'Bohemian Rhapsody' movie reviews & impressions

[QUOTE] [b]YAFFF wrote:[/b]

[QUOTE] [b]mike hunt wrote:[/b]

what's a Freddie fan boy? you mean a Freddie Mercury fan on a Queen site? why is that shocking? That's a dumb comment...especially that Brian May has apologists on this site that stick up for every move he makes no matter how bad his decision's are. How is that different? It's a Queen website for gods sake. Donna is right, Brian and Roger should be shown more and how talented and Influencial they were...I don't like the Freddie only crowd either.[/QUOTE]

I don't think there really is a "Freddie only crowd". Maybe some. Maybe nowadays. I dunno. I do think it seems that way when we are forced to defend Freddie against the abject stupidity and condescending comments Brian (and Roger to a lesser extant) has made especially in the past 14 years. And that Brian used this film to enlarge himself and put Freddie in his place a bit. To say otherwise is cognitive dissonance.

Most people do not possess critical thinking skills and this film just highlights that. Critical thinkers will enjoy this film far less than passive thinkers.

Brian and Roger make people Freddie only or Freddie and John only fans by their dishonest rhetoric. Yes Freddie is my favorite Queenie but I love the music all four made. That said one thing's still true. When I look and I find that there is no Queen without Freddie.
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A M E N

I did feel, at times, it was Brian's words coming out of Freddie's mouth in the movie but most of these instances worked in Freddie and the movie's benefit, in my opinion.
No-one leaves the movie theater thinking Brian was the genius or the brain behind Queen. The general public leaves the movie thinking Queen were/are great and Freddie was human. A genius, but a human, able to fail and make mistakes. That's good for storytelling.

Oh, and Brian DID WRITE BoRhap's guitar solo. I happened to love that particular scene and studio banter. How Freddie is obviously messing with Brian, they have that back and forth and Bri says "I love you, Fred".
Everybody around me smiled at that seemingly candid moment. Only a die hard Queen fan would think that's Brian May propaganda

The only similar scene that felt a bit off was when Freddie "breaks up the band" and they fail to acknowledge the other members having had solo material before.

Doing a solo album doesn't mean breaking up the band. However, hindsight is always 20/20. There could be a valid point in thinking that Freddie was the only one likely to make it big by going solo. Had Mr. Bad Guy been a smash hit, Freddie may have started to get solo commitments gradually -maybe doing a few solo gigs- and the band may have had to go on hiatus.

I seem to recall reading Brian said that was his favorite scene. I'm not surprised.
If I ignore the fact that the others had had solo material out then it is a very dramatic moment. Freddie acknowledging that it's only a temporary thing, that it doesn't mean Queen will end, etc. And it's well acted, IMO.

Saw the movie last night. I was fairly worried going into it. I came out feeling good. There are some historical inaccuracies, but I knew that going in (Freddie with a mustache while Brian first talks about WWRY, c'mon!). Overall I did enjoy it, and while no movie could include all of the Queen songs I wanted, this really hit most of them.

I think Rami did a good job overall. The only thing I flat out hated was the nonsense about the band essentially breaking up and Freddie having to beg to come back. It's a typical movie trope which has nothing to do with reality and I wish they hadn't included it. Queen never broke up, and they never stopped doing live concerts until after '86.

Still, I came away feeling good from the movie. I have a lot of other nitpicks, and I don't think the film really captured Freddie's greatness or the complexity of Queen, but I think you'd have to get one of the best screenwriters and one of the best directors in the world in order to come close to that. If done exactly right a movie about Freddie and Queen would be nominated for Oscars. This isn't that movie, but it's good enough for me. I did enjoy quite a bit of it, and that's about all I wanted going in. I thought Mike Myers was a pleasant surprise, and I liked how they portrayed Live Aid.

They made the recording of Mr Bad Guy looks really bad. The abysmal music (what WAS that??), keytar and the Hoxton version of what a naff 80s band would look like.

I saw this on November 1st, I tried to let my brain digest it before giving any review.

I’ll start off saying Rami Malek did an incredible job, IMHO. Aside from his acting, the musical scenes were the highlight of the film.

I absolutely love the portrayal of Freddie’s early life and the innocence that went with it. Even if it is slightly fictitious for entertainment sake, the meeting of Smile and spontaneously “Doing All Right” was incredible. Also the scenes with Mary were wonderful.

The musical scenes I found most amazing were the Smile gig, Live Aid, and the recording/writing of BoRhap......

......What I got annoyed with was the 80s portrayal of Freddie. When they had a huge fight and he belittled John along with Brian/Roger, I felt that was not true. I know, I was not there, but still. I truly don’t believe he would have talked to John Deacon that way. It was too cruel and I don’t think John/Fred had THAT much animosity towards eachother.

Another thing I was annoyed with, they made Roger and Bri so upset with Freddie over doing Mr Bad Guy. Those guys already put out solo album’s of their own; so how would that even make sense to make a big fuss over it? Just seemed odd.

I know this is not a documentary, but a film for entertainment, that’s why I could forgive some of the timeline with songs being messed up, but to totally change someone’s whole character for years is wrong. They made Freddie in the Munich era seem like a tweaked out druggie. We know most the band liked to party back then, but everyone involved with them have said it was more recreational rather than an addiction, which I believe.


Sorry for my long rant, just felt if there was a place to post it, it’d be here.

you have good points...I'll only add Freddie was out of control at certain points In his life, from 1977 to 1985/early 86, That part was true...I agree with You're Deacon point though.

I loved it! Yes its not terribly accurate but i felt like i got a glimpse of them!
My main issue was with the solo/break up/begging bit but no way to say what happened i guess. I also thought they over sanitised it and that lost some of the outrageousness of queen. But i still loved it!

Incidentally, for people who say it was brians ego and brian portraying himself as the main man, i asked my husband who likes queen but isnt a major fan and he didnt get the impression that brian was more important or a leader of it.

Whilst there was a caption at the end to say that Freddie died in 1991, I’d have expected an elongated summary of the post 1985 period covered in the film, along the lines of:

‘In the six years after Live Aid, Queen released three hugely successful albums, and in 1986 carried out their largest ever European tour. Following Freddie’s death, in April 1992 the remaining members of Queen hosted a star studded concert at Wembley Stadium in his honour, forming the Mercury Phoenix Trust to raise awareness and funding for AIDS research. Queen released their final album, ‘Made In Heaven’, containing vocals Freddie recorded shortly before his death, in November 1995.’

Are there any of you who think Freddie created/wrote the guitar solo in Boh Rhap?

Just got back from the cinema and I have an impression this movie really tried to change the facts significantly. When Mary shows up in Munich... I thought it was Freddie who showed up at Barbara Valentin's door like that one day? Roger comes across mostly as an idiot and I did not like the whole moralizing business. Also, the film made Freddie look like a young, lost and very delicate soul indeed, while he was clearly much more complex and manly than this. All these scenes when he's home alone, as opposed to living with Jim & Co or Barbara in Munich... They also completely omitted Winnie Kirchberger who seemed like quite an important figure and we could have learned much more about Freddie just by seeing a true glimpse of Winnie. So, on the whole drama / psychology level I give it 1 out of 5. Not sure how to sum up the whole movie itself, because it is quite an entertaining piece and certainly comes to life with concert performances, but I felt the script liberties went too far. Live Aid sequence very well done indeed, but then again, everything before Queen went on stage suggests a complete flop!

Flop? It's a big hit already. Far from a flop. we're more critical as die hards. Most average people like the movie. End of story.

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[QUOTE] [b]k-m wrote:[/b]

Just got back from the cinema and I have an impression this movie really tried to change the facts significantly. When Mary shows up in Munich... I thought it was Freddie who showed up at Barbara Valentin's door like that one day? Roger comes across mostly as an idiot and I did not like the whole moralizing business. Also, the film made Freddie look like a young, lost and very delicate soul indeed, while he was clearly much more complex and manly than this. All these scenes when he's home alone, as opposed to living with Jim & Co or Barbara in Munich... They also completely omitted Winnie Kirchberger who seemed like quite an important figure and we could have learned much more about Freddie just by seeing a true glimpse of Winnie. So, on the whole drama / psychology level I give it 1 out of 5. Not sure how to sum up the whole movie itself, because it is quite an entertaining piece and certainly comes to life with concert performances, but I felt the script liberties went too far. Live Aid sequence very well done indeed, but then again, everything before Queen went on stage suggests a complete flop![/QUOTE]

I know what you're saying...I wonder if this movie makes enough money if they would consider Bohemian Rhapsody part 2, the final years...I'm serious, It might take 10 years to make but I could see it.