Bohemian Rhapsody

Bohemian Rhapsody is not a biography of Freddie Mercury, nor a biopic of Queen. It's a story based on a selection of key events occurring between the formation of the band and their appearance at Live Aid. As a Queen fan I found this film utterly engrossing and enjoyable. The acting brilliantly invokes the characters in the band and the music provides a thumping rhythm to carry the story along. Queen aficionados may be affronted by the out of sequence music performances and the highly selective approach to the story telling but if you can see past that, you'll enjoy a storming film with a spine-tingling conclusion as the Live Aid performance is brilliantly recreated.

Rami was beyond superb at bringing the light that was Freddie to life again. I almost couldn't tell the difference. It was so well done. Perfection. I wish all real life bio-pics could be as heartwarming, heartbreaking, and fun as this. We miss and love you Freddie.

I was scared to see this, mainly because most Biopics paint people in an absolutely horrible light and Queen was one of my favorite bands and Freddie one of my favorite rock vocalists. I was ready to rant and rave if it turned out to be a smear campaign of one of my rock heroes. Fortunately it wasn't, it was actually a fair treatment of all of them. And, in fact, it was really generous towards May, but then he wasn't the focus of the film. And the cast actually looked like Queen. So that is a plus. Everyone did a great job and props have to go out to Rami Malek, he would have been great if they gave him actual dialogue. So why the single star? Honestly, it's because of the trailer. As in, if you saw the trailer you pretty much have already seen the movie. Not just the highlights, but the entire movie. Queen was an epic band. Bohemian Rhapsody was an epic song. But Bohemian Rhapsody the movie has absolutely no meat on it. You walk in with high hopes, and the cast is great, but the movie as a whole is a let down. It ends at Live Aid (as it probably should) but even then it doesn't seem anywhere near as epic a finale as it should have been for such a memorable and lauded performance. Ultimately, there should have been more to it.