Movies: Rocketman (Elton John biopic)

[HanSolo]

Impossible to take those movies seriously after seeing "Walk Hard," however. That pretty much perfectly skewered the music biopic, and IMO should be required viewing for anyone who's making a biopic, music or otherwise.

Should be required viewing for everyone.

 

[Jussi]

90% Fresh after 229 reviews. I'd say it's a hit. Much better score than Bohemian Rhapsody. Dexter Fletcher "saved" that movie and with this, he showed how to do it properly is what I'm reading multiple Finnish people saying online.

About the lack of David Furnish, he's one of the producers, maybe that's why? I read one review wondering why it left out so much of his happy moments, the awards, the accolades, numerous friendships with other celebrities, happy marriage and family life.

 

[Hasbro]

Impossible to take those movies seriously after seeing "Walk Hard," however. That pretty much perfectly skewered the music biopic, and IMO should be required viewing for anyone who's making a biopic, music or otherwise.

Still not the genre killing parody that was Tropic Thunder.

“Now get in there and learn to play theremin!”

 

[Live in the Now]

That's fair.

I know very little about Elton John but let me guess at the movie plot...

* As a young person, he was not accepted / bullied.
* He will struggle with his looks/weight and sexuality.
* He will be moody, addicted to alcohol / drugs / sex and self hating.
* Deep down he will be a sweet person.
* He will struggle to find love that was right in front of him all along.
* The music will be glorious and life saving/changing.

As I have said before, wake me when they make a movie about Van Halen - now that will be a nasty / interesting movie.

1. Nope
2. Barely. Never struggled with being gay even though it wasn't publicized, but rather the manager who wooed him and broke things off with him.
3. Yep. Hatred related to the fact he had shitty parents.
4. Nope
5. Nope
6. Not life changing. Glorious sometimes. It depends. Some of those scenes play out in a way where the songs are being sung in full out musical bits while showing him destroying his life. The music did not save him.

Those last three are nice because I really didn't want to see that at all, and they didn't bother to make anything up in this regard.

There were some great musical sequences, but no grand redemption whatsoever. As soon as he hits rock bottom, he unloads some of his feelings and the film is over. It seemed like a musician who was honest with themselves in pointing out they had a great relationship with their song writer and the times on stage were great, but the rest of their life was an absolute mess.

A fair bit better than Bohemian Rhapsody, which was complete made up nonsense where members of Queen used their platform to make their own lives look great (nothing bad is ever said about any of the living members, ever) while shitting on the life of their fallen band member. The scenes where that film made it out like Freddie had abandoned the band, is a full out betrayal in the worst way because the person isn't alive to defend themselves.

Anyway, I'm not an Elton John fan and didn't know anything about him, but I looked some things up about him when I came home because I thought this was different than usual.

 

[Cor]

I’m watching it for a 2nd time.

Has to be one of my favourite movies right now. Just incredibly well done.

 

[Voight]

90% Fresh after 229 reviews. I'd say it's a hit. Much better score than Bohemian Rhapsody. Dexter Fletcher "saved" that movie and with this, he showed how to do it properly is what I'm reading multiple Finnish people saying online.

About the lack of David Furnish, he's one of the producers, maybe that's why? I read one review wondering why it left out so much of his happy moments, the awards, the accolades, numerous friendships with other celebrities, happy marriage and family life.

The movie pretty much ended right before he met Furnish.

 

[Jussi]

The movie pretty much ended right before he met Furnish.

Yes, I've seen it already and posted review in the Last Movie you watched etc. thread. I wondered why they left out so much of his happiness after he got sober and almost complete admission of Furnish (only mentioned with pictures in closing credits), maybe Furnish as a producer didn't want himself in it? Anyway, what LITN said, much better and honest than Bohemian Rhapsody. Could have easily been 5-10 minutes longer with the happy bits and all. I wouldn't have minded a mention of Diana either.

 

[Voight]

Yes, I've seen it already and posted review in the Last Movie you watched etc. thread. I wondered why they left out so much of his happiness after he got sober and almost complete admission of Furnish (only mentioned with pictures in closing credits), maybe Furnish as a producer didn't want himself in it? Anyway, what LITN said, much better and honest than Bohemian Rhapsody. Could have easily been 5-10 minutes longer with the happy bits and all. I wouldn't have minded a mention of Diana either.

Historical inaccuracies aside I preferred Bohemian Rhapsody myself.

& I think they ended it where it did because pretty much all of hits were made before he got sober. No I'm not suggesting he was any less of a musician after he qui drugs + alcohol but they likely wanted to focus on his 20 year run of making hit after hit to keep casual fans interested.

Would have been nice to see him perform Candle in the Wind tho.

 

[Jussi]

Historical inaccuracies aside I preferred Bohemian Rhapsody myself.

& I think they ended it where it did because pretty much all of hits were made before he got sober. No I'm not suggesting he was any less of a musician after he qui drugs + alcohol but they likely wanted to focus on his 20 year run of making hit after hit to keep casual fans interested.

Would have been nice to see him perform Candle in the Wind tho.

He had a lot of movie related and duet hits in the 90's, especially with the Lion King soundtrack.

 

[Voight]

He had a lot of movie related and duet hits in the 90's, especially with the Lion King soundtrack.

Right but if you look at his most popular songs - majority were made in that first half of his career, plus they weren't going to make the movie 3 hours.

 

[Jussi]

Right but if you look at his most popular songs - majority were made in that first half of his career, plus they weren't going to make the movie 3 hours.

Yes but the point was he had huge hits after getting sober. Notice I said the movie could've been 5-10 minutes longer which would have put it's length at 126 to 131 minutes.

 

[Neutrinos]

Absolute rubbish!

Egerton was poorly cast in the lead role, and the entire film is style over substance

I found myself forwarding through the musical numbers

There was nothing remotely entertaining about the characters, the performances, or the story

And I would've liked to love it
But it was all just shit
My interest ended long before
The movie ever did

 

[Hippasus]

I've never been a fan of his music, but I thought it was all right. Shows the life of a dedicated musician with his flaws and all, and seemed well-produced and acted.

 

[Gordon Lightfoot]

I've never been a fan of his music, but I thought it was all right. Shows the life of a dedicated musician with his flaws and all, and seemed well-produced and acted.

Same. Though I'm starting to appreciate his music a bit more than I used to.

I will again compare it with Bohemian Rhapsody and says that it was much better than that movie. At least Rocketman had a bit of originality. Bohemian Rhapsody was too predictable.