Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) . Rocketman (2019)
Back in the long ago prehistoric days before VCRs, these two films would've sooner or later ended up together as a re-release double feature in theaters. (With an all new poster blaring something like "THE GREATEST ROCKERS! THE GREATEST SONGS! TOGETHER AT LAST IN ONE GIANT SHOW!")
Since BQ once again stands as the last being on planet Earth who's finally gotten around to watching these movies, it's inevitable we'd view them and post on them back to back.
Since nobody needs to hear the particular plot details of these films hashed over for the 20 millionth time, we'll just kick in a bunch of random observations on absorbing them one after the other.
True, there's tons of similarities between them in content and structure, but they're two very different animals.......
So let's start in chronological release order with "Bohemian Rhapsody" about the meteoric rise and tragic end of Queen's lead singer/songwriter Freddy Mercury.....embodied here by Rami Malek's Academy Award winning Best Actor performance.
And as fate would have it, due to the....uh....unstable behavior of director Bryan Singer, the last few weeks of this film's production were turned over to Dexter Fletcher, the director of "Rocketman".
But unlike 'Rocketman', which functions as an all out semi-fantasy jukebox musical, 'Rhapsody' adheres to the same time-honored traditions and tropes that film biographies have followed since the 1930's.
First comes the Early Years, followed by The Struggle To Achieve, followed by The Success Montage, followed by The Fall From Grace, followed by Redemption and Renewed Triumph.
We should point out that 'Rocketman' more or less follows this same carved-in-stone blueprint, but tickles those tropes (and gets through them faster by illustrating them with songs and dance numbers.
There's none of those flourishes to distract you in 'Rhapsody', which leaves the film to completely hone in on Malek's all out, go-for-broke performance. He knows full well he's landed the role of a lifetime and behaves accordingly.
We could pay the exact same compliment to Taron Egerton's equally brilliant work as Elton John in 'Rocketman', but unlike Malek, he's competing for attention with the movie itself, a brazenly cinematic version of a typical Broadway 'jukebox' musical.
Director Dexter Fletcher clearly wants to you remember his name as well as Elton John's and his ultra high energy back of tricks reminded us, more than once. of those wild 'n crazy Ken Russell rock musicals like "Tommy", and "Lisztomania".
(Which would probably account for why Academy voters well remembered Malek's work, while Egerton became just another component bobbing along in a sea of elaborate dance numbers)
In true musical tradition, both movies finish up with showstoppers - 'Rhapsody's being a spectacular re-creation of Queen's performance at the mammoth 1985 'Live Aid' concert and 'Rocketman'a staging an infectious, impossible-not-to-love re-do of the "I'm Still Standing' music. video
As those film biography rules dictate, both movies deal heavily with their subject's succumbing to drugs, booze and sex additions as well as their own ballooning egos.....not to mention their ongoing battles with rapacious music industry sharks and their heartwrenching struggle to exist in a still homophobic society.
Watching the 'Rhapsody' scenes where Freddy Mercury copes with his death-sentence AIDS diagnosis, you can only wonder how Elton John came through that horrific epidemic unscathed.
And each film offers its own bonus in the form of a well known actor rendered completely unrecognizable in their roles. In 'Rhapsody', it's the funny ironic appearance of Mike Myers as a grumbling music executive who's confounded and annoyed when he hears the tape of the title song.....yes, the same Mike Myers who in 1992 made the song a whole new hit again in "Wayne's World".
But we're at a total loss to explain Bryce Dallas Howard turning up in 'Rocketman' playing, of all things, Elton John's mum. Huh? Say what?
Something else we found fascinating - each film's divergent depiction of music promotor-manager John Reid, who arranged and managed the concert tours of both Queen and Elton John. In 'Rhapsody' , as played by Aiden Gillen, he seems like a genial, non-threatening, non-sexual presence......as opposed to Richard Madden's take on him in 'Rocketman' where Reid's shown as sharply dressed, blade thin, cold hearted predator, in whom Elton John mistakenly thinks he's found true love.
The two movies bunched together made one hell of a double feature, so in that regard, we're kind of glad we waited this long to catch up with them at the same time.....(almost equivalent to when moviegoers lines up for the double feature of "Thunderball" and "You Only Live Twice" (THE BIGGEST BONDS OF ALL TOGETHER!" .screamed the poster)
That's why we'll give this dynamic duo the same rating we gave to those two Bonds when we watched 'em back to back......4 stars each (****). (If there's anyone else left in the world who hasn't seen them, we highly recommend a rock-all-night Double Feature......)
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