Rocketman

source: Rocketman

Really good biopic, different to what I thought it would be, Taron Egerton was awesome , loved how the songs were integrated in film, give it a go you won't be disappointed!

source: Rocketman

Bohemian Rhapsody is just brilliant in every way with an outstanding performance by Rami Malek. Well deserved oscar winner. This is just ok thanks to a good portrayal by Taron & an even better one by Jamie. You don't have to be a queen fan to like Rhapsody but i think you have to be to enjoy Eltons story. 3/10

Taron Egerton's portrayal of Elton John is superb and only heightened by the producers allowing Taron to sing his own versions of many of Elton John's classic hits. It would be impossible to capture all aspects of Elton John's life in the 2 hours provided in this musical/biographical film, so instead the producer/writer/director concentrated on Elton's early childhood which helped shape his destiny when he first met his partner in song writing the great Bernie Taupin played by Jamie Bell. There were far too many other excellent performances from the supporting cast members to mention them all but I have to mention two in particular who were top notch. Bryce Dallas Howard plays Elton's irresponsible (wife cheating) mother, and Richard Madden who plays John Reid one of Elton's early but serious lovers remained Elton's manager for decades after their sexual relationship ended. Both of these actors added a lot to the films depth in the one area that focused on Elton's tormented soul and led him to binge drinking and pill popping which is the area this film reflected. I hope we don't have to wait for Elton John to pass away (God forbid) before some producer realizes that Elton John and Bernie Taupin whose lifestyles and personalities are so diametrically opposite that they deserve their life stories to be developed into a (minimum) ten (10) hour TV Mini-Series to cover a heck of a lot of both of these musical genius's personal lives as well as their successes with their musical portfolios. Rocketman is well worth seeing and rates a perfect 10 out of 10 in my version of Elton John's quasi autobiography book.

Rating 9.0/10 First of all, when i booking this ticket i don't know much who he is . I'm so excited to whatching this film because i want to know more about him. I'm so suprise because the storyline on this movie is really good to introduce Elton John to me. The movie is full emotions and deep moments. Good acting performance by Taron Egerton as Elton John & Matthew Illesley as Young Reggie. As a human, life too short to be sad.Overall it was a good film, not great just good.

People must have very low expectations if they thought this was good. Mine were set at "Bohemian Rhapsody low," a standard it still failed to meet. There's nothing moving about this; they really F up the music by trying to create a book musical about Elton's early life with all of the actors singing it - probably the only pleasure of BoRhap was hearing Queen's originals on a good sound system. You'll get none of that here. It's all re-arranged, truncated, poorly sung. You have to tolerate the poor singing even though there's nothing realistic about the script, no dramatic scenes of note, just images and montages, the actors are just stand-ins for characters we never get to know much about (Gemma Jones, of course, being the best of them). For some reason, Bryce Dallas Howard is innit trying to talk like Adele - surely they could've gotten any number of British actresses to play/stand-in as Elton's mother?! It's a bit like watching a stage show on film. But the script hasn't a clue what's going on in the middle - and you won't either - with its muddled timeline (erm, Elton John was a huge star when he duetted with Kiki Dee - he hooks up with Richard Madden's John Reid after the Troubadour gig in August 1970 and we're meant to believe they don't see each other again until the recording of Don't Go Breaking My Heart in March 1976 but still somehow carry a white hot flame for each other? Whatever). The absence of anything from or even about Captain Fantastic is a disappointment. But this rubbish is what passes for a 5-star film these days. There's a lot of whinging about how hard it is/was to be Elton John but in the hands of Fletcher, Hall and Egerton, no actual pain or anything to empathise with. There are moments when it looks a bit like Ken Russell's Tommy - the worst bits. Hall's rendering and Egerton's performance are both just one note: "poor me, I'm Elton John." For the most part, Egerton looks like a children's party entertainer. Nothing like the original, for those who remember the times. It ends very anti-climatically with Egerton CGI-d into the original video for I'm Still Standing which was more of a curio at the time, rather than a career high; and a slideshow of Elton's public and personal accomplishments since then, done as the type of thing you'd expect at a surprise party rather than a major motion picture. If it makes $900M I'll be surprised. Again.

I want to start by saying that I really struggle to sit through longer films, I get restless and my attention wavers (a little sad I know, but it is what it is). When I left the cinema I couldn't believe the running time - including adverts etc I'd sat through 2h30 without even thinking about the time once. I was completely engrossed! Taron Egerton, alongwith his co stars perform excellently in this fantasy based musical, taking you through the highs and lows of Elton Johns earlier life. It's a real rollercoaster experience, I loved it! There were many moments which made me smile of bought a tear to my eye for different reasons, I'll name a couple of my favourites. Elton arrives in America and performs Crocodile Rock. There's so much passion in his performance and then comes this euphoric, floating fantasy scene, it's so beautiful and a great piece of cinematography which immerses you and makes you feel like you are there in that room. I also loved the way Elton and Bernie's friendship was shown, it was so lovely to watch. There's a really touching scene where Elton is playing his piano, creating music to accompany the lyrics to Your Song. Bernie is upstairs shaving, yet is drawn to the dining room to listen to Elton bring his song to life. Elton's singing the lyrics and keeps looking over to Bernie, seemingly singing it to Bernie platonically, as a love song. You see a real bond between the pair of them. One scene that got me the most was after Elton had tried to commit suicide, they showed him being rushed to hospital which once he arrived there was a routine in which he was treated and prepared by everyone around him to perform on stage immediately as he forces a smile. It just showed how much he suffered and how money came first, it was really poignant. Again, a beautiful piece of work. There's so much more to talk about, such as the relationships between him and his mum/dad/new manager come lover and how they were all equally as cold and callous. Or the scenes in which Elton has visions of his younger self, comforting a younger Elton at the end of the film with a hug - all he ever wanted. However we'd be here all day! I truly adored this film and it's definitely one to watch on the big screen. It bought out so many emotions and that's what I think a film should do. So glad I've seen it and have recommended it to everyone who's mentioned it!

Although classical music and opera is more my cup of tea/forte, that has never stopped me from having always admired Elton John and loving most of his songs. "Your Song", "Something About the Way You Look Tonight", "I'm Still Standing" and pretty much all the songs in 'The Lion King' are especially great, one of the few exceptions being "Crocodile Rock". He is/was also a quite interesting man, both stage persona and personal life, and the period that is primarily focused on is a very compelling one and worthy of being told on film. 'Rocketman' was not a perfect film, but on the most part it was thoroughly enjoyable and at its best dazzlingly executed when seeing it in the cinema earlier this year. As far as films released in 2019 goes, 'Rocketman' is to me in the better half. Even if accuracy and the chronology can be called into question, it still makes John and his personal life, detailing his childhood, early career and how it came to be and the troubled period of his career, quite fascinating. As well as being worthy of a lot of admiration in its own right. Not everything works. For my liking, the last twenty minutes or so are executed too tidily. While John and Bernie Taupin are well rounded and fully realised characters, the other characters, despite being well acted by particularly Bryce Dallas Howard, felt like underdeveloped caricatures (i.e. the parents' cold behaviour towards Reggie not being explained). However, 'Rocketman' has so many things working in its favour and more so than the bad. First and foremost, Taron Egerton. A totally committed and quite brilliant performance full of confidence, swagger, flair, subtlety and nuance, not to mention a great singing voice, treating John with respect without impersonating him. The scene where he opens up to his mother and his reaction to her cold response was heart-breaking in particular. Jamie Bell is the other performance worthy of note and the relationship between John and Taupin is handled beautifully, with the right amount of intensity but also taste. One can tell how well they clicked and feel their mutual affection and it really drives the film and at times the heart of it. It looks great too, beautifully photographed and John's flamboyant costumes are a sight to behold, one of the bigger examples being that unlike-anything-you've-seen-before one in the therapy. The songs are as magnificent as one expects and staged with a lot of brio and confidence without being overblown. The very moving "Your Song", performance and the understated staging, being a big standout in this regard, another powerful part being with what is done with the opening of "Yellow Brick Road", done so truthfully and mirroring what is going on at that present moment without spelling it out too much and showing how much Taupin cares for John. Heck, the film even manages to make "Crocodile Rock" tolerable in one of the film's more exuberant moments. The script manages to be both entertaining and sincere, underneath all the flashiness there is depth too. There may be conventional moments in the story (a lot of biopics though are like that), but the scenes showing off John's unique showmanship are difficult to look away from and the story detailing John's troubled personal life at the time is powerful. A great job is done showing who John is, what he is and how his mind worked when dealing with troubles and when he was writing and performing. Dexter Fletcher's direction is adept. Summing up, a very, very good and often great film that just misses out on being brilliant. 8/10

I am a huge Elton John fan starting from way back when I was a kid in the '70's, and although I knew not to expect a straight biopic from what I had already heard about the film, I certainly didn't expect this! From the first song straight through the rest of the film, all I was thinking is that what we were watching was the Broadway musical Elton has probably always wanted to do, and probably should have done instead of a film. Ironically, now there's talk of turning this into a musical, so why not have gone that route instead? I cannot even single out what was the worst thing about "Rocketman", but certainly the most irritating was the time frame of events/songs. My concern is that people of a younger generation who don't know much about Elton and see this film will think that certain things that occurred are fact, like that one of the songs he performed at the historic Troubadour show that helped catapult him to superstardom was "Crocodile Rock", when in reality, it hadn't even been written yet. Another concern was an example from a fan review I read on another website where a woman(who didn't seem like she was real familiar with Elton's life)said that after seeing "Rocketman"(which she loved), she "felt sorry" for him. I really don't think that Elton John would want pity from his fans, but because there is so much emphasis on the unhappy events in his life, one who is not familiar with the man and his body of work would think he hardly had ANY good times in his life during that crazy superstar time, and he DID have a significant amount of fun, he has admitted in interviews over the last couple of decades. If this film was going to be a musical, it should have had at least a fair balance of good and bad times, and not so much a woe-is-me film. But even with a fair balance, the whole thing would have still probably been a hot mess with the way it was made. A straight biopic would have been SO much better. Somebody needs to make a REALLY good and detailed documentary(and it doesn't even have to be a film in theatres; it can be a multi-part series on a network like HBO or Showtime)on Elton John. If you really want to see something that more successfully captures the fascinating complexity that is Elton, I recommend watching "Tantrums and Tiaras" from 1997, the documentary that was directed by David Furnish(then-boyfriend, now husband). That will be far more interesting than "Rocketman" was, so save your money and skip "Rocketman", and I say this as somebody who's loved Elton John and his music for decades. Because I am a longtime fan, I really, really wanted to like, no, LOVE the film, but unfortunately, I just couldn't.