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Bohemian Rhapsody movie will rock you, early reviews report

Rami Malek earns raves for playing Freddie Mercury, lead singer of Queen.

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, generational studies. Credentials
  • Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
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Gael Cooper

Get ready to bang your head: Bohemian Rhapsody, the long-awaited feature film about the late singer Freddie and the band Queen, is about to open, and reviews began to trickle out on Tuesday.

The film seems to be hitting all the right notes with fans, especially Rami Malek's performance as Mercury. Here are a few snippets from early reviews.

Bohemian Rhapsody is indeed a killer Queen biopic
"While onstage, Malek is outlandish, flirty and mesmerizing as he swaggers and preens with every ounce of confidence of the real Mercury. His angular stance and press of vocals beam out of his spandex-covered frame like a bright light to the heavens. And that's just as Mercury onstage."   —Patrick Holland, CNET

Film doesn't live up to Rami Malek's performance
"Onstage, Malek's Freddie is a studded leather peacock, swoony and liberated, letting the life force pour out of him in a glorious tremolo ... Offstage, Malek nails the star's fusion of charm and ego with a suavely nervy command."    —Owen Gleiberman, Variety

Better as an origin story of Queen's hits than a Mercury biopic
"An object example of how a film can be entertaining and even exhilarating without being particularly good, Bohemian Rhapsody has the driving energy of a stadium anthem and the fizzy meaninglessness of a bubblegum pop song."   —Alonso Duralde, The Wrap

Watch this: Bohemian Rhapsody stars explain Freddie Mercury's Castro style

Other stars include Lucy Boynton, Gwilym Lee, Ben Hardy and Aidan Gillen.

Bohemian Rhapsody opens Oct. 24 in the UK, Nov. 1 in Australia, and Nov. 2 in the US.