Search - Queen :: Greatest Hits, Vol. 3

Rounding up the remaining "hit" videos

Michael Allred | Niles, Michigan United States | 11/23/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"A new video for "Under Pressure" kicks this video release off. It uses what I like to call "Forrest Gump" technology as it uses computers to place Mercury and Bowie together on stage..though that NEVER happened in real life. Queen and Bowie never performed the song together live nor filmed a music video..through computers we can now see what that would've been like.The directors take footage of Freddie from one of their last concerts at Wembley Stadium in 1986 and partner it with footage of Bowie & the surviving members of Queen at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert (completely removing the image of Annie Lennox from the latter.)Though the result is not perfect (members of Queen were shown wearing different outfits) it's still quite stunning and is very subtle with other changes (using computers to alter Freddie's mouth so it's up to speed with the remixed soundtrack and the coloring of the footage itself so both match.) A great job!Since I have covered the clips for "Let Me Live", "No One But You", "Somebody To Love" & "These Are The Days Of Our Lives" previously on this page, I'll skip past them here."Princes Of The Universe", the theme from the movie "Highlander", goes beyond a normal video using scenes from the film. It actually casts the movie's star, Christopher Lambert and has him "duel" with Freddie himself! The movie's sets are also re-created specifically for the video. Cheesy fun but fun regardless."The Great Pretender" finds Freddie once again in drag on film (he also "dragged" Roger Taylor along.) Several of Queen's previous videos were re-created here showing Freddie jumping in at various points. I must say Freddie seemed to go out of his way to make his videos seem like a party....much like......"Living On My Own" which WAS filmed at a birthday party of his and SURPRISE! It's theme was for everyone to dress in drag....except Freddie surprised everyone and put on..ahem..manly(?) duds. His parties, much like Queen's, became rather infamous affairs and some problems were raised when a few powerful record company executives didn't want to be filmed wearing dresses. =) The video was altered a bit to fit the remix of the track and honestly made it worse..things were hazy and hard to make out and at a party like this, you don't want to miss anything!For the record, the video's audio track was the version that was *supposed* to have been on "Greatest Hits 3" but a mix-up occured and the album version was put on instead."The Show Must Go On" was filmed at the Bejart Ballet featuring the surviving members of Queen w/ Elton John singing. It was set on a smallish stage with minimal lighting but all (with the exception of a "comfortably dressed" Brian) looked VERY stylish."Driven By You" and "Barcelona" were all well and good but in the end unexceptional.My gripes;Why they chose the infamous "let's throw a bunch of clips from old videos" style of the Torpedo Twins for "Too Much Love Will Kill You" is beyond my thinking when a FAR more appropriate and fitting film *created* for this song by the British Film Institute was available. This version is available on the "Made In Heaven: The Films" video.The oddity that was "Heaven For Everyone" just threw me. If you've ever seen the "Tonight, Tonight" video from the Smashing Pumpkins, you'll remember the "man on the moon" inspiration they used..well the original and VERY old footage that inspired the Pumpkins was used here. Why? I haven't the slightest clue. Call it lazy filmmaking."Las Palabras De Amor" show that Queen should've had someone coordinating their wardrobes as they looked liked they had gotten drunk and threw anything on. Freddie dear, you don't wear sneakers with a tuxedo.Regardless of my gripes, this is fantastic to own as a lot of these clips were not officially available to own on home video. Some I've had to watch on horrible quality bootlegs for years. What a relief!"

For Die Hard Queen Fans

Victor Ramirez | Veracruz, Mexico | 06/27/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is an Excellent video for those Die Hard Queen fans all over the world (Like myself), it contains very hard to find videos just to complete your video collection, it is a perfect epilogue for the great Freddie Mercury."

Must Have!

sam | 06/20/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I must say that this DVD is an incredible buy. I was a little skeptical at first because so many of the tracks are without the late, great Freddie Mercury, but I was more than satisfied with the disc and would reccomend it to anyone who has any sort of admiration whatsoever for Queen. I did not think I wouldn like Wyclef because I am not a rap fan, but he was just as good as the rest of them. George Michael and David Bowie rock as usual, but it is Elton John's performance of "The Show Must Go On," in tribute to Freddie, that really steals the show. Great quality and superb music. A Must Have!"