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Post by hi224 on Jun 13, 2019 2:40:30 GMT
easy number one for me as well.
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Post by Nora on Jun 13, 2019 22:15:45 GMT
easy number one for me as well. what is it with you and “as well”? |
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Post by mecano04 on Jun 14, 2019 22:48:51 GMT
Yup, saw it earlier today. Best movie I saw so far in 2019.
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Post by jimanchower on Jun 16, 2019 23:02:24 GMT
easy number one for me as well. "Sublime"?
Somebody check that guy's papers.
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Post by hi224 on Jun 17, 2019 6:21:25 GMT
easy number one for me as well. "Sublime"?
Somebody check that guy's papers.
Do you have any other contributions |
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Post by sdrew13163 on Jun 17, 2019 6:29:45 GMT
Glad you liked it. Is it better than Bohemian Rhapsody? Upon rewatch BR was miserable.
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Post by sdrew13163 on Jun 17, 2019 17:47:30 GMT
Glad you liked it. Is it better than Bohemian Rhapsody? Upon rewatch BR was miserable. BR, thematically, is very easy and transparent. That doesn't exactly make it a miserable movie to my mind, because there is so much energy and excellent music, but I feel RM is more artful and creative. It is more layered and nuanced. I saw a quote from someone that said watching Bohemian Rhapsody was like reading the Wikipedia page on Queen. That’s about how I felt. It was an empty and boring movie in my opinion. I might check out Rocketman, though. There’s nothing else out right now as it is anyway. |
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Post by hi224 on Jun 17, 2019 18:06:06 GMT
BR, thematically, is very easy and transparent. That doesn't exactly make it a miserable movie to my mind, because there is so much energy and excellent music, but I feel RM is more artful and creative. It is more layered and nuanced. I saw a quote from someone that said watching Bohemian Rhapsody was like reading the Wikipedia page on Queen. That’s about how I felt. It was an empty and boring movie in my opinion. I might check out Rocketman, though. There’s nothing else out right now as it is anyway. See it a few times this movie was amazing |
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Post by Vits on Jun 21, 2019 20:10:43 GMT
7/10
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Post by cooly44 on Jun 26, 2019 17:40:43 GMT
I hope to see it this week.
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Post by joekiddlouischama on Jul 27, 2019 7:34:51 GMT
I viewed Rocketman three times and deemed it "decent" on each occasion, essentially meaning average. The film's goal of merging the musical and biopic genres creates commendable energy and humor early on, but that energy fades as the film proceeds, although perhaps the dissipation makes sense given Elton John's drug-addled melancholy. Taron Egerton delivers a solidly intense and introspective performance as John, but unsurprisingly, he cannot quite sing like the musical icon. Meanwhile, Jamie Bell, as lyricist Bennie Maupin, excels with subtlety. Using an Alcoholics Anonymous-style group therapy session as the nexus for the film's flashbacks—and ultimately its flash forward—proves effective, but Rocketman is quite standard fare. It hits the usual musician/celebrity biopic thematic notes (unloving parents, decadence, substance abuse, romantic betrayal) before concluding cathartically to satisfy audience expectations—movie comfort food, in effect. The film's cinematography, meanwhile, is respectable yet unremarkable. Two aspects annoy me and speak to a sense of generic laziness. In one instance, when John first travels to America to perform at the Troubadour circa 1970 (in actuality) or 1971 (my impression from the film), we view a vintage shot of the club and the surrounding Los Angeles area. But on the marquee we see "Jimmy Carter," indicating that the shot is from 1976, when Carter was successfully running for president, not from the early seventies. Later, we see John's lover and manager punch the singer in the face just before the superstar is about to go on stage and perform, even though that manager (who makes for a way-too-familiar-and-easily-encompassing villain) has just told John that he must perform and uphold the business aspect of their arrangement. The incident reeks of false and illogical melodrama contrived simply for a movie. These aspects speak to a sort of pedestrian filmmaking manner. The movie's coda probably constitutes its best aspect, but even there, Rocketman makes it seem like "I'm Still Standing" emerged circa 1991, when John evidently sobered up, yet in actuality the song came out nearly a decade earlier. In its details and conventions, Rocketman settles for sometimes-embarrassing convenience. I certainly enjoy the film more than this reviewer, but I concur with his critique of the movie's too-easy, too-cute sensibility. link |
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Post by joekiddlouischama on Jul 27, 2019 7:51:47 GMT
Glad you liked it. Is it better than Bohemian Rhapsody? Upon rewatch BR was miserable. BR, thematically, is very easy and transparent. That doesn't exactly make it a miserable movie to my mind, because there is so much energy and excellent music, but I feel RM is more artful and creative. It is more layered and nuanced. The one major advantage of Rocketman, compared to Bohemian Rhapsody, is that it shows its celebrated protagonist as actually possessing an inner life, one where he wrestles with the troublesome implications of his sexual orientation (irrespective of AIDS or any medical concerns). In this particular regard, Rocketman offers better writing and acting. Conversely, Bohemian Rhapsody essentially shows Freddie Mercury as gung-ho in his gayness (if I can phrase it that way) from the start, even if he too marries a woman. In Rami Malek's portrayal (which constitutes a "performance" in the lesser sense of the term), Mercury is the rock star/gay icon-as-soldier, a simplistically unabashed man who marches through life sentimentally yet willfully, with no sense of nuance or introspection (which makes Malek's Academy Award for Best Actor even more of a joke, given the major limitations of his characterization). Bohemian Rhapsody's major advantage over Rocketman, conversely, is the cinematically spectacular and thrilling Live-Aide sequence at the end. Rocketman cannot match it, and that sequence, with those dramatic aerial shots and crowd-panning/tracking shots, gives Rhapsody a point of visual and technical distinction.
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Post by joekiddlouischama on Aug 17, 2019 6:11:38 GMT
The one major advantage of Rocketman, compared to Bohemian Rhapsody, is that it shows its celebrated protagonist as actually possessing an inner life, one where he wrestles with the troublesome implications of his sexual orientation (irrespective of AIDS or any medical concerns). In this particular regard, Rocketman offers better writing and acting. Conversely, Bohemian Rhapsody essentially shows Freddie Mercury as gung-ho in his gayness (if I can phrase it that way) from the start, even if he too marries a woman.
In Rami Malek's portrayal (which constitutes a "performance" in the lesser sense of the term), Mercury is the rock star/gay icon-as-soldier, a simplistically unabashed man who marches through life sentimentally yet willfully, with no sense of nuance or introspection (which makes Malek's Academy Award for Best Actor even more of a joke, given the major limitations of his characterization). Bohemian Rhapsody's major advantage over Rocketman, conversely, is the cinematically spectacular and thrilling Live-Aide sequence at the end. Rocketman cannot match it, and that sequence, with those dramatic aerial shots and crowd-panning/tracking shots, gives Rhapsody a point of visual and technical distinction. I have seen Rocketman several times now and it is shaping up to be my movie of the millennial.
For myself, I can't hold a 12 minute sequence at the conclusion of BR as making this a major advantage for a film, that as you have already mentioned, wasn't as well written or as in depth with the characterization in comparison. There are many sequences that Rocketman possess, that within its own presentation, are just as mind-blowing, just not as objective and are visually and technically stunning. Where BR went wrong, was by sanitizing Freddie and attempting to gain superficial audience sympathy. It was phony in this sense. Every character in Rocketman comes through for me, both large and smaller parts and it is also stunningly edited with its time and sequence transitions.
I wanted more with RM and for it to continue. I just wanted more meat on the bones of BR.
... a fair assessment. Unfortunately, I feel that Rocketman undermines some of its potential by resorting to quite a bit of cliché and gimmickry, the kind common to the biopic genre. That said, the film's portrayal of its iconic protagonist is certainly superior to that of Bohemian Rhapsody, and I completely concur with the sentence in bold. I do not feel the same way as you about some of the supporting characters in Rocketman, but its version of Elton John is much more human and genuine than Bohemian Rhapsody's version of Freddie Mercury.
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