Ready Freddie

THEY ARE THE CHAMPIONS: Yesterday, I finally got to see a movie I've been looking forward for darn near 10 years, "Bohemian Rhapsody," a biopic about the legendary band Queen. 
The movie had been started and stopped repeatedly over the years, with changes in script, actors and directors. Finally, miraculously, they finally made it work. 

We were all ready for the film, including Annabelle, who was sporting a custom-designed Freddie Mercury meets My Little Pony shirt.

We were in our seats a few minutes before the 7 p.m. start time. And we were surprised to find our seats were in the very first row. Hmm. ... Definitely not the seats I reserved on line, but we were happy to be there nonetheless. Nothing wrong with a 4-foot Freddie Mercury and band mates. 

CJ's thoughts on the film are following. It includes a couple of spoilers. You've been warned. ;)

Queen is (or was, depending on who you ask) a rock band from London, England. Queen's records are estimated to have sold around 200 million units worldwide, making Queen one of the best-selling music groups in the world. On 1 November 2018, Bohemian Rhapsody (a biopic named after a famous Queen song of the same name) make a "sneak-preview" premiere in multiple theaters, followed on the next day by a standard theater release. I saw Bohemian Rhapsody at Cinerama (a local movie theater) on 1 November.

Bohemian Rhapsody covers Queen's existence from their evolution from the band Smile in 1970 (with obscure animator and model maker Tim Staffell on lead vocals instead of famous singer Freddie Mercury) to Queen's iconic performance at the Live Aid charity concert in 1985. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the film took some liberties with Queen's history (for example: The film seems to jump straight from the release of Queen's self-titled debut album to the release of Sheer Heart Attack, seemingly ignoring Queen II.) Freddie Mercury is played by actor Rami Malek, who took the place of Sacha Baron Cohen (best known for starring in Borat) after Baron Cohen left production of the film.

And here's what Annabelle had to say. ...

"Bohemian Rhapsody" is a bio-pic about Freddie Mercury, and more generally the band Queen. It tells the story of how the band got together and rose to fame, concluding with their performance at Live Aid in 1985. The movie details how Queen began as a band named "Smile," playing various local pubs and bars before their lead singer quit. Freddie Mercury, still going by his family name "Bulsara," joined the band and they began touring a larger area before finally selling their van for money, so they could record their first album as Queen.

Queen became popular very quickly, quickly getting record deals and releasing new hits. However, when their current agent refused to release "Bohemian Rhapsody" as a single, they split from him and hunted for another producer, where Bohemian Rhapsody was released to terrible reviews. Nonetheless, it became a hit among the public, making Queen a legend in the rock scene.

Sadly, as more and more rumors surrounded the band and Freddie Mercury (particularly about his bisexuality), the band fell out of favor and Freddie Mercury left to work on solo albums. During this time, he also contracted AIDS and was dumped by his fianceé Mary, sending him into a depressive state. Thankfully, the approach of Live Aid gave him motivation to rejoin with his bandmates for one last performance at Wembley stadium. Soon after, Freddie Mercury died of AIDS and left his entire estate to Mary, a foundation being named after him dedicated to searching for a cure. Queen songs continue to be some of the most consistently popular tunes, and as evidenced by the fact this movie exists the fanbase is still quite large.

And what did I think of the film? I was happy that the movie made me happy. It wasn't maudlin at all. Yes, they took some liberties with the timeline and other facts, but it didn't pretend to be a documentary, so it is what it is. I look forward to seeing it again.