Movie Reviews

Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango?

All these years and I still don’t know what the hell Freddie Mercury is singing about. I was hoping the Queen bio pic would provide the answers I so desperately seek. But alas, it does not provide. On more than one level actually.

Sure, the beginning where the tune that normally accompanies the 20th Century Fox logo has been replaced by a Queen-ified version, is a fun way to start things off. But what comes next is a pretty paint-by-numbers bio pic where we race through Queen’s Wikipedia page without actually getting a chance to connect with any of the characters. There’s no denying though that Rami Malek is excellent as Freddie Mercury. Along with the almost intgral reconstruction of the band’s 1985 comeback show at Live Aid, he is pretty much the best thing about this movie.

But at least ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ is better than the Mötley Crüe bio pic that also came out recently. Just like with ‘The DIrt’ (or ‘The Turd’ as I think of it) though, director Bryan Singer seems content to leave out all the more raunchy bits making this movie about as rock ’n roll as a bio pic about Engelbert Humperdinck. At one point we catch a glimpse of one of the decadent parties Mercury liked to throw. But it’s a PG-13 rated glimpse without dwarves balancing cocaine-filled plates on their heads.

What does that leave us with? A movie that is entertaining enough but which should have had a bit more bite.