Bohemian Rhapsody, Halloween and Juliet, Naked

Despite the ordinary screenplay, most of the acting and the overlong second half, I thoroughly enjoyed Bohemian Rhapsody. Rami Malek is outstanding as Freddy and his relationship with his family and early days with Queen are well  portrayed. I was never a great fan of the band, but never disliked them. Now I know how great t would have been to see them live. There were so many great songs, John Deacon playing a new riff (that became "Another One Bites The Dust) to split up an argument and the audience singing "Light Of My Life". The first number during the final part at Live Aid (Bohemian Rhapsody) was so poignant given the lyrics of the first verse and Freddy on is way out.

It was interesting to learn afterwards that Tim Staffell, the original bass player and vocalist, who quit the original band called Smile, was invited by Brian May and Roger Taylor to join them to record their old number "Doing All Right" for the movie.

There were some moments in Halloween that I enjoyed. But unfortunately, the screenplay was pretty wooden. Fortunately, the scares were not that scary (I avoid all those new horror films that try to do just that). There were just too many of them. I should have given it a miss despite the mainly positive reviews.

My blog posting of the 7th August 2010 goes:

Nick Hornby is one of my favourite authors, and his latest, Juliet, Naked is one of his best. The title refers to a stripped down version of an old forgotten rock star's only classic album. Duncan is an obsessive fan of Tucker, but it is his partner Annie who makes the right connection. The writing is sharp, very funny and quite touching. It is one of those books that you make time to read as each time you pick it up, there is a new delight. Yes, it would make an excellent movie.

But not this one. Jesse and Evgenia Peretz have made a real hash of adapting the book for the movie. I didn't laugh once. Just thank goodness for Rose Byrne. She is as marvellous as Annie as Chris O'Dowd is unbelievably miscast as boyfriend Duncan. Ethan Hawke does his best as Tucker Crowe, The location of that brash seaside town looked familiar. It turned out to be Broadstairs that I can just about remember from a family holiday when I was a child. The choice of songs for the soundtrack was good, just a shame most of them are not on the album.