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cream919
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    Bohemian Rhapsody

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    Post by SoxIlliniRob Fri Nov 02, 2018 10:22 pm

    My family of five saw the Queen movie tonight.  I can't imagine enjoying a movie more than that.  Granted, I'm a huge fan of Queen and have always considered "A Night At The Opera" to be in my top ten favorite albums, but even my kids loved the movie, including my 11 yr old who doesn't like ANY of  my music.  You'd not want to see this thing unless you're at least a pretty big Queen fan, because you're going to hear a ton of their music and see a ton of concert footage.  The dude that played Mercury was outstanding.  Looked like him and even sang amazingly and sounded like him.  At times, I honestly lost track of the fact that it wasn't Freddie doing the singing.  

    The casting was great.  The dudes that played the other members of the band were good and looked spot on.  My kids even asked me to play Queen in the car for the drive home.  Gotta like that.  Reviews have only been lukewarm, but if you actually like Queen then trust me....you'll really enjoy the movie.
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    Post by cream919 Sat Nov 03, 2018 12:02 am

    I'm on the fence about seeing it Rob. Very talented, intelligent band and Mercury was a fabulous vocalist/performer but I was never a big fan of their music though as a long-time musician I had to play a few songs of their's here and there. On the other hand, you don't have to necessarily be crazy about the subject in order to enjoy a well-made movie. Maybe...perhaps...we'll see. lol
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    Post by sharpy Sun Nov 04, 2018 12:47 pm

    Thanks for the review. Was on the fence about seeing the movie b/c they so infrequently either tell the truth or are entertaining. Like Cream, never a big Queen fan, but never a Queen hater either - recognized their talent, and Mercury was one of the first AIDS deaths that kinda hit home ..
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    Post by jaywit Sun Nov 04, 2018 1:22 pm

    Definitely on my list of movies to see this fall.  I was a big fan of Queen up to 1982.  Not so much after that.
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    Post by SoxIlliniRob Sun Nov 04, 2018 2:10 pm

    I'm not sure if it's such a great movie as a movie that provided me a great deal of enjoyment to watch.  If you enjoy their bigger hits, you're going to like the movie because you'll see and hear a lot of those songs played in live format.  They did an extended part of the movie about recording A Night at the Opera.  They probably could have gone more deeply into Mercury's personal life, but I suspect that the band members played a big role in this thing and probably wanted certain things to remain guarded.  Seems like a movie that decided to err on the side of having too much live footage instead of the chance of not enough.  Like I said, I loved it.  They were always a fav band of mine and the full five of us loved every moment.  My kids want the Queen piano book so they can start playing their songs in recitals.  I guess they are tiring of Hamilton and Beatles tunes.
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    Post by SoxIlliniRob Sun Nov 04, 2018 2:19 pm

    cream919 wrote:I'm on the fence about seeing it Rob. Very talented, intelligent band and Mercury was a fabulous vocalist/performer but I was never a big fan of their music though as a long-time musician I had to play a few songs of their's here and there. On the other hand, you don't have to necessarily be crazy about the subject in order to enjoy a well-made movie. Maybe...perhaps...we'll see. lol

    The most impressive part of the movie is how well the lead, Rami Malik, handled the part of Mercury.  Dude looks like him, was able to sing quite a bit like him, and is a very good actor.  At times, I wondered if they were dubbing old Mercury audio over Malik lip syncing but wifey tells me he sung all of the parts.  Very impressive.  It's a shame Mercury didn't take better care of himself regarding protection in the sack, and going through a bout with substance abuse, but we all learn some things the hard way, as you well know.  It was actually quite interesting to see how the band formed, and how they approached marketing themselves to fans, and also how they seemed like a bunch of pretty regular guys, save for Mercury.  A bunch of college grads with families and wives and who didn't appear to be big partiers.  Maybe the movie is lying to us on that front.
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    Post by sharpy Sun Nov 04, 2018 6:34 pm

    They probably could have gone more deeply into Mercury's personal life, but I suspect that the band members played a big role in this thing and probably wanted certain things to remain guarded

    Maybe the movie is lying to us on that front.


    Per the review I read the only "lie" was that Mercury and the band was aware he had AIDs when they played at Live Aid - and he did not as of yet know ..
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    Post by blondy28 Sun Nov 04, 2018 6:42 pm

    At the risk of getting the board's tongues wagging, I, too, saw Bohemian Rhapsody Friday.  I promise it's a total coincidence that Rob and I saw A Star is Born and Bohemian Rhapsody on the same nights, and that Rob's wife's name is Pam.  

    I echo Rob's summary, but disagree with what some have said about Queen as a band.  I LOVE them.  Mind you, I only liked them when I was younger and they were big.  I distinctly remember when Bohemian Rhapsody came out.  I was in 4th grade and my friend had high school siblings and they were going crazy for it, and since I was around them quite a bit, I knew the song by heart...which wasn't really the norm with other kids my age at the time.  It's only in maybe the last ten years or so that I've come to regard Freddie Mercury as the biggest musical genius who ever lived.  Up until coming to that realization, I had grown a little tired of We Are the Champions and Another One Bites the Dust, since I heard them so often during my 14 years working at home Bulls games.  Found them to be too commercial.  But one day I watched back-to-back Queen/Freddie Mercury documentaries.  4 straight hours.  And I was flat out hooked.  It's not unusual for me to want to devour everything I could find about a band after I see them in concert or, as is the case with A Start is Born, in a movie, and oftentimes it changes my perspective on that band.  I had a totally different perspective about the overplayed Queen sports anthems after seeing how those songs came to be.  The movie only briefly touches on it, but the documentaries really go into how the same band could put out songs that are so varied that you almost can't believe it's the same band.  Yes, it's not uncommon for bands to change/evolve over time.  Certainly the 1980s pop star Madonna isn't the same performer than she was in the 90s, 2000s, etc. but an Aerosmith, for example, or The Eagles still kind of maintained the same style as they'd always had.  The diversity in Queen's songs could be found on the same album.

    The movie ends with the Live Aid performance, which the documentaries highlighted as well, but what's almost as good as Queen's performance at Live Aid is the Freddie Mercury tribute at Wembley after he died.  That's one of my favorite concerts of all time.  And one of my favorite Queen songs, Somebody to Love, was performed by George Michael at that concert.  His vocal range is simply amazing, and whoever chose which artist was to perform which song knocked it out of the park with that choice.  

    It's pretty hard to step into Freddie Mercury's shoes, but Adam Lambert is about the closest I could imagine one could come.  I wish I could have gone to see Queen with him as their front man.  Brian May has talked about how he is so much in awe of Lambert that at times he almost forgets to keep playing the song...he becomes a fan.


    Last edited by blondy28 on Sun Nov 04, 2018 6:59 pm; edited 1 time in total
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    Post by blondy28 Sun Nov 04, 2018 6:51 pm

    sharpy wrote:They probably could have gone more deeply into Mercury's personal life, but I suspect that the band members played a big role in this thing and probably wanted certain things to remain guarded

    Maybe the movie is lying to us on that front.


    Per the review I read the only "lie" was that Mercury and the band was aware he had AIDs when they played at Live Aid - and he did not as of yet know ..

    There were a couple others I read as well.  One has to do with how Freddie met the man he was in a relationship with when he died and how they reunited.  In real life, apparently they met at a gay bar, and ultimately, ran into each other at a gay bar again several years later.  The movie had them meeting at a party at Mercury's house and that many years later, Mercury tracks him down after trying to find him through the phone book.   I also read that there wasn't really an estrangement where Mercury leaves the band and then begs them to let him back in the band right before the Wembley concert.  In the article I read, several members of the band had already taken their shots at solo albums but they were still making music together.  There were also discrepancies related to Paul, who the band's manager or record company exec (too lazy to look).  The movie shows him being interviewed about Freddie after Freddie fired him and him revealing all of Freddie's secrets, which, I read, didn't happen..although I wanna say he did sell some pictures to a tabloid, or something like that, but it wasn't as it was presented in the movie.
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    Post by jaywit Sun Nov 04, 2018 11:24 pm

    Bohemian Rhapsody is one of the few songs that I remember where I was when I first heard it.  Sophomore in high school, driving in my brother's '70 Ford Maverick with a decent stereo.  Heard it as I was punching buttons from one station to the next and stopped as I heard what turned out to be the beginning of the second verse.  When it led into the operatic part I was tempted to punch to another radio station but it held my interest long enough.  When it morphed into hard rock I was hooked.  Waited to hear who the hell that was but the radio went straight into another song.  I didn't have to wait long to hear it again and find out it was Queen.  I kinda knew who they were, had previously come out with the hit song Killer Queen which I thought had a bit of a different sound to it.  Once I got the Night At The Opera album I was hooked.
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    Post by cream919 Mon Nov 05, 2018 12:08 am

    At the risk of getting the board's tongues wagging, I, too, saw Bohemian Rhapsody Friday.  I promise it's a total coincidence that Rob and I saw A Star is Born and Bohemian Rhapsody on the same nights, and that Rob's wife's name is Pam.  


    *************************************************************************************


    Suuuuuuure....and I sing like Freddie Mercury.  tongue
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    Post by cream919 Mon Nov 05, 2018 12:15 am

     A bunch of college grads with families and wives and who didn't appear to be big partiers.  Maybe the movie is lying to us on that front.


    *************************************************************************************


    Brian May is Dr. Brian May and has written scholarly books in his chosen field of astrophysics. Smart guy. 
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    Post by blondy28 Mon Nov 05, 2018 6:49 am

    cream919 wrote: A bunch of college grads with families and wives and who didn't appear to be big partiers.  Maybe the movie is lying to us on that front.


    *************************************************************************************


    Brian May is Dr. Brian May and has written scholarly books in his chosen field of astrophysics. Smart guy. 

    They mention that quite a few times in the movie.
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    Post by frank bonifacic Mon Nov 05, 2018 8:53 am

    SoxIlliniRob wrote:My family of five saw the Queen movie tonight.  I can't imagine enjoying a movie more than that.  Granted, I'm a huge fan of Queen and have always considered "A Night At The Opera" to be in my top ten favorite albums, but even my kids loved the movie, including my 11 yr old who doesn't like ANY of  my music.  You'd not want to see this thing unless you're at least a pretty big Queen fan, because you're going to hear a ton of their music and see a ton of concert footage.  The dude that played Mercury was outstanding.  Looked like him and even sang amazingly and sounded like him.  At times, I honestly lost track of the fact that it wasn't Freddie doing the singing.  

    The casting was great.  The dudes that played the other members of the band were good and looked spot on.  My kids even asked me to play Queen in the car for the drive home.  Gotta like that.  Reviews have only been lukewarm, but if you actually like Queen then trust me....you'll really enjoy the movie.
    I also thought that "A night at the Opera" was great!
    I especially liked the scene with Chico and Groucho negotiating the contract!
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    Post by sharpy Mon Nov 05, 2018 7:24 pm

    with all this queen talk I've been on YouTube watching their live sets and had forgotten what a great live act they really were ..
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    Post by SoxIlliniRob Mon Nov 05, 2018 8:08 pm

    sharpy wrote:with all this queen talk I've been on YouTube watching their live sets and had forgotten what a great live act they really were ..

    Dude sure had a stage presence of his own.
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    Post by sharpy Sat Nov 10, 2018 10:50 pm

    Saw BR tonight and agree with all rob says. Not the greatest movie, tho very well directed, but extremely enjoyable. Amazing how they replicated the concerts, esp Live Aid, and I found it incredible that they found 3 actors who so much looked like May, Taylor and Deacon. Good movie and one of the few biographies where all the people actually seemed like good people. 
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    Post by SoxIlliniRob Sat Nov 10, 2018 11:07 pm

    sharpy wrote:Saw BR tonight and agree with all rob says. Not the greatest movie, tho very well directed, but extremely enjoyable. Amazing how they replicated the concerts, esp Live Aid, and I found it incredible that they found 3 actors who so much looked like May, Taylor and Deacon. Good movie and one of the few biographies where all the people actually seemed like good people. 

    That's the thing that surprised me....they seemed like nice guys that cared about each other.  The hurt in May's eyes when he thinks Mercury has gone around them....
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    Post by jaywit Mon Nov 19, 2018 12:35 am

    Finally got out to see this movie.  From '76 to '82 I was as big a fan of Queen as there was, saw them live multiple times, had/have their first 9 albums and a live album, etc.  As a huge Queen fan this movie was all I could have hoped for and more.  I was awestruck.  I felt like I did after seeing them live.  I had to talk my wife from Korea into going to see it.  Prior to the movie she had a faint idea who Freddie Mercury was, only a cursory knowledge of western modern music (when I met her, she hadn't heard of the Who, Eagles, Mick Jagger, Bob Dylan, etc).  When the movie ended and the credits started to role, she didn't budge.  She stayed in her chair until the final credit rolled past and all sound ended.  She wanted to stay and see it again.


    I was amazed at the actor portraying Freddie.  Hard to believe he was singing on his own and not lip-synching.  Loved the scenes around the production of Bohemian Rhapsody and the album A Night At The Opera.  Would have liked to hear the song Death On Two Legs after they walked out on their manager at Trident (for whom the song was written) but that may have launched another law suit.  The actors who played the other band members were great, too, and I was particularly astonished by the actor who played Brian May.  He was a dead ringer for him in looks and mannerisms.  I noted very few breaks from reality, in addition to those already mentioned, not really worth mentioning unless you're a real stickler for Queen facts.  Best movie I've seen in a long time.
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    Post by SoxIlliniRob Mon Nov 19, 2018 7:48 am

    Awesome. Sounds like your take was the same as mine on all accounts. And like you, have always loved Death on Two Legs.
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    Post by jaywit Mon Nov 19, 2018 6:55 pm

    SoxIlliniRob wrote:Awesome. Sounds like your take was the same as mine on all accounts.  And like you, have always loved Death on Two Legs.
    I didn't know this until last night when I looked it up on Wikipedia.  The ill-timed manager whom this song is about and sued Queen for defamation later came out with a book Life On Two Legs:  Set The Record Straight.  He must have really been devastated by losing Queen just before their rise to superstardom.  Dude, you're not mentioned in the song.  Except in very small circles no one knew the song was about you....until you told the world.
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    Post by blondy28 Mon Dec 03, 2018 4:03 pm

    Queen with Adam Lambert announced a tour next year.  Definitely planning to go to the show at the United Center.  Tickets go on sale Friday.  Hope they're not as expensive at the Stones tickets, which I got for my son.  Cost me my entire year-end bonus.
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    Post by blondy28 Thu Dec 06, 2018 6:16 pm

    Bohemian Rhapsody nominated for a Golden Globe for best picture.  Kinda surprised since it was pretty well panned by the critics.  Not surprising is that Rami Malek was nominated for best actor.

    A Star is Born got 5 nominations.  Best picture, best actor, best actress, best director, and best song.

    The Cheney movie Vice led all nominations.
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    Post by jaywit Thu Dec 06, 2018 6:47 pm

    blondy28 wrote:Bohemian Rhapsody nominated for a Golden Globe for best picture.  Kinda surprised since it was pretty well panned by the critics.  Not surprising is that Rami Malek was nominated for best actor.

    A Star is Born got 5 nominations.  Best picture, best actor, best actress, best director, and best song.

    The Cheney movie Vice led all nominations.
    The critics didn't like it?  WTF was their beef?
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    Post by SoxIlliniRob Thu Dec 06, 2018 7:55 pm

    jaywit wrote:
    blondy28 wrote:Bohemian Rhapsody nominated for a Golden Globe for best picture.  Kinda surprised since it was pretty well panned by the critics.  Not surprising is that Rami Malek was nominated for best actor.

    A Star is Born got 5 nominations.  Best picture, best actor, best actress, best director, and best song.

    The Cheney movie Vice led all nominations.
    The critics didn't like it?  WTF was their beef?

    I think they thought it was thin on substance.  Kind of a fluff piece.  I don't think it was trying to be a deep dive into the mind of Freddie.  It seemed like it was trying to be a fun movie about how the band formed and how they co-existed with each other, with a concentration on Mercury.  if that's what they were trying to be, they did a nice job accomplishing that.  I noticed where they publish the Rotten Tomato score for the movie, it receives a 62% out of 100 from critics, which is a "decent" score.  It receives a 92% or so from the public, which is obviously an outstanding score.

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