Just watched Bohemian Rhapsody for the first time. Good flick, but a little over hyped, though I will tip my hat on how well they recreated the Live Aid concert. I had watched it the actual concert footage on YouTube prior to watching the film, and they did a fantastic job recreating the scene.

My issues with the film was a combination of being inaccurate with history for the sake of drama. The band never broke up like they did in the film, Queen was not a last minute addition to Live Aid and the band had actually released an album prior to the concert event, and of course the most glaring is that Freddie Mercury most likely contracted AIDS a year or two following the Live Aid concert. The other issue is something I remember one review criticizing the film for, which is that while Mercury is a pretty flawed fellow, his band mates (whom are all alive still) come across way too squeaky clean to be realistic and rarely drive any drama to the film. For instance, the film glosses over the fact that Queen's first tour in the U.S. was cut short because Mays collapsed on stage and was later diagnosed with Hepatitis, or that the solo album debacle was blown out of proportion because two of the other band mates had already started working on solo projects before Mercury did his. At least they got some of the writing elements correct since most people assume Mercury wrote everything but actually every member contributed songs for every album. Despite all, that, it was still an enjoyable flick.

Afterwards, I re-watched the film Topsy Turvey, which is another biographical flick about Gilbert and Sullivan (Pirates of Penzance, H.M.S. Penafore, and The Sorcerer) concerning the struggles to create their last great operetta The Mikado. Again, some details are smudged for the sake of drama but the film is a real treat to get an idea of what Victorian era England was like and the film has an excellent dry humor to it that only the English can do so well. If you've ever worked in theater, this film is also a nice treat as some of the elements concerning the actors may hit too close to home for others.