Looks like Queen have defied the critics yet again, despite some pretty savage reviews, this movie looks to have been a huge hit. $50 million US opening weekend, $141 million worldwide in a week. For a musical biopic, that's pretty big.
I read several reviews and they were all fairly positive though touched on what was mentioned earlier in the thread - how much of Freddie's lifestyle was "sanitised" but also how some events were changed around such as relating to the Live Aid performance. How much input did the remaining band members have in the production in terms of the script?
I did not know that Mike Myers was in the movie untill the end credits. What a surprise. Overall i liked the movie. It was a touching tribute to a rock legend. I do agree that parts of the movie was sanitized like Freddy's hedonistic lifestyle for example. His parties were way more interesting. It is sad we lost him. It was a tragedy.
Saw it earlier today - enjoyed it. I was never a huge Queen fan. I've got the greatest hits on my old laptop in my itunes collection, but been a long while since I listened to it. Did have a few tears as I watched the Live-Aid scenes.
I liked it a lot but it also made me a bit sad to see how unhappy Freddie had been through parts of his lite. The musical parts of the movie were great and the part where they Came up with Bohemian Rhapsody was really entertaining.
I, too, got a bit teary-eyed at the Live Aid sequence. I remember watching that as a teen, and Queen's performance was so unbelievably good, it gave me goosebumps. I wish they had played it in the credits; it would have been fun to see the real thing compared to the dramatization.
Saw it today. Yes, loved the scenes that showed the band's creative process. I also loved tbe band's relationships and how they thought of themselves as a family. But I do wonderr if they'd have gotten back together if Freddie had not gotten sick. Doesn't doesn't matter at this point, because they did and I'll bet the surviving members are still glad they did. Rami Malek is one helluva actor.
I thought that Queen didn't split up in real life, and Mercury was diagnosed with Aids to years later in 1987
They " took a break" but I don't think they ever split up officially -- if I recall correctly. And, yes, the movie did play a bit fast and loose with the order of events. In fact, it was my understanding that he wasn't diagnosed until a couple of years after Live Aid. Chalk it up to dramatic license, I guess.
^^ Correct. Queen never actually broke up. In fact, the band joined him in Munich to record an album. The Roger character's statement that they hadn't played together in years was also incorrect, as Queen had just done a tour in South Africa (and caught a lot of flack for it, rightly so). His diagnosis came in 1987 and they continued to record. I thought the movie, despite the dramatic license, was really very good. Rami's portrayal was awesome and heartbreaking at the same time. I thought John Deacon's portrayal was under developed, but since he didn't have a hand in making the movie like Taylor and May, I guess that's not too surprising. He has completely distanced himself from all things Queen since just after Freddy died, but does still have a say in financial dealings.
IOW, pretty much how John was/is in real life. Very much the shy and quiet type, a family man (six kids, only one wife - not bad for a rocker), who had an drug/alcohol fueled breakdown in the early 80's (right around the time of Queen's biggest troubles in the movie) and never fully recovered. I guess May and Taylor didn't want that side of their other bandmate shown in the film either, understandably.
I saw this yesterday. I thought it was cheesy, painted with broad brushstrokes, was about as subtle as a brick and couldn't have been more on the nose if it was Pinocchio.... And I loved every minute of it. I thought Remi was superb, the Live Aid stuff was magnificent and though I imagine it was dramatic licence, the hug with his dad nearly had me in pieces. I'd heard it glossed over his hedonism and maybe it did, but it didn't exactly sweep his sexuality, drug use or sleeping around under the carpet, it's all front and centre in the film. Doesn't try and hide Taylor's womanising either. I thought the leads were all good, even if the dialogue (especially early doors) was really clunky. The one real misstep for me was the Wayne's World joke, which I guess was actually pretty subtle if you didn't realise it was Myers. Anyway, very poignant in places, and far more enjoyable than it had any right to be given the cast/directorial changes. Glad to see Dexter Fletcher got an exec producer credit even if he wasn't deemed to have done enough to go down as director.
This came up in a discussion I had with my daughter about the movie. She didn't want to see it because she read and heard that they glossed over the more salacious parts of Freddie's personal life in a nod to anti LGBTQ sentiment (her opinion). This has to do with the whole Sasha Baron Cohen thing. I don't know if there was any anti LGBTQ in the production, but I thought the movie showed good balance between Freddie's story and the band's story. I believe I saw a video that, I think, indicated that Cohen wanted the movie to be more about Freddie's personal life and the band wanted the movie to be more about the band, it's rise to the top, the music, their connection with each other and their audience. They didn't gloss over Freddie's personal life, and I'm glad they didn't, but I'm also glad they spent as much time on Queen and their songs and their creative process.. I loved the scene where they were coming up with "Another One Bites the Dust". BTW, Nile Rogers calls the song a "homage" to his "Good Times", rather than a straight cop. Anyway,, Freddie was the focal point of the movie, which makes sense, and I think the movie made clear that he was the guy who gave Queen it's identity and purpose, but there was more to Queen's story than just Freddie.
I'd heard that one of Cohen's issues was that the band wanted the story to continue past Freddie's death showing Queen going from strength to strength!
I'm not sure how much stock I put in that. For a start, the movie didn't turn out to be anything of the sort. Secondly, Brian and Roger may have a bit of an ego about them, but they aren't stupid. With Fred and John they built one of the most commercially successful rock outfits of all time. They understand what audiences want to see and aren't stupid enough to think they want to see a movie where Freddie dies half way through. Anyway, I think we dodged a bullet there, I can't imagine Cohen doing half the job Malek managed. Incidentally, the movie passed $400 Million worldwide yesterday.
Well maybe they were talked out of this after Cohen left but before Malek was on board? Cohen did suggest it was just one member of the band who was pushing for this, but it seems like there were a whole host of creative differences between Cohen and the band anyway. I agree that I doubt he'd have been as good as Malek, but I could have seen him doing a perfectly acceptable job, and I can totally see why he was initially cast, and why they considered Whishaw as well, but hard to imagine anyone outdoing Malek. Not surprised it's done so well. It's an incredibly flawed film but totally manages to become much more than the sum of it's parts.
Really enjoyed this one, even if I've never been more than a casual Queen fan. But I thought that especially Rami Malek and Gwilym Lee (Brian May) were fabulous. I have the greatest hits albums on CD but that's about it. Now my husband and I are listening to their albums in chronological order on Spotify.
Saw it over the weekend. I’d go with the general consensus about it, namely that the cast and concert scenes are fantastic but that it’s very fictionalised and whitewashed at times. Malek was brilliant and while I usually complain about Oscars going to actors in biopics, I really hope he at least gets a nomination. The actor playing Brian May also had the real Brian’s mannerisms and voice down pat, while the other 2 gave strong supporting performances. Alden Gillen showed that his wandering accent issues are not purely a Littlefinger affectation but he was generally solid in the role, as were the various other Irish actors with names starting with A (Allen Leech, Aaron McCusker). Mike Myers was a hoot and I laughed out loud at the Wayne’s World in-joke. Although I don’t know the Queen backstory inside out, I know it well enough to have been puzzled by some of the timing (they had Fat Bottomed Girls being performed 4 years too early and We Will Rock You being written too late, Rock in Rio occurring about a decade before it actually did), while the line that they hadn’t performed in years (before Live Aid) ignores the massive tour supporting The Works album, which only concluded 2 months before Live Aid. I think you just have to look at it like one of those films such as In the Name of the Father, where they took the general bones of the story and did their own version of it, rather than a faithful accurate biography. Every time Malek performed onstage, shivers went down my spine and the Live Aid climax was brilliantly realised. When they followed the notes about his death with footage of the real band, it was hard not to feel a tear welling up, as I still remember well the day Freddie died.