Review – Bohemian Rhapsody

It was at Live Aid in 1985 that Freddie Mercury cemented his place amongst the legends of modern music. No surprise, then, that this incredible, seminal Queen performance provides the book-end for this Freddie Mercury biopic.

The film opens with a knock on the door of an airstream, from which the band emerge. Freddie energetically makes his way to the stage before being introduced before a worldwide audience of hundreds of millions.

We then cut back to the 1960s where young Farrokh Bulsara is working as a baggage handler at Heathrow and, in perhaps the film’s most bizarre scene, he is racially abused and replies by saying ‘I’m not from Pakistan’.

From there the film moves swiftly from his meeting with Roger Taylor and Brian May and his joining the band that became Queen, through the writing and recording of various songs and albums, all the way back to the full Live Aid performance (though missing We Will Rock You, for some reason) which closes the film. Here’s a trailer:

First things first, this is not a warts and all portrayal of Freddie’s life. Whilst his excess, his debauchery and his unpleasantnesses are present, they’re couched in a way that preserves his legacy in the minds of the viewer. This is exactly the film that Sascha Baron-Cohen didn’t want to make and exactly the film that Queen did.

That said, we do get an excellent portrayal of his life, his sensibilities and his vulnerabilities. Accusations of straight-washing don’t hold, as his sexuality is never denied. Yes, he spends a lot of time with Mary but then…he did. We also see knowing hints of the debauchery of his parties; ‘white powder on the coffee table’ substitutes for actually seeing cocaine being snorted.

The only real downpoints, apart from the Heathrow scene, are, firstly,  the performance of Mike Myers in what is the weakest scene of the entire film. Mike Myers can’t do the subtle comedy required here, so you end up with an incongruous caricature of a record executive, whose soul purpose seems to be to shoehorn in a reference to Wayne’s World. Secondly, a LOT of artistic licence is taken with the timeline. Clearly we don’t have time to see the detail of each of the 11 studio albums that Queen recorded over the timespan depicted but if you want an accurate account of what happened and when you’re better off reading Wikipedia.

But that doesn’t detract from what is, all in all, a VERY good film. It’s exactly the grandiose spectacle you would expect a film about Freddie to be. The actors nail their roles better than you might think possible and, as always, Tom Hollander is a delight, portraying their lawyer-cum-manager Jim Beach. And at the end, the recreation of Live Aid is nothing short of incredible. If you want to be guided on a journey through the life of Freddie Mercury that’s fairly gentle without being superficial then this is the film for you. If you want a tawdry look deep into the more salacious aspects then you’ll have to go elsewhere.

I enjoyed this film even more than I expected too and I walked out feeling significantly more fabulous than I had when I walked in!

Review – Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle

I’ll admit I get a bit annoyed with Hollywood’s obsession with remakes and reboots and reimaginings. Does nobody have any original ideas any more? Well…if you believe the experts there’s a maximum of seven stories and everything else is just a derivative of those so, if that’s the case, then no…there’s nothing new possible.

There have, of course, been plenty of new films out this year. We’ve also had a few of what I like to call the ‘Decades Later Pseudo-Sequel’. I put Trainspotting T2, Blade Runner 2049 and Flatliners into this category. They’re not direct sequels in that they don’t follow on from the events of the first film and they’re not exactly reimaginings or reboots because they refer to the original films in some way. They stand on their own feet as a film, but you can get more from them if you’ve seen the original. One more film we can add to this list is Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.

If you haven’t seen Jumanji then firstly, what have you been doing with your life all these years? It’s on telly at least a couple of times a year and it stars Robin Williams – a sadly-missed actor who played ‘childlike wonder in adulthood’ better than anyone else. The basic premise is that there’s an old jungle board game called Jumanji that, when played, can suck players right into it or spit out dubious animatronic creatures according to a ruleset that goes out of its way to be ambiguous.

Fast-forward 22 years and the world of games is a very different place. Instead of turn-by-turn board games we have multiplayer videogames, one of which, Jumanji, our four teenagers discover when they find themselves together in detention. They turn it on, because an old console must surely be better than removing staples from a pile of magazines, right? So they choose characters and then get sucked into the game to find themselves in an actual jungle in the bodies of Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart and Karen Gillan. They quickly discover that they have limited lives and will have to work as a team to get out of there and back to the real world. Here’s the trailer.

Hijinks ensue, as you no doubt expect. Ferocious animals, different character strengths and weaknesses, and a fearsome enemy all combine with the fact that they still have the personalities of the teenagers that are playing the game to create an at-times hilarious film. A lot of the humour does come from the adult actors having the personality of their teenager players – so The Rock is a nerdy wimp and Jack Black is a phone-obsessed teenage girl. You might think this would get old quickly but it’s done well and so the laughs keep coming. I laughed out loud several times – more than enough to warrant it being called a comedy.

It also nods back to the original at a few points in a way that’s subtle enough that people who know Jumanji will understand but people who don’t won’t miss anything. All in all I thought Jumanji was a great, enjoyable film and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to anyone. It won’t be troubling the Oscars but with strong performances from all of the main cast – even Nick Jonas – and a plot that makes as much sense as it can, what we end up with is an enjoyable way to kill a couple of hours being entertained. Kids, especially, will love it!

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is in UK cinemas from December 20th.