, and sloppy.

 

Give Queen props for upstaging everybody else that day.

 

You can thank Jimmy Page (so high he couldn't retrieve his plectrum), and the EVER PRESENT PHIL COLLINS for that trainwreck. Tony Thompson played his ass off, but Phil Collins took the Concorde so he could play both shows on the same day.

 

Yes Phil....we hated you for a while.

[MathOfInsects]

is it OK to say that that set has not really aged that well?

...

it just wasn't that great a set 30 years later.

Sure, it was fun for the fans to see Queen.

 

Ok, you admit you didn't like the movie while I admit I'm a fanboy (though I have my fair share of criticism on the movie), so we have opposite points of view.

 

But still... the highlight of the greatest musical event ever organized up to that point in history, aknowledged by everybody present (including the other bands) to have been by far the best show of the day, and almost unanimously considered one of the greatest if not THE greatest live performance ever,... "not a great set"?

 

Freddie's voice is maybe the most powerful ever, and his magnetism over the audience is almost hipnotic. Radio Ga Ga? Yes, it's pure 80's cheese and I always hated it (and I'm a fanboy). Still, the sight of the 80'000 at Wembley chanting and clapping in unison gives me goosebumps.

 

And note, that was not a Queen audience, Queen wasn't even supposed to be on the setlist when tickets were sold. Still, I suppose few people would remember Live Aid as such a big thing, if it wasn't for those 20 minutes.

 

 

Don't worry no offence meant or taken, no problem to have opinions, you have no need to back out of the thread!

 

Thanks for this perspective. "Greatest live performance ever" seems like an overreach, but the rest of your post resonates.

 

I am not trying to be the voice of "anti-Queen." I loved them back then. I remember being amazed as a kid that a song like "Bohemian Rhapsody" could even exist, and am the exact right age/demographic for that movie and that band's output. I played some of their records down to static. And I distinctly remember that concert and that set--it was right in the sweet spot of my formative music years.

 

BUT...times change and cultural standards shift. I'm not denying what it meant in real time. I was just noticing that from our perch 30 years anon, watching that set again on youtube, I didn't have that sense of fiery rediscovery that I get when I see clips of Janis Joplin at Woodstock or Aretha doing "Bridge Over Troubled Water" or hear Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong sing "Summertime." The Live Aid set seems very much locked in a place and time, and didn't strike me as terribly strong, speaking from 30 years hence.

 

Kind of like seeing clips of the old Johnny Carson show. I remember everyone (including myself) thinking he was funny and a master of the craft, and now when I see those clips he seems cheesy and muggy and quaint. It doesn't take away from what he meant to people in real time, I just don't think it transcends.

 

Same with that set.

 

But that's just me, and I am usually an outlier on things like this. I tend not to be a chauvinist for the "old" stuff and never feel like "everything great has already happened." So it's possible I take this stuff in with further remove than some, and that's not meant to deprecate anyone to whom the set or music still has the same relevance. They are still responsible for some of my enduringly favorite songs, and I value the place they held in in their time.

[Spider76]

Thanks MOI, nice insight, it's great to have constructive discussion, not common online.

 

I mostly agree with you, except of course I still love the Live Aid set. But as I stated, even more than the musical aspects, I'm amazed at the sheer intensity of Freddie's performance. He knew it was his one chance in a lifetime to perform in front of the whole world, and he gave all he had, and then more.

 

From the musical side, imho what still stands strong and always will is his singing in We Are the Champions, which even for him was almost impossible to sing correctly, with all those impossibly high sustained notes.

Still at Live Aid he nailed everything with awesome control and power. Amazing.

 

(on Hammer to Fall he didn't exactly suck, too )

[Polkahero]

Not to mention Freddie had a bad throat infection yet still performed against his doctor's wishes for the Live Aid show.

[lsj]

just saw the movie yesterday. really, really loved it. in the past, I liked a few Queen songs, but was not a big fan of them. today, I just ordered the best of queen CD from amazon....Larry

[ABECK]

 

You can thank Jimmy Page (so high he couldn't retrieve his plectrum), and the EVER PRESENT PHIL COLLINS for that trainwreck. Tony Thompson played his ass off, but Phil Collins took the Concorde so he could play both shows on the same day.

 

Yes Phil....we hated you for a while.

 

Check out Phil Collin's book. He wasn't exactly thrilled with that train wreck either. Originally it was supposed to be him doing something with Robert Plant, as they had already been playing together. Then it turned into a mess of a "reunion", with another drummer already on the gig. Next thing you know, Phil is Yoko.

[cedar]

[video:youtube]

[mate stubb]

No. Just no.

 

Here, have this:

 

[video:youtube]

[cedar]

Oh yeah, take this.

 

[video:youtube]

[mate stubb]

You win!