Fun but costly Saturday at Suntec City and Marina Bay Sands…and movie review for ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.

I have been working overtime for the past week and this weekend is the much needed time for me to rest and reduce my stress level. It looks like I’m going to be busy till the end of December and I can feel the pressure is building up to the point that I couldn’t sleep well lately. Fortunately, I have a nice outing with my friend yesterday in the city although it turns out to be quite costly (that’s due to my own fault).

Besides than going for a casual ‘sing k’ and a usual movie session at Suntec City, we have the urge to walk from the mall to the Marina Bay Sands through the popular Helix Bridge that offers amazing view of the city. Since we were already in Marina Bay Sands, it is super convenient to just drop by for a visit to its casino. ‘Itchy hands’ cause me to lost few hundred bucks there. So, what a costly weekend outing.

The highlight of this post is actually a review to the movie that I have watched; ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. It is a biographical film about the British rock band Queen, and it follows the life of the band’s lead singer, Freddie Mercury leading to the famous Queen’s Live Aid performance at Wembley Stadium in 1985. I always enjoy biographical films as they allow me to know more of the person these films are based on who are usually very popular and influential figures (despite some historical inaccuracies usual due to movie dramatization). Before this movie, I didn’t know much about the band and its lead singer, Freddie Mercury who died at age of 45 in 1991 due to complications from AIDS. I only knew the two famous songs the band have produced; ‘We Will Rock You’ and ‘We Are The Champion’. He was before my generation.

I enjoyed the film and I was very impressed with Rami Malek’s performance as Freddie Mercury. His resemblance to the singer is uncanny. When I was watching the movie, I felt like Rami Malek is no longer there and all I see is the real Freddie Mercury in it. It shows how much Rami Malek had done to get into this iconic character. For me, he totally outshines Bradley Cooper from ‘A Star Is Born’ in the best actor race. I can’t get away from comparing this film with ‘A Star Is Born’ since both are music-centred. To be honest, I even find ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ better than ‘A Star Is Born’. It has higher IMDB score than ‘A Star Is Born’ and yet a much lower score in Rotten Tomatoes. Critics don’t enjoy ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ more but general audiences do. I find that ‘A Star Is Born’ has excessively emphasized on the love storyline that couldn’t hit me although it displays superb acting as well.

‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ does not attempt or pushing itself hard to be an Oscar film with a very nice flow of story added with strong performances and music sequences. I was very engaged with the storyline (interesting plot with not much of romance and some hilarious moments) that explores on Freddie Mercury’s relationship with the other band members and his former wife, his attitude, his unique style and his sexuality. The ending scene of the Live Aid performance is truly captivating and gave a high-note conclusion to the film. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ a total of 8.2. A dramatic and entertaining biographical film that will tell you more about this legend, Queen’s Freddie Mercury.

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

 

Movie review: One Direction – This Is Us (2013)

What is a concert film? It’s a type of documentary film, the subject of which is an extended live performance or concert by a musician. Basically, it’s a movie showing usually the best parts of a concert, superimposed with several other scenes related to the background and success of the particular star(s). This kind of movie would certainly please the fans, and usually not the movie critics. The first concert film I watched was back in 2011, and that is Justin Bieber: Never Say Never. Now, it’s time for One Direction: This Is Us, released in 2013.

The former is a movie solely on a single celebrity, while the latter centred on a band by five young British boys. One person to five. Which one do you think could manage to pull off for a movie of about one and a half hour? Of course One Direction: This Is Us. Sorry to Bieber’s fans. More people is an advantage to this type of movie that requires no ‘real’ plot. Hope you understand what I mean. You see, even in IMDB score, Bieber’s film only managed to get 1-2 points out of 10 while 1D got 3-4. But both had very low ratings there. I won’t give that low.

Okay, I will stop comparing. Let’s get back to ‘1D: This Is Us’. I’m glad that the movie shows a bit from the X-Factor competition where it all began for the five boys. If you didn’t know, they participated individually in the competition back in 2010, but then formed a group together under guidance by Simon Cowell. Despite only finished in third place, they continued to perform in the group and eventually achieved worldwide success and fame. The movie also offers several short talks with parents of each boys as expected. These parts should be heartfelt and emotional, but the movie only manages to achieve that minimally. But I think the movie did well and balanced on showing things from the five boys, mostly in group and also individually.

It is pretty engaging throughout the whole movie. It offered live singing of most of the popular songs by the band like ‘What Makes You Beautiful’, ‘One Thing’, ‘Live While We’re Young’, etc. They performed very well and gives the movie a very energetic push, hence the movie successfully brought up the mood and joy of watching it.  I enjoyed their show seen from this film and it must have satisfied their fans too. We do see also the playful and fun side from One Direction, particularly when they were off-stage (in the bus, backstage, in camp, etc). I especially like the part when they put on make-ups to pull off pranks to their unknowing fans. The scene during the end credits is very hilarious too. The movie also highlighted their tireless lives going from one place to another to complete huge number of shows with passion and effort.

And also as expected, we do see also a lot of crazy excited fans screaming throughout the movie. A bit annoying, but you have to bear with it when you are watching this kind of idol-on-the-spot movie. Well, it’s something cannot be denied that they have a very strong and huge fanbase all over the world. And I was like ‘wow’, by the extremely massive turnouts of their fans shown in the movie anywhere in the world. The movie also presents the strong friendship within them and it’s somewhat quite interesting to watch. Overall, this movie delivered to its objective, and is somehow enjoyable, cheerful and fun to watch despite I’m not a fans of the group. However, I do like some of their very hit songs and I don’t mind going for their concert in future (only if there is no excessive screaming by the die-hard female fans). Wait? Maybe they will come to perform in KL soon in the planned Where We Are Tour this year. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘One Direction: This Is Us’ a total of 7.4. A very good rating indeed.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)