REVIEW: BETTER MAN

[number six]

This is a biopic of Robbie Williams where they replaced him with a CGI Monkey.

The first question on many people's minds is of course.. who the fuck is Robbie Williams?

He's a British popstar that was in a boy band but found bigger success going solo. Think of him as a Justin Timberlake but a bit more cheeky and one that never really got famous here. They gave him a slight push in the late 90s and released one album which got some MTV airplay but it didn't last long and he gave up on America. That's how I knew about him.. I was apparently one of 12 people that bought the album and enjoyed it.. was able to find subsequent records via imports at the local record shop and then of course the Internet.

Still releasing this in the United States seemed like a bad idea.. especially giving it a wide release. When we saw it last night our local theater made the mistake of putting it in their large format screen (ie their largest theater) it didn't go well (see attached)

So a big budget biopic about an artist most people have never heard of.. yikes.

Anyway if you know who Robbie Williams is the movie is quite enjoyable. I didn't really know his life story because obviously he wasn't famous here.. so it was interesting to see it dramatized. The fact that he's a monkey is a gimmick but surprisingly it works.. although it probably also contributed to the film's $110m budget.. I'm guessing it would have been better to just put a dude in a suit and try to get this out cheap.. but hindsight is always 20/20 I suppose.

The question becomes would it still be interesting if you don't know the dude and/or his music. That I can't answer. I know I noped out on the Bob Dylan biopic because I don't really care about Bob Dylan so i suppose that answers the question.

Still one of those things that I'm happy to see and glad I didn't green light. Given how much this will lose I'm surprised Disney wasn't somehow involved.

[tufnel1530]

I almost saw that.. maybe I will if I get a chance.

But yah.. I know who the guy is but have no idea about his story and don't really care.

And I agree on the Dylan movie.. who cares to watch some dork do a Dylan impression for two hours?

I don't mind Dylan but would rather watch a proper documentary (which there are a few including the long Scorsese one).

[HammysHangout ( Hammy )]

How do you compare it to say, The Bohemian Rhapsody movie ? I just wasn't feeling the monkey gimic, i couldn't understand that, I was on my way to make this, but i was called to an emergency over in tampa so had to cancel my reservation.

[number six]

How do you compare it to say, The Bohemian Rhapsody movie ? I just wasn't feeling the monkey gimic, i couldn't understand that, I was on my way to make this, but i was called to an emergency over in tampa so had to cancel my reservation.

I enjoyed it about as well as the Bohemian Rhapsody movie.

Queen is more iconic but that movie obviously sanitized their backstory quite a bit.

Better Man shows Williams life warts and all.