Signer Freddie Mercury and the music of Queen are iconic to rock and roll with the wide range of music they did. Freddie was a crazy music genius/ bisexual/ crazy cat person who got AIDS (due to too many partners) and eventually died from it, but he and Queen left quite a musical legacy with songs like Bohemian Rhapsody, We Will Rock You, We Are the Champions, the FLASH GORDON soundtrack, and songs for the soundtrack of HIGHLANDER. BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY (with the cooperation of the members of Queen) has created a great biopic that chronicles the birth of Queen to their performance at Live Aid in the mid-1980s. Rami Malek is fantastic as signer Freddie Mercury. The movie uses the actual Queen songs and the actors learned how to play the musical instruments so the performance in the music scenes didn't come off as fake. Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor even lent actual instruments and costumes from the band to the production. The production did have its problems with director Bryan Signer being fired during production after he sometime failed to show and his erratic behavior (and clashes with cast and crew). Cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel stepped in to finish directing the movie and the movie still comes out as a great movie because everyone stepped up to make it shine. Just think of how different this biopic would have been if Baron Sacha Cohen played Freddie Mercury, but that film version crashed after director Stephen Frears left the project due to creative differences with Brian May and Roger Taylor. However, BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY captures the essence of Freddie mercury and the other members of Queen and I can see why it was a worldwide hit in movie theaters.

SPECIAL FEATURES:
The complete Live Aid movie performance is presented as an extra on the blu-ray since the movie does edit the performance down for the theatrical cut.

Fetaurettes:
RAMI MALEK: BECOMING FREDDIE (16:13)- how Rami Malek was cast and how he became the lead singer of Queen for the movie and he enjoyed putting on all of the different costumes in the movie
THE LOOK AND SOUND OF QUEEN (21:44)- a behind-the-scenes look at how the cast prepared to play the members of Queen down to having some of the original instruments and costumes. Interviews with the cast, crew, and Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor
RECREATING LIVE AID (19:55)- a look at how they created the Live Aid scene in the movie from building the stage on an empty airport runway, dressing the extras to play three different people, using CGI to recreate the stadium and using the computer to replicate the audience members from green screen footage of each extra

Also on the blu-ray are the teaser trailer, theatrical trailer, and final trailer for the movie. Also in this combo pack is the movie in standard definition on DVD and a code to download and stream a digital copy of the movie.

FINAL ANALYSIS: Despite a change of directors during production (with Bryan Signer still getting director credit), BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY works as a fantastic movie which mostly works despite it needing to be edited down a little more and the Live Aid scene being a little off where it should have focused on the performance in the stadium without it cutting away to people watching it at a pub and at home. The extras are great despite there being the lack of an audio commentary.

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