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Post by danb on Nov 9, 2018 22:29:52 GMT
I absolutely loved this and cried like a baby several times during the last twenty minutes. I was lucky enough to see Freddie live and it is just one of those special moments that I cherish. Sure it was a bit shallow and simplistic but I thought that the rest of Queen were really well cast & Brian May’s voice was almost identical to the real thing. The chronology of events however was for want of a better word, mental.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 18, 2018 13:15:43 GMT
I loved this too. I saw it last night and thought it was fantastic, especially the final sequence of the Live Aid concert. I found the We Are the Champions sequence highly emotional. I honestly would predict, having seen most of the frontrunners, Rami Malik could well be on his way to an Oscar win. He was absolutely amazing as Freddie, I couldn't fault him.  |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 18, 2018 13:51:12 GMT
Might finally see this tonight.
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Post by kathryn on Nov 18, 2018 14:37:29 GMT
You know, you can watch the original Live Aid footage in YouTube. Obviously the sound quality is not great and the filming is rough and ready, but you get actual Freddie Mercury!
I watched the entire concert of Queen at Wembley in 1986 on YouTube last night. Highly recommended.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 18, 2018 14:46:45 GMT
That recreation in the film freaked me out. If you watch these comparative videos of Rami and Freddie at Live Aid, it's chilling how strikingly alike they are! I found the We Are the Champions moment very emotional because I was so engrossed.
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Post by NeilVHughes on Nov 18, 2018 14:56:36 GMT
Still in two minds about seeing this, have always loved Queen, one of my earliest musical memoriies is Bohemian Rhapsody on Top of the Pops and the subsequent borrowing of A Night at The Opera album from my brother, which I have still to return after 40 years.
Freddie was such a complex individual, cannot see how a film can do him justice.
Fortunate to have seen Queen on the Kind Of Magic Tour at Maine Road in 1986 and still have the T-Shirt,
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Post by Deleted on Nov 18, 2018 14:59:39 GMT
Still in two minds about seeing this, have always loved Queen, one of my earliest musical memoriies is Bohemian Rhapsody on Top of the Pops and the subsequent borrowing of A Night at The Opera album from my brother, which I have still to return after 40 years. Freddie was such a complex individual, cannot see how a film can do him justice. Fortunate to have seen Queen on the Kind Of Magic Tour at Maine Road in 1986 and still have the T-Shirt, I think it does a great job of Freddie's life, but you don't see past the Live Aid concert, so you don't see the true dramatic effects of AID's and his decline of his health, which I'm kinda relieved about, as I didn't want to see that following the performance of We Are the Champions. That felt like the right time to end, for me anyway. |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 18, 2018 22:13:42 GMT
Well, this is the best movie I've seen this year. Hands down. That final sequence, MY GOD.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 18, 2018 22:16:23 GMT
This and A Star Is Born are films that I need to see, but am willing to wait for the DVD due to how plastic and naff all my local cinemas are.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 18, 2018 22:25:15 GMT
I think it needs to be seen at least once on the big screen. Worth every penny. I'm still shaking. Brilliant brilliant brilliant!
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Post by Deleted on Jan 7, 2019 12:13:12 GMT
So it won't both of it's Golden Globes, and whilst it has no shot of winning Best Picture at the Oscars, it does put both Rami and Christian Bale at the forefront of the Oscars mind. I'd love to see Rami win, it would be thoroughly deserved, so I hope we see him only get stronger from here in the awards talk. |
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Post by justfran on Jan 7, 2019 12:46:34 GMT
I was surprised but pleased about this winning, very well deserved. It would be great for Rami to win the Oscar, that would be unexpected!
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Post by kathryn on Jan 7, 2019 12:52:51 GMT
I have been on a total Queen kick since seeing this film and have become obsessed with just how wrong it got Freddie Mercury - the more I find out, the odder the whole thing seems. Even the band dynamic is wrong. I wonder how much say Brian May and Roger Taylor actually had over the project in the end, despite their enthusiasm in promoting it and producer credits. Though of course it has sold a whole lot of albums and no doubt they'll sell a load of concert tickets for the new Queen + Adam Lambert tour.
But I have come to the conclusion that the problem is it sold itself as a biopic, and used the typical rock biopic template, when it's not, really. It's a jukebox musical at heart. The Live Aid sequence is the film equivalent of a curtain-call megamix.
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Post by talkingheads on Jan 7, 2019 20:33:15 GMT
I liked it but wouldn't have given it best film. I'd have liked Black Panther, it;s about time they gave the award to a film that was both well made and (shock horror!) and popular superhero film!
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Post by jojo on Jan 7, 2019 20:54:23 GMT
I'd favour Black Panther too, but a part of me thinks it's hilarious this film won after the initial reviews were so awful. I saw a list earlier of 'Metacritic scores' (or something) for each of the winning films of recent years, and the others were almost all high 80s into 90s with one having 100! Bohemian Rhapsody had a lowly 48, which isn't great, and less than your typical dreary blockbuster would get. Yet cinema goers loved it, and kept on going, turning it into one of the biggest hits of the year.
I'd agree with the above, and it's all a bit populist, juke-box, so maybe not worthy of best film type praise, but I think there was a lot of snobbery in those initial reviews. There's been a lot of talk of increasing diversity and representation in what we see on the screen, and that's beginning to bear fruit, but we're still stuck with a lot of film reviewers who are firmly in the middle-class, white, straight-male category. I read an article on this subject from TIFF (Canadian film festival) this year, and the theory was that films whose primary audience might be "women and gays" were being reviewed much more harshly than anything more tailored to the manly-man demographic.
A lot of the rest of the criticism appeared to be people who were upset that they weren't telling the story of the Freddie they most identified with, or that they wanted to see. Some of that seemed fair, but arguably unrealistic. Yes, there probably was one eye very firmly on the commercial consequences of being overly honest, not just for the film, but for Queen's back catalogue, but that's inevitable.
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Post by kathryn on Jan 8, 2019 10:20:02 GMT
Yes, there probably was one eye very firmly on the commercial consequences of being overly honest, not just for the film, but for Queen's back catalogue, but that's inevitable. Oh, completely! The film was designed to do well in very conservative global markets and not to scare off homophobic audience members - and it has achieved that. I mean, there's even been multiple reports of audience members making audible sounds of disgust during the gay kissing scenes. (I experienced that myself - literally a woman sat behind me in the cinema said 'oh no' out loud! Half a row turn around to look at her in surprise, because really, what was she expecting?!) There's no way those people would have gone to see a film that focused any more on Freddie's gay relationships than it did (and he really did have gay *relationships* in that time period, not just one-night stands. At least one boyfriend became a long-term friend after they broke up.). It's actually a fascinating piece of film-making, and a really good example of how meaning is created by the audience and the same text can be read in different ways by different people. Because it undoubtedly *is* sending a moralistic message about 'the gay lifestyle' being damaging to those who are primed to read it that way. I don't think it's an accident. But if you're not homophobic - or not used to reading moralistic messages about gay people in your cinema - you won't read it that way at all. You'll focus on Rami Malek's performance and on the huge affection for Freddie the film expresses, and how brilliant he was as an individual, and that nasty moralistic undertone - and even the mustache-twirling gay villain - will pass you by. Particularly if you don't know just how badly the film is twisting the truth. You'll have a fabulous time remembering how much you love Queen's music - *I* had a fabulous time remembering how much I love Queen's music - and that will be it. But setting that aside, it's still not a good film - the script is as clunky as hell, it can never quite decide whether it's about Freddie or about the band as a whole, as a Queen biopic it utterly fails to capture the band dynamic - all four of them had massive rock-star egos and all four of them argued with each other - it makes being a rockstar look positively dull, and half the jokes fall flat. . It's definitely not the best drama of the year. |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 8, 2019 10:29:39 GMT
It's one of the best films I saw last year, I absolutely loved it and the Live Aid sequence is nothing short of stunning. But that said, I can see why some don't like it. But it was always going to be an audience hit I think. The strength of the film lived or died on Rami's performance and what he achieved was pretty extraordinary and I think he is heading straight toward an Oscar win.
Did anyone watch the interview with Entertainment Tonight with Rami? He said after winning he had the fake teeth coated in gold and actually had it in his pocket on the night! 😂
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Post by Deleted on Jan 8, 2019 10:52:31 GMT
It's like the movie version of 'Tina: The Turner Musical'. A pretty rotten film/show that's saved by a genuinely fabulous, show stopping performance (Rami Malek/Adrienne Warren) that makes one think it's better than it actually is.
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Post by Backdrifter on Jan 8, 2019 12:25:24 GMT
the script is as clunky as hell I'm always wary of bios about real bands. I worry that there'll be lines like "I know... I'll call it Bohemian Rhapsody!" Sorry jojo I know you didn't make that script remark but I can't see how to delete time and ID stamps on quotes within quotes. |
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Post by kathryn on Jan 8, 2019 12:47:39 GMT
I'm always wary of bios about real bands. I worry that there'll be lines like "I know... I'll call it Bohemian Rhapsody!" Sorry jojo I know you didn't make that script remark but I can't see how to delete time and ID stamps on quotes within quotes. You have to use the BB code tab to sort the nesting quotes out - it's the "quote" and "/quote" tags in square brackets in the wrong places that messes them up. It's the "We're four misfits who don't belong together... We're playing for other misfits" line that made me roll my eyes. Bet your life no member of the band ever said that, but it was said in every pitch meeting they had with film execs to try and explain the band's appeal and why they should invest in the film, and thus became a core idea of the film. Queen were actually a mainstream pop-rock band, their audience was never just misfits - which is why Freddie kept one foot in the closet. (I ran across a post-Live Aid interview on Youtube with Roger Taylor the other day, where he was asked if Freddie is 'acting' on stage. Roger said no, and looked kinda surprised at the silliness of the question, but it's a good example of the mainstream media at the time rationalising away his very camp stage persona as 'just a performance'.) It's only in the USA that they stopped being a hugely popular mainstream band in the 1980s. |
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Post by Backdrifter on Jan 8, 2019 14:55:19 GMT
I'm always wary of bios about real bands. I worry that there'll be lines like "I know... I'll call it Bohemian Rhapsody!" Sorry jojo I know you didn't make that script remark but I can't see how to delete time and ID stamps on quotes within quotes. You have to use the BB code tab to sort the nesting quotes out - it's the "quote" and "/quote" tags in square brackets in the wrong places that messes them up. It's the "We're four misfits who don't belong together... We're playing for other misfits" line that made me roll my eyes. Bet your life no member of the band ever said that, but it was said in every pitch meeting they had with film execs to try and explain the band's appeal and why they should invest in the film, and thus became a core idea of the film. Queen were actually a mainstream pop-rock band, their audience was never just misfits - which is why Freddie kept one foot in the closet. (I ran across a post-Live Aid interview on Youtube with Roger Taylor the other day, where he was asked if Freddie is 'acting' on stage. Roger said no, and looked kinda surprised at the silliness of the question, but it's a good example of the mainstream media at the time rationalising away his very camp stage persona as 'just a performance'.) It's only in the USA that they stopped being a hugely popular mainstream band in the 1980s. Thanks for the BB code explanation. I never mind dialogue being invented for fact-based films and plays but it's a question of how groan-inducing it is. The one you quoted does come across as almost a tagline. Queen were an odd one for me. I really liked them from the age of about 8 or 9, at the time of Seven Seas/Queen II and loved Sheer Heart Attack - I still think Now I'm Here is a great piece of pop-rock. At around News of the World, I drifted away from them and never returned. They were very much a pre-pubescent band for me. |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 9, 2019 11:54:53 GMT
Well the film just nabbed a whole bunch of nominations at the BAFTA's:
Best British Film
Best Actor in a Leading Role
Best Cinematography
Best Sound Design
Best Costume Design
Best Hair and Makeup
Best Editing
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Post by showgirl on Jan 9, 2019 16:50:29 GMT
Everyman Cinemas are offering singalong performances now...
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Post by duncan on Jan 10, 2019 9:45:35 GMT
No, no, no, no.
Mamma mia
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Post by theglenbucklaird on Jan 11, 2019 17:49:32 GMT
You have to use the BB code tab to sort the nesting quotes out - it's the "quote" and "/quote" tags in square brackets in the wrong places that messes them up. It's the "We're four misfits who don't belong together... We're playing for other misfits" line that made me roll my eyes. Bet your life no member of the band ever said that, but it was said in every pitch meeting they had with film execs to try and explain the band's appeal and why they should invest in the film, and thus became a core idea of the film. Queen were actually a mainstream pop-rock band, their audience was never just misfits - which is why Freddie kept one foot in the closet. (I ran across a post-Live Aid interview on Youtube with Roger Taylor the other day, where he was asked if Freddie is 'acting' on stage. Roger said no, and looked kinda surprised at the silliness of the question, but it's a good example of the mainstream media at the time rationalising away his very camp stage persona as 'just a performance'.) It's only in the USA that they stopped being a hugely popular mainstream band in the 1980s. Thanks for the BB code explanation. I never mind dialogue being invented for fact-based films and plays but it's a question of how groan-inducing it is. The one you quoted does come across as almost a tagline. Queen were an odd one for me. I really liked them from the age of about 8 or 9, at the time of Seven Seas/Queen II and loved Sheer Heart Attack - I still think Now I'm Here is a great piece of pop-rock. At around News of the World, I drifted away from them and never returned. They were very much a pre-pubescent band for me.Wow. You got that far? |
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