ROCK ME AMADEAUS!!! I don't know much about Falco except this song, which to this day I bump, he had perfect pitch or an ear for it ? and he committed suicide. I haven't been too thrilled with a couple of midnights edge videos but comments starting from 2:07 force me to remember why I haven't unsubbed yet. I was there too for the horny teenage girls calling in to MTV totally request live and as a gay man I hated it! My gay only goes so far. At least guys were more honest when it came to Britany S. It was all about sex. I wished girls would have been more honest like us and admitted that boy bands like the backside boys and instink made their gynies tingly.
I predicted this movie would flop when I saw the trailer. It doesn't matter how good a movie is if no one goes to see it. And no one who saw the trailer wanted to see the movie. Seriously ME claims it was a good movie but who would believe that when they saw the trailer. It looked stupid.
I'm from the UK, Robbie Williams hasn't been relevant here in nearly 20 years, In fact the only thing I can think that he's done in recent times is sing on cat food commercials.
Omg. That's so unexpected 😮. He used to be big in my country but we hadn't really heard of him in a good 15 years and the most I'd seen was him on Graham Norton. I only found out he had a biopic when he was on Graham and performed Rock DJ and I just figured he was clearly bigger than I'd thought
Same here in Australia, he did a free concert at the Sydney Opera house on NYE that just past and before that he was in a TV ad for a Sydney radio station(as odd as that sounds
Even as a as Brit who quite likes a few Robbie Williams songs, I’d never think a film about him could earn 100 million in the slightest. The question is who the hell thought this was a good idea? Genuinely the average guy in the pub could decide on better film projects.
@@danielebowman it doesn’t need to earn 100million. The Australian Government give back 40million in tax credits and they sold US rights to Paramount for 25million. It’s made 12million at the box office. So they’ve made 77million back on their investment.
@@nathanrussell-raby5460 If it cost $110m and you add 10m for publicity, then it has to actually earn 120m just to break even. 77m back is still a loss, so far.
@@nathanrussell-raby5460 That's not how movie budgets work. They haven't "made back" anything, assuming those numbers are accurate, they've _lost_ $23 million just on the box office sales alone, let alone whatever they invested in marketing. More realistically, they lost up to $123 million. The general rule of thumb in the movie industry is any theatrical release has to make at least double the production budget to be considered a success and triple to be seen as profitable as marketing costs aren't included in the production costs, and a good marketing campaign often costs as much as making the movie itself. A movie that doesn't even break even in theaters is considered a bomb. In this case, the $40 million in tax credits makes it worse as that means the movie only made $47m on a $100m production budget. Imagine someone asking to borrow $100 from you and they promise to give it back with interest, but a few months later they tell you that they only have $77 left to give you.
My wife is a big Robbie fan and was excited to hear he had a movie coming out. When she saw the trailer and realised he was replace with a chimp she lost all interest.
That's an interesting point. Because no where in the film do you see the actual Robbie. Except the end credits I guess. So if you are an actual fan, I imagine that would be a bit of a disappointment. But a fan might also find it interesting just to see how much they can make a chimp be like Robbie Williams. It's quite the paradox. But it's not really a feelgood movie either. It has a nice feelgood ending, but most of it is pretty dark. She should have given it a shot.
It's actually a really great movie. Pretty much anyone who has seen it likes it. I saw it once by myself & loved it (I’m a Robbie Williams fan), then I saw it again with my sister (who didn’t know who he was) and she loved it, too. Your wife is missing out if that's why she’s choosing not to see it. However, I don’t think it will be in the U.S. theaters much longer (not sure where you’re located), so hopefully it does better in streaming.
Same here, big Robbie fan too, when i saw the trailer i was really disappointed and thought i wouldn't bother watching it but in the end i changed my mind and went to see it - i really enjoyed it! (Ended up seeing it twice actually) 😂 i think she should give it a chance, it's really well made, 10 mins in you sort of forget he's a monkey! 😊
Exactly the same as my girlfriend. Why would she want to see an ape with a big mouth and jarring teeth? She dragged me to see Robbie Williams when he was here in Stockholm. He stopped songs at least three times. Tried to spin it as if he didn't stop them, but he did. The female dancers, who were rarely on stage, came out in new costumes for one of them, but then had to go back. Once he stopped claiming he had put some sort of pill in his mouth and it turned foamy. He tried to woo the audience on that one by making it a local Swedish type of candy. I guess he comes up with a new product in each country to have as an excuse. A third time he stopped singing and pointed to some guys in the audience leaving, making a joke about that instead. Seems like a market like Stockholm doesn't matter, only London and Paris matter, where the British media will be. He started the whole thing with a phrase I've seen on RUclips, so he uses it at every stop: "This is my face, this is my ahss (showing the audience his behind) and you better be good because I'm fuhcking amazing." He showed a picture of himself on the screen with a bloated belly. And so forth. He seems to love being disgusting. I guess that's why he has covered himself in tattoos. If he didn't get a break as a singer he'd be an alcoholic lying in a street puddle somewhere.
My thoughts exactly , so clearly it's not even a film for his fans because he's not in it it's a CGI chimp , who green lights this garbage? Bad idea , so he makes a film abd is portrayed by a CGI chimp , if I was a fan and I payed money to see this I'd be pissed .
Pharell made his Biography movie using Lego animation it made 10 million dollars, of a 16 million budget i guess that's also a bomb, tho not as huge as this one, scale wise
yeah its absolutely insane, spending blockbuster money on a third rate vanity project... the people who come up with these idea's are professionals at losing money.
As an American I had no clue what the purpose of this movie actually was. Why is the singer a monkey? If it was about a monkey becoming a pop star you could play with that. But the fact that the trailers never addressed it and apparently this is based on an actual pop star. Not really sure where they were going with this idea.
A monkey becoming a pop singer sounds like a Disney Channel movie Disney used to make. Most likely starring French Stewart as his owner and Richard Kind as the bumbling villain.
as I was watching the trailer I felt confused. I was genuinely giving the trailer a chance to lure me in but it completely failed. I got a weird 'planet of the apes' feeling from it mixed with 'angry young victim man triumphs' vibes. Just thought ' probably a waste of money'
The trailer does address it. But it seems that many people didn't get the symbolism of it. The persona of the chimp is symbolic for how he views himself: as a lesser-evolved person, a performing monkey. If you watch the film you might be surprised at how powerful it is. I saw it again today on the big screen. It is going to be in my list of favorites for the year and has a very good shot at being my #1. I haven't yet seen a negative review from someone who saw it.
I think a lot of people are missing the real point here. This movie could have starred a real person instead of a monkey and it still would have flopped.
Agree, guitarmoses. I was in my 20's in the 1990's and I never heard of this guy. I saw the chimp, and I thought it was another Planet of the Apes bs! Still, I would not have gone to the movies for this thing even without the expensive cgi that bloated its budget because the subject matter itself was not worth a film, nor my time or money. This project had failure written all over, from conception, even before script. It would be like making a movie about Kato Kaelin
@@petercofrancesco9812 I stand by my comments. I don't care if the budget was a lot smaller and no CGI chimp. Still wasn't going to make a profit after factoring in what little was spent on marketing.
@@guitarmoses2303 It's an unappealing film that no amount of marketing would make the masses want to see to make it profitable. This is the type of movie for a film festival.
@@dianaberlin4767 Lady please stop, this is not Twitter...have you NOT seen the current state of Disney and the M she U. The way their push for imperfect women in storylines has been constantly losing money, so if not based on emotion and ego than what are they basing it on, I mean, no "nerd girls "even like it.
@@dianaberlin4767 Who initiates most divorces? Women. What's the highest divorce rate? Divorces between same sex female couples. What's the worst financial impact on an adult in their life generally? Divorce. That doesn't even cover the credit burden most career women carry. That also doesn't cover the single mother epidemic where women all up in their feelings depend on gangs of men to help them financially their whole life due to some dude giving them the tingles at a party one night. You're not only out of your mind ignorant of life, but of statistics and clearly referenceable facts. The only thing I have seen women get better at over the years is deluding themselves.
"hey wanna see a biographic film but the main guy is portrayed as a realistic cgi chimp?" "Sure, sounds stupid and trippy I'm in. Who is the biopic about?" "Robbie Williams" "Who?" Pretty much all conversations about this film I've seen.
What genius spent millions on a CGI monkey for a biopic about a musician that Americans never heard of and whose largest fanbase was teenage girls in the 90's who thought he was cute. This is a role you cast Tom Holland or Timothee Chalamet in if you want profit.
All the ones I've seen have been a description of the movie after it flopped. Never anyone asking someone else if the wanted to go see it. The "who the hell is 'Robbie Williams'?" part is the same, though.
I guess you are American. In the UK, he has sold more record than the likes of Michael Jackson. Beyonce and Taylor Swift. He was also huge across Europe and I believe is the biggest selling non-latino artist in Latin American of all time.
That’s the problem of Robbie Williams not being a big enough star. If you know him and would have listened to the talking in the trailer, then it was very obviously a biopic of Robbie Williams (there is a part in there, where he talks about always feeling like a monkey). But that’s the issue here, „if you know him“ is the basic assumption of the trailer, without it, the trailer makes no sense.
Maybe they should have put ROBBIE WILLIAMS in the title. My girlfriend dragged me to see Robbie Williams when he was here in Stockholm last year. He stopped songs at least three times. Tried to spin it as if he didn't. The female dancers, who were very rarely on stage (but you always see them on YT for the tour videos), came out in new costumes for one of them, but then had to go back. Once he stopped claiming he had put some sort of pill in his mouth and it turned foamy. He tried to woo the audience on that one by making it a local Swedish type of candy. I guess he comes up with a new product in each country to have as an excuse. A third time he stopped singing and pointed to some guys in the audience leaving, making a joke about that instead. Seems like a market like Stockholm doesn't matter, only London and Paris matter, where the British media will be. He started the whole thing with a phrase I've seen on RUclips, so he uses it at every stop: "This is my face, this is my ahss (showing the audience his behind) and you better be good because I'm fuhcking amazing." He showed a picture of himself on the screen with a bloated belly. And so forth. He seems to love being disgusting. I guess that's why he has covered himself in tattoos. If he didn't get a break as a singer he'd be an alcoholic lying in a street puddle somewhere.
Robbie Williams was inescapable in the late 90's and early 2000's in Australia. But it was 20 years ago! I find myself asking "who did they make this for??"
But Elvis and Queen had multiple international hits and decades of lasting popularity -- that is, mass international appeal spanning generations. Robbie Williams and Take That never even got to the Spice Girls' level of fame back in the day.
I know who Freddy Mercury is. I know who Gary Numan is or John Lydon is. I never heard of this singer of his band. I thought the movie was some Planet of the Apes spin off and tuned out immediately.
@@eddiek8179 bro, the only dummies were the people who spent $110m on a biopic arthouse project. If you're spending big budget bucks, you better be making something for a big audience. Not whatever this was. Heck, it didn't even do well in the country he's popular in.
@ Nope. The dummies are the ones who cannot recognize a good movie regardless of its budget. You seem to be a corporate simp, a company lapdog - the kind of person directors and actors would loathe. The movie is a flop, for sure but that does not make it a bad movie. You highlighted specifically about its quality as a movie not as an investment when you made your post - you called it jarring because it has a chimp in it and not even understanding the context of why it was done. That is the epitome of small mindedness and narrow perspective. There have been many great movies which were flops in the past that are praised and revered now. The Thing, Fight Club, Blade Runner, Citizen Kane, The Iron Giant and The Shawshank Redemption, for example, were all flops but they are all considered to be masterpieces now. There are tons more like that. People like you would never have let those types of movies to exist because you only care about the bottom line or don't know anything about a quality of a movie. Being a flop in the Boxoffice is not representative of a movie's quality.
@@muddhutter CGI monkey, and yes people that have a phobia about monkeys and chimps, even CGI ones. THey could have made him a scary clown and I would rather go see it than a film with ANY sort of chimp.
Some great films that failed at the box office inc: It's a Wonderful Life, The Thing, Dazed and Confused, The Shawshank Redemption, The Big Lebowski, The Iron Giant, Fight Club, Children of Men, Scott Pilgrim vs the World, Blade Runner 2049, The Fabelmans... moral of the story, don't judge what you go to see by the number of people who go see it.
Right, I'm sure we'll be mentioning this flick about a washed-out Brit from 30 years ago in the same sentence with It's a Wonderful Life, The Thing, and The Shawshank Redemption. Although a better shelf would be down there with Howard the Duck, maybe?
That's what I remember him from. I remember that song sampled the theme to "You Only Live Twice," and vaguely remember some James Bond references in the video.
If I recall correctly he did a cover of Queen's "We Will Rock You" for the movie _A Knight's Tale,_ and that was the last I'd heard of him. That was in 2005.
So a movie featuring a singer that was popular 25 years ago. Then you replace the human actor with a CGI monkey. I saw three previous for this movie. None of them sparked any interest in seeing this film.
Since it’s an entertainer’s bio pic, I’m guessing it follows the rags to riches rise, then the drug/alcohol aided fall, then redemption. Other than Williams having probably having less than 1% name recognition in the USA, this bio pic trope has been done countless times before. That’s a part of the reason it failed.
He's still a full-fledged Stadium Act here in the UK and he's had 14 number 1 albums, the most recent of which was just two years ago. If I "wash up" with a fraction of that I'd be happy.
@ I'm not disputing it was wildly overbudgeted. Just think it's not a fair assessment to call one of the biggest british solo artists of all-time a washed up boyband member.
I would rather go see "IT" but with oh a hundred scary clowns, than one movie with a life size CGI chimp that when it sings has giant canine teeth. Even the trailer scared me.
They have always tried to make Robbie Williams a star from Europe in the United States for ever. Universal Music lost a fortune trying to make him a thing.
well and downplaying the fear the CGI full size chimp would cause so many that might have gone to see it. People are less afraid of sharks than chimps and monkeys. It's a true phobia.
I disagree. Making this movie is what damaged it. I was 20 when this guy was supposedly hot. And I don't know anyone who gave a crap about his stupid music.
The fact that this movie was made is baffling. Yes, Robbie Williams was a big pop star, over 20 years ago and only in UK & Europe. He never had chart success in the US or in Asia and even in UK/Europe his last hit record was over 15 years ago. In other words: he hasn't been relevant in over a decade. Why make a biopic about him now?! Most people in US & Asia never heard of the guy, imagine making a biopic about some Korean Pop Idol from the late 90's, releasing it today in the US and expecting people to watch it. And why have Robbie Williams being portrayed in his biopic, as a CGI monkey?! Who the hell greenlit this movie and thought it would be a B.O. success?!
Agree with all of the above and also Robbie Williams does not have an intriguing story to tell. He was in a 90s boy band, had some success as a solo artist, went partying and then settled down. The monkey is really just a gimmick because there is nothing else that distinguishes him from many other washed up pop artists.
@@sioioos I think we all agree that Bob Dylan is on a different level of significance than the "guy from Take That who couldn't dance". ( That's a quote by the late George Michael, making fun of Robbie Williams btw.)
@sioioos Sure, nobody here in good old Europe has heard of the guy who is one of the greatest songwriters of the 60's along with the Beatles./s Also, that movie stars Timothy Chalemet, who is a hot actor right now, instead of a CGI monkey and didn't cost a ton of money, because of said CGI monkey.
Very good movies can flop. Sometimes it's because of competition with many other good movies. Sometimes it's because of no publicity - so no one even knows the movie exists to go see it. In this case I'd say it was publicity. Many people never even heard of the movie till you mentioned it on youtube.
We went to go see Sonic 3 and we saw the preview for this. Our friends 13 year old asked me "who's Robbie Williams?" And I replied honestly "I have no idea."
Sounds made up. Not that some girl you made up didn't know who he is though. He's not that famous in the US or anywhere anymore. I was never a fan anyway, but your story just sounds made up is all. Have a nice day though.
If you had asked me yesterday who Robbie Williams is, I would have replied that he was a music artist from the late 90s and early 2000s, and that he made pop music, but I cannot recall a single one of his songs, despite that being prime music age for me, as I graduated high school in 1998 in the US.
Nothing about this appealed to me. All I saw were images of a hideous CG monkey and that was enough to pass on that. Finding out more about this makes me even less interested in it.
@@CynsCorner You might as well try to pass off the original Sonic model as "very well done". The entire trailer I wanted to yeet that uncanny valley monster into another sun because our sun is way too close.
Like the endless girls who insist they are not like the other girls. Or the people who really need people to know that they don't care what other people think of them.
When I saw the trailer, I thought this was a fictional work that copied its main gimmick from "Porco Rosso". The fact I had no clue it was a biopic is telling.
My Uncle used to be a his bodyguard, turned into a total prat, dressed like one, spoke like one, became robbies wannabe twin instead of my dads actual twin 😂
The biggest market audience for a Robbie Williams biopic would be middle-aged women. The demographic who have zero interest in a cgi monkey man are middle-aged women. And they spent over $100 million dollars on making this? Absolutely bonkers.
I always thought this movie was going to bomb but I feel his UK popularity is understated in this video. He was MASSIVE here. And well into the 2000s. I have no interest in pop music whatsoever but I reckon I could list off all his singles. Still doesn't explain why the budget was so high or why he is a CGI ape though. This was never going to appeal to a global audience.
The chimp persona is explained. And if you actually check it out you might be surprised at how very good it is. It's going to easily make my list of favorites for the year.
@@RenlangRen This is incorrect. Most of the rest of the world knows exactly who he is. Americans often forget there's a big world beyond our own borders.
Wow. It's like the perfect storm of derp. 1: Pick a singer that few of us have ever heard of. 2: Make him a monkey... 3: Spend ridiculous amounts of money on it. Skydance should be super pissed right now.
Somewhat surprised to hear Robbie is such a nobody overseas, but he's still just a name from the turn of the millenium even in Britain. When he was big, he was huge, but that was a long time ago
Yes and no. Yes, they are ticked off at the WESTERN entertainment industry, but no - if you give them something fun or enjoyable to watch, they'll come back for THAT exclusively. Example: Deadpool and Wolverine.
I think it's a combination of people are stapped for cash so there's less money for mindless entertainment and that we're now in a period of cultural malaise where the product made by mainstream producers just doesn't resonate with people anymore. There just hasn't been any movies good enough to motivate me to leave my computer chair and actually go so it.
@@sigmacademy There is a shitload of that comic book crap out there. I like the good stuff like Deadpool and Guardians, and the early marvel was good. But the shit coming out now is mostly crap and I am tired of it anyway. Nothing new to see there.
I felt the same way the first time I saw the trailer. I had no idea that the film was a biopic, had no idea the chimp persona was purely symbolic, and had no idea what the ultimate story of the film actually was. The fact that he's a chimp in the trailer and no one acknowledges it made the whole thing even more surreal, but not in an intriguing way.
NO ONE wanted a Robbie Williams bio except his fans, and who are they? By now they're middle-aged women who may still like him but aren't gonna bother with a movie till it comes on streaming, even then...
I think I heard about this movie, but frankly because of the monkey CGI I thought it was a movie connected to Planet of the Apes and not a biographic movie. Also, although Robie Williams is a good singer I wouldn't invest two hours into a movie about him.
I'm Italian and lived many years in the UK. This video is really downplaying how big Robbie Williams was. I was shocked when I found out recently that he's not famous in the U.S., the same way I was shocked to find out many in the UK have never heard of Iris by Goo Goo Dolls
The UK is a small pond in the western world, tiny compared to North America and Australia. Most British pop music does not do well overseas. Some examples: Girls Aloud, E-17, Atomic Kitten, Jamelia, Take That, Boyzone, Five, Robbie Williams, Mika, Cheryl Cole. All nobodies outside of the UK and Ireland. There are some exceptions to the rule but most British pop music is irrelevant outside of Britain, Ireland and some European countries if they’re lucky.
Oh c’mon! You mean you aren’t open to watching another movie about someone who wrangles the ability to planstumble their way to success, let it get to their head, screw up, maybe learn their lesson through failure or punishment with the *Rocky* second wind comeback?
Nobody in America cares who this Robbie Williams guy is, and the premise is Alienating to humans affected by the Uncanny Valley effect. I'd rather watch Tom Hanks in The Polar Express.
In the UK where Robbie is the most popular. The Marketing has been none existence. No billboards, no poster on buses. I don't watch terrestrial TV so don't if even had any. The marketing has been so quite, my wife how is a fan of Robbie and wants to see this film did not even know it was out.
Here's the thing. Virtually nobody knows who Robbie Williams is. When you asked people they say "who?" Robin Williams? But to be honest? If this were a movie about QUEEN or the ROLLING STONES or PRINCE and they were portrayed as CGI monkeys? Nobody would show up. Who thought spending $110 million dollars on this made any sense at all? It has to be one of the greatest mysteries of all time. Puzzling.
I thought it was about Robin Williams. But why would they make him as a monkey? Maybe it’s that night at the museum reference when Ben stiller security guy character slapped that capuchin monkey around and Robin as teddy roosevelt told Ben to stop slapping that monkey.
@@sinical1031 He had a bunch of hits, years ago and was apart of a group called Take That, mostly popular in the UK, but his star faded years ago, much like a lot of the groups from that era, but then these days topping the music charts is pretty meaningless and nobody really talks about the music they like at least in my cricles as the internet pretty much wiped out the singles chart, but then physical media like CDs is hard to come by these days, just like brand new DVDs
When a movie over 100 Million to make only makes less than a 10th of the budget, you know something is wrong. Robbie Williams, you kinda needed to see it coming.
@paulanerruhrpott6188 Nope. He just never got popular here. At all. Strangely enough, plenty of British musicians have gotten very, very popular in America. If we were so isolated, that wouldn't be the case. I hear he was more popular than Michael Jackson in the UK. Okay, fine. That doesn't mean anything anywhere else. Blame it on his publisher or distributor. Blame it on his competition here in the states. Blame it on our waning disinterest in boy bands during that time. Blame it on whatever you want. Regardles, the man is nowhere near as popular here as Elton John or Queen, and their biopics barely broke even. How would anyone expect success from a more expensive CGI-lead-character film about a more obscure singer when those ones barely made enough money to cover their costs?
The concept of casting a CGI chimp as a real person was too strange for general audiences and no one in America has ever heard of this guy. I’m pretty versed on music and I had to look him up and never heard his music. It wasn’t a good idea for a major movie.
I dont understand who could possibly have thought that people would want to see this? Robbie Williams was virtually unknown in America in the 90s, the following few decades definitely didnt add to his popularity here. I realize movies arent made for the US alone but still.
Ive heard nothing but good things about this movie, but legit have no clue who robbie williams is or was. Im not sure if hes alive. Ill watch it on streaming
Aside from not knowing who the movie was about, seeing an angry chimp face in the ads was 100% off-putting to me. Angry chimps rip arms and faces off (among other things). While that was a clever gimmick that might work for a skit, 90min or more of that sounded like torture. And yes, I gathered some folks really liked it, if they watched it, but the gimmick itself was just too offputting, I think.
THANK YOU!!! If you google a list of things people find scary, Chimps and monkeys are right up there with clowns. Why do you think Pennywise is a clown? If the clown in "IT" was a chimp dressed as a clown, no one would be able to view it.
Robbie Williams was, and still is, fairly big in Australia. I would say that's probably his most successful market in terms of longevity, because he (seems to) embrace Australian culture and is "friends" with high profile, popular Australians. He even flew in and worked the talk show circuit in Australia to promote the film.
did anyone ask WHY a chimp?? I sort of get it but did he ask anyone to name the top 5 things they are afraid of? Chimps, and monkeys, are right up there with clowns. Even sharks are less scary than a chimp.
Most of the rest of the world has definitely heard of him. Many Americans unfortunately seem to forget that there's a big world beyond our own borders. The movie was very good. I already knew who he was, but I don't think one has to know who he is to enjoy it.
I understand the ape metaphor, but what little marketing i saw about the movie didn't make it obvious what was going on with it. At first I thought it was a fully ape-ifed movie, but to have him as the only primate was a bit jarring And while I knew who it was, Robbie Williams was no Elton John or Freddie Mercury, that's for damn sure
its meant to be a really brilliant film but im in the UK where he was (and still is) obvz very famous BUT didnt hear anything about this film until it had been released already! never seen a trailer, just posters on a few bus stops. in this day of tailored ads film marketing just doesn't reach people.
The most recent successful biopics that I have heard of was about NWA, Freddie Mercury, Elvis, Elton John, these were performers who trancended borders with their music. I have never heard of Robbie Williams, and this is coming from a guy who heard Spice Girls every day on the radio as a kid. Most of those successful biopics had a budget of 50-80 million give or take. Betterman had a budget of 110 million, double than some of the most iconic musicians' biopics. Who thought this was a good idea?
To be fair, Robbie did a great impression of Sean Connery in his video for Millennium, and in fact one of his later songs did concern a monkey...But Robbie was never a big thing here in the states so I'm dumbfounded that this ever got greenlit.
I love the idea of putting an absurd twist on a biographical story. The Weird Al biopic starring Daniel Radcliffe was wonderful and takes a bunch of sharp left turns. Though, this film seems more earnest and straight-faced than Weird, despite the lead looking like he crawled out of the latest Planet of the Apes movie. I've heard nothing but good things about Better Man, and I am interested in seeing it, but not because of who it's about. I am not familiar with his music at all and know next to nothing about him as a person. It's the word of mouth from people like Alan Ng and Gary from Nerdrotic that got me interested. On paper, this film doesn't grab me. To get my attention, I need to know who it's about. Otherwise, I don't really care. And this is no diss on Robbie Williams. I'm sure I would've seen the film already if I had grown up in the UK.
In the late 90s, my local magazine store carried some UK music mags. That's how I knew of Robbie Williams. Got his LP Ego Has Landed, which had major push in the US. But I think it is a very small number of US based music lovers who know the heck he is is.
Be sure to check out our brand new Retrospective on Werner Herzog's Nosferatu!
ruclips.net/video/75cwFvkT1VI/видео.html
There is a book by an English author Will Self called "Great Apes" maybe Robbie was inspired by that book.
If you didn't make this video, I never would have heard about this movie.
Andre again bringing us the euro content that no one cares about.
ROCK ME AMADEAUS!!!
I don't know much about Falco except this song, which to this day I bump, he had perfect pitch or an ear for it ? and he committed suicide.
I haven't been too thrilled with a couple of midnights edge videos but comments starting from 2:07 force me to remember why I haven't unsubbed yet. I was there too for the horny teenage girls calling in to MTV totally request live and as a gay man I hated it! My gay only goes so far. At least guys were more honest when it came to Britany S. It was all about sex. I wished girls would have been more honest like us and admitted that boy bands like the backside boys and instink made their gynies tingly.
I predicted this movie would flop when I saw the trailer. It doesn't matter how good a movie is if no one goes to see it. And no one who saw the trailer wanted to see the movie. Seriously ME claims it was a good movie but who would believe that when they saw the trailer. It looked stupid.
I'm from the UK, Robbie Williams hasn't been relevant here in nearly 20 years, In fact the only thing I can think that he's done in recent times is sing on cat food commercials.
Omg. We got those in Italy as well. "It's great... To be a cat"😂😂😂
Omg. That's so unexpected 😮. He used to be big in my country but we hadn't really heard of him in a good 15 years and the most I'd seen was him on Graham Norton. I only found out he had a biopic when he was on Graham and performed Rock DJ and I just figured he was clearly bigger than I'd thought
Hello you, glad to see you back on your channel too.
Same here in Australia, he did a free concert at the Sydney Opera house on NYE that just past and before that he was in a TV ad for a Sydney radio station(as odd as that sounds
I'd argue the music scene was wasted when CDUK got cancelled frankly.
(anyone remember that show?)
"It cost $110 million."
And there's your problem. Hollywood is allergic to making a reasonably sized budget.
Even as a as Brit who quite likes a few Robbie Williams songs, I’d never think a film about him could earn 100 million in the slightest.
The question is who the hell thought this was a good idea? Genuinely the average guy in the pub could decide on better film projects.
@@danielebowman it doesn’t need to earn 100million. The Australian Government give back 40million in tax credits and they sold US rights to Paramount for 25million. It’s made 12million at the box office. So they’ve made 77million back on their investment.
@nathanrussell-raby5460 Movie studios only keep about half of their total box office worldwide. And they spend a lot of money to market the films.
@@nathanrussell-raby5460 If it cost $110m and you add 10m for publicity, then it has to actually earn 120m just to break even. 77m back is still a loss, so far.
@@nathanrussell-raby5460 That's not how movie budgets work. They haven't "made back" anything, assuming those numbers are accurate, they've _lost_ $23 million just on the box office sales alone, let alone whatever they invested in marketing. More realistically, they lost up to $123 million.
The general rule of thumb in the movie industry is any theatrical release has to make at least double the production budget to be considered a success and triple to be seen as profitable as marketing costs aren't included in the production costs, and a good marketing campaign often costs as much as making the movie itself. A movie that doesn't even break even in theaters is considered a bomb. In this case, the $40 million in tax credits makes it worse as that means the movie only made $47m on a $100m production budget.
Imagine someone asking to borrow $100 from you and they promise to give it back with interest, but a few months later they tell you that they only have $77 left to give you.
My wife is a big Robbie fan and was excited to hear he had a movie coming out. When she saw the trailer and realised he was replace with a chimp she lost all interest.
That's an interesting point. Because no where in the film do you see the actual Robbie. Except the end credits I guess. So if you are an actual fan, I imagine that would be a bit of a disappointment. But a fan might also find it interesting just to see how much they can make a chimp be like Robbie Williams. It's quite the paradox.
But it's not really a feelgood movie either. It has a nice feelgood ending, but most of it is pretty dark. She should have given it a shot.
It's actually a really great movie. Pretty much anyone who has seen it likes it. I saw it once by myself & loved it (I’m a Robbie Williams fan), then I saw it again with my sister (who didn’t know who he was) and she loved it, too. Your wife is missing out if that's why she’s choosing not to see it. However, I don’t think it will be in the U.S. theaters much longer (not sure where you’re located), so hopefully it does better in streaming.
Same here, big Robbie fan too, when i saw the trailer i was really disappointed and thought i wouldn't bother watching it but in the end i changed my mind and went to see it - i really enjoyed it! (Ended up seeing it twice actually) 😂 i think she should give it a chance, it's really well made, 10 mins in you sort of forget he's a monkey! 😊
Exactly the same as my girlfriend. Why would she want to see an ape with a big mouth and jarring teeth?
She dragged me to see Robbie Williams when he was here in Stockholm. He stopped songs at least three times. Tried to spin it as if he didn't stop them, but he did. The female dancers, who were rarely on stage, came out in new costumes for one of them, but then had to go back. Once he stopped claiming he had put some sort of pill in his mouth and it turned foamy. He tried to woo the audience on that one by making it a local Swedish type of candy. I guess he comes up with a new product in each country to have as an excuse. A third time he stopped singing and pointed to some guys in the audience leaving, making a joke about that instead. Seems like a market like Stockholm doesn't matter, only London and Paris matter, where the British media will be.
He started the whole thing with a phrase I've seen on RUclips, so he uses it at every stop: "This is my face, this is my ahss (showing the audience his behind) and you better be good because I'm fuhcking amazing." He showed a picture of himself on the screen with a bloated belly. And so forth. He seems to love being disgusting. I guess that's why he has covered himself in tattoos. If he didn't get a break as a singer he'd be an alcoholic lying in a street puddle somewhere.
My thoughts exactly , so clearly it's not even a film for his fans because he's not in it it's a CGI chimp , who green lights this garbage? Bad idea , so he makes a film abd is portrayed by a CGI chimp , if I was a fan and I payed money to see this I'd be pissed .
An autobiography of a famous celebrity where they are portrayed as a CGI Monkey?
It’s almost like they were trying to make a floppy flop!
now now they did not dress the chimp up as a monkey! That would have turned even more people off!
Pharell made his Biography movie using Lego animation
it made 10 million dollars, of a 16 million budget
i guess that's also a bomb, tho not as huge as this one, scale wise
yeah its absolutely insane, spending blockbuster money on a third rate vanity project... the people who come up with these idea's are professionals at losing money.
Famous celebrity that hasn't been relevant in almost quarter of a century 😂
"Famous"
I can’t wait for the Buzz Aldrin movie where he’s a great white shark floating around in space.
Moonfall 2: Sharknado: the Buzz Aldrin story
I would GO SEE THAT! Because I'm far less afraid of sharks, than horrific man sized Chimps that show off their pointy teeth when they sing.
LMAO gold mate 😂
As an American I had no clue what the purpose of this movie actually was. Why is the singer a monkey? If it was about a monkey becoming a pop star you could play with that. But the fact that the trailers never addressed it and apparently this is based on an actual pop star. Not really sure where they were going with this idea.
It was a major marketing failure. The team that was supposed to market it did not understand what the movie was about.
A monkey becoming a pop singer sounds like a Disney Channel movie Disney used to make. Most likely starring French Stewart as his owner and Richard Kind as the bumbling villain.
as I was watching the trailer I felt confused. I was genuinely giving the trailer a chance to lure me in but it completely failed. I got a weird 'planet of the apes' feeling from it mixed with 'angry young victim man triumphs' vibes. Just thought ' probably a waste of money'
The trailer does address it. But it seems that many people didn't get the symbolism of it. The persona of the chimp is symbolic for how he views himself: as a lesser-evolved person, a performing monkey. If you watch the film you might be surprised at how powerful it is. I saw it again today on the big screen. It is going to be in my list of favorites for the year and has a very good shot at being my #1. I haven't yet seen a negative review from someone who saw it.
@@CynsCorner Thank you for your input, Mrs. Williams.
The idea to replace Robbie with a monkey is so monumentally stupid it actually beggars belief. Whoever came up with that cannot be fired enough
LOL @ cannot be fired enough! Once won't do it??? 🤣😂 I agree... this was a stupid idea for a movie.
Robbie Williams was a stupid idea for a movie, let alone a singing monkey. There are enough of those already.
The biggest bomb of 2025... in January? I think you underestimate the Modern Product Makers, Mr. Edge.
True. Not Captain America is still slated to come out.
There is no way this film will make a huge profit.
@@gfwinnDon’t forget about Snow White
Madam Web came out in February and everyone already knew it was one of the biggest flops of last year.
@@trevorrogers95 Why did you have to remind us of that atrocity.
I think a lot of people are missing the real point here.
This movie could have starred a real person instead of a monkey and it still would have flopped.
You might be missing the point. If they didn't spend so much on the CGI gimmick and it didn't do well at the box office no one would care.
Agree, guitarmoses. I was in my 20's in the 1990's and I never heard of this guy. I saw the chimp, and I thought it was another Planet of the Apes bs! Still, I would not have gone to the movies for this thing even without the expensive cgi that bloated its budget because the subject matter itself was not worth a film, nor my time or money. This project had failure written all over, from conception, even before script. It would be like making a movie about Kato Kaelin
@@petercofrancesco9812 I stand by my comments.
I don't care if the budget was a lot smaller and no CGI chimp.
Still wasn't going to make a profit after factoring in what little was spent on marketing.
@@sid1gen I believe you are on to something, a movie about Kato Kaelin would have been more entertaining.
@@guitarmoses2303 It's an unappealing film that no amount of marketing would make the masses want to see to make it profitable. This is the type of movie for a film festival.
Robbie Williams was extremely popular in the UK in the early 2000s,much to my bewilderment. Now he advertises Felix cat food. I think that sums it up.
Even then, he had the energy of a middle-aged man. Having a midlife crisis. Albeit, a relatively successful midlife crisis.
like Robbie Williams no one knows what Felix cat food is.
@@rook1196 Despite the enigmatic title. I've deduced that it's cat food.
Even then he was manufactured. Could kinda sing, kinda dance, but meh.
Evidently one of those teenage fan girls in the 90s grew up to have an important job at Paramount.
No Woman would make such an financially bad decision based on emotion or ego. That's typical man behavior 😅
‘The force is female’
@@dianaberlin4767 Lady please stop, this is not Twitter...have you NOT seen the current state of Disney and the M she U. The way their push for imperfect women in storylines has been constantly losing money, so if not based on emotion and ego than what are they basing it on, I mean, no "nerd girls "even like it.
@@dianaberlin4767 Who initiates most divorces? Women. What's the highest divorce rate? Divorces between same sex female couples. What's the worst financial impact on an adult in their life generally? Divorce. That doesn't even cover the credit burden most career women carry. That also doesn't cover the single mother epidemic where women all up in their feelings depend on gangs of men to help them financially their whole life due to some dude giving them the tingles at a party one night. You're not only out of your mind ignorant of life, but of statistics and clearly referenceable facts. The only thing I have seen women get better at over the years is deluding themselves.
"Evidently" you're not Rachel Zegler are you?
"hey wanna see a biographic film but the main guy is portrayed as a realistic cgi chimp?"
"Sure, sounds stupid and trippy I'm in. Who is the biopic about?"
"Robbie Williams"
"Who?"
Pretty much all conversations about this film I've seen.
I agree i have no idea who thought this film was greenlit.
What genius spent millions on a CGI monkey for a biopic about a musician that Americans never heard of and whose largest fanbase was teenage girls in the 90's who thought he was cute. This is a role you cast Tom Holland or Timothee Chalamet in if you want profit.
All the ones I've seen have been a description of the movie after it flopped. Never anyone asking someone else if the wanted to go see it.
The "who the hell is 'Robbie Williams'?" part is the same, though.
I actually like some of his songs, and I didn't even remember off the name alone, lol.
😂seriously I have no idea who that is 🤦♂️
Robbie Who? ... I thought it was a Planet of the Apes Spinoff. 🤣🤣🤣
Haha, yeah... exactly
Me to :)
I was thinking Encino Chimp. Starring: Brendon Frasier,Caesar and Pauly Shore. Soundtrack by Bowling For Soup
Honestly, it looks like Caesar Rocks On! Which would have been a far more interesting concept.
Who? A washed up british pop star who's star had faded twenty years ago.
Robbie Williams is a knob, simple as that.
weird way to spell "nobody" but it sounds legit :)
This movie is 15 years too late! Robbie Williams is trying to stay relevant
Is the Bob Dylan movie a cheap claim to remain relevant too?
Somebody at Paramount SERIOUSLY overestimated Robbie Williams popularity 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Never heard of him.
Who?
I guess you are American. In the UK, he has sold more record than the likes of Michael Jackson. Beyonce and Taylor Swift. He was also huge across Europe and I believe is the biggest selling non-latino artist in Latin American of all time.
@@sioioosRobbie had 1, maybe 2 solid hits in the States, and that was in the late 90s-early 2000s.
I saw half the movie (walked out) I still dont know who Robbie Williams is.
My wife legit asked if it was another Planet of the Apes movie.
I honestly thought it was too. That's why I clicked on the thumbnail 😂
Well that was my thought too. 🤯
Pointless movie. IMO.
Most of the people who went to see this movie probably thought it was another Planet of the Apes.
i think it fits somewhere near the first in the timeline
I thought the EXACT same thing
I didn't know it was supposed to be a biopic. I just saw the trailer of a monkey singing on stage and wondered what the hell I was looking at.
I honestly thought it was a spin off of planet of the apes 😂
That’s the problem of Robbie Williams not being a big enough star. If you know him and would have listened to the talking in the trailer, then it was very obviously a biopic of Robbie Williams (there is a part in there, where he talks about always feeling like a monkey). But that’s the issue here, „if you know him“ is the basic assumption of the trailer, without it, the trailer makes no sense.
Same...the advertisements were a headscratcher. I went to it blind pretty much. I enjoyed the ride though
I still don't understand why anyone thought people needed to make this movie
Maybe they should have put ROBBIE WILLIAMS in the title.
My girlfriend dragged me to see Robbie Williams when he was here in Stockholm last year. He stopped songs at least three times. Tried to spin it as if he didn't. The female dancers, who were very rarely on stage (but you always see them on YT for the tour videos), came out in new costumes for one of them, but then had to go back. Once he stopped claiming he had put some sort of pill in his mouth and it turned foamy. He tried to woo the audience on that one by making it a local Swedish type of candy. I guess he comes up with a new product in each country to have as an excuse. A third time he stopped singing and pointed to some guys in the audience leaving, making a joke about that instead. Seems like a market like Stockholm doesn't matter, only London and Paris matter, where the British media will be.
He started the whole thing with a phrase I've seen on RUclips, so he uses it at every stop: "This is my face, this is my ahss (showing the audience his behind) and you better be good because I'm fuhcking amazing." He showed a picture of himself on the screen with a bloated belly. And so forth. He seems to love being disgusting. I guess that's why he has covered himself in tattoos. If he didn't get a break as a singer he'd be an alcoholic lying in a street puddle somewhere.
Holy crap! He sounds a mess. Mid life crisis?
Robbie Williams was inescapable in the late 90's and early 2000's in Australia. But it was 20 years ago! I find myself asking "who did they make this for??"
40 year old women.
Eh, Freddy Mercury was even more than 20 years ago. Or the Elvis movie.
His ego
But Elvis and Queen had multiple international hits and decades of lasting popularity -- that is, mass international appeal spanning generations. Robbie Williams and Take That never even got to the Spice Girls' level of fame back in the day.
I know who Freddy Mercury is. I know who Gary Numan is or John Lydon is.
I never heard of this singer of his band. I thought the movie was some Planet of the Apes spin off and tuned out immediately.
If anything, the 'hook' (gimmick) of him being a chimp was more of a turn-off for audiences, because it's so jarring.
Jarring only to children and the dummies.
Chimpanzee that! Monkey News.
@@eddiek8179 bro, the only dummies were the people who spent $110m on a biopic arthouse project.
If you're spending big budget bucks, you better be making something for a big audience.
Not whatever this was. Heck, it didn't even do well in the country he's popular in.
fear of Chimps, is right up there with scary clowns. though I would find "IT" less terrifying than a human sizd singing chimp.
@ Nope. The dummies are the ones who cannot recognize a good movie regardless of its budget. You seem to be a corporate simp, a company lapdog - the kind of person directors and actors would loathe. The movie is a flop, for sure but that does not make it a bad movie. You highlighted specifically about its quality as a movie not as an investment when you made your post - you called it jarring because it has a chimp in it and not even understanding the context of why it was done. That is the epitome of small mindedness and narrow perspective. There have been many great movies which were flops in the past that are praised and revered now. The Thing, Fight Club, Blade Runner, Citizen Kane, The Iron Giant and The Shawshank Redemption, for example, were all flops but they are all considered to be masterpieces now. There are tons more like that. People like you would never have let those types of movies to exist because you only care about the bottom line or don't know anything about a quality of a movie. Being a flop in the Boxoffice is not representative of a movie's quality.
Putting a monkey in his place probably wasn't a brilliant idea...
Actually it was a brilliant idea because the monkey would at least know how to act.
@@muddhutter CGI monkey, and yes people that have a phobia about monkeys and chimps, even CGI ones. THey could have made him a scary clown and I would rather go see it than a film with ANY sort of chimp.
As someone who saw the movie, it's surprising how little you think about it after the first 5 mins.
A monkey? Robbie Williams? Who cares? It all sucks just the same. What's next? A Train biopic?
Yet, unlike Joker 2, it''s actually a good movie.
Some great films that failed at the box office inc: It's a Wonderful Life, The Thing, Dazed and Confused, The Shawshank Redemption, The Big Lebowski, The Iron Giant, Fight Club, Children of Men, Scott Pilgrim vs the World, Blade Runner 2049, The Fabelmans... moral of the story, don't judge what you go to see by the number of people who go see it.
Amen!
People who’ve seen it expecting nothing have said it was really good despite it being a cgi chimp
@ I've seen it and it's fantastic!
Right, I'm sure we'll be mentioning this flick about a washed-out Brit from 30 years ago in the same sentence with It's a Wonderful Life, The Thing, and The Shawshank Redemption. Although a better shelf would be down there with Howard the Duck, maybe?
@ You haven't seen it... got it.
Planet of the apes: The Musical would have been a better use of the money.
The Simpson already did that. 🙂
@@DoctorOnce Dr. Zaius Dr. Zaius
Most we heard of him in the USA was the song 'Millennium' around 2000
Still a classic. Listen to it all the time.
That's what I remember him from. I remember that song sampled the theme to "You Only Live Twice," and vaguely remember some James Bond references in the video.
If I recall correctly he did a cover of Queen's "We Will Rock You" for the movie _A Knight's Tale,_ and that was the last I'd heard of him. That was in 2005.
So a movie featuring a singer that was popular 25 years ago. Then you replace the human actor with a CGI monkey. I saw three previous for this movie. None of them sparked any interest in seeing this film.
Since it’s an entertainer’s bio pic, I’m guessing it follows the rags to riches rise, then the drug/alcohol aided fall, then redemption. Other than Williams having probably having less than 1% name recognition in the USA, this bio pic trope has been done countless times before. That’s a part of the reason it failed.
A washed up boy band member from 30 years ago makes a movie about his life where he is played by a CGI money....can't understand why it flopped.
He's still a full-fledged Stadium Act here in the UK and he's had 14 number 1 albums, the most recent of which was just two years ago. If I "wash up" with a fraction of that I'd be happy.
@@nathanrussell-raby5460 "in the UK". 0.84% of the world's population. Therein lies the problem.
@ I'm not disputing it was wildly overbudgeted. Just think it's not a fair assessment to call one of the biggest british solo artists of all-time a washed up boyband member.
@paulw5039yea but we still know about other things around the world, unlike braindead Americans lol
I would rather go see "IT" but with oh a hundred scary clowns, than one movie with a life size CGI chimp that when it sings has giant canine teeth. Even the trailer scared me.
I'm waiting for Paramount to make a movie about The Beatles with Paul, John, George and Ringo played by CGI beetles.
They have always tried to make Robbie Williams a star from Europe in the United States for ever. Universal Music lost a fortune trying to make him a thing.
I've even heard of this movie? I just saw the thumbnail and thought of Caesar.
think Caesar Salad.
The monkey was more intelligent and liked
Same here.
@@purefoldnz3070 Caesar's tossed salad.
The marketing of betterman is what damaged it. They really did not explain what it was about.
A cont
that and the crazy budget
well and downplaying the fear the CGI full size chimp would cause so many that might have gone to see it. People are less afraid of sharks than chimps and monkeys. It's a true phobia.
No the problems are that it's a film about Robbie Williams and even worse that he's a cgi ape.....all of it NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
I disagree. Making this movie is what damaged it. I was 20 when this guy was supposedly hot. And I don't know anyone who gave a crap about his stupid music.
The fact that this movie was made is baffling.
Yes, Robbie Williams was a big pop star, over 20 years ago and only in UK & Europe.
He never had chart success in the US or in Asia and even in UK/Europe his last hit record was over 15 years ago.
In other words: he hasn't been relevant in over a decade.
Why make a biopic about him now?! Most people in US & Asia never heard of the guy, imagine making a biopic about some Korean Pop Idol from the late 90's, releasing it today in the US and expecting people to watch it.
And why have Robbie Williams being portrayed in his biopic, as a CGI monkey?!
Who the hell greenlit this movie and thought it would be a B.O. success?!
Agree with all of the above and also Robbie Williams does not have an intriguing story to tell. He was in a 90s boy band, had some success as a solo artist, went partying and then settled down. The monkey is really just a gimmick because there is nothing else that distinguishes him from many other washed up pop artists.
But most Europeans below 40 couldn't name a Bob Dylan track, yet there is a movie being pushed about him.
@@sioioos I think we all agree that Bob Dylan is on a different level of significance than the "guy from Take That who couldn't dance".
( That's a quote by the late George Michael, making fun of Robbie Williams btw.)
@ Only in the USA.
@sioioos Sure, nobody here in good old Europe has heard of the guy who is one of the greatest songwriters of the 60's along with the Beatles./s
Also, that movie stars Timothy Chalemet, who is a hot actor right now, instead of a CGI monkey and didn't cost a ton of money, because of said CGI monkey.
Let’s use cgi in a biopic is one of the worst decisions ever.
Very good movies can flop. Sometimes it's because of competition with many other good movies. Sometimes it's because of no publicity - so no one even knows the movie exists to go see it. In this case I'd say it was publicity. Many people never even heard of the movie till you mentioned it on youtube.
True.
I don't know why they didn't just have him occasionally glancing at / having a conversation with the monkey in the mirror.
Not the whole way through.
That would’ve been a great idea! A Quantum Leap moment at the very least.
We went to go see Sonic 3 and we saw the preview for this. Our friends 13 year old asked me "who's Robbie Williams?" And I replied honestly "I have no idea."
Ok
I'm with 13 year old, who?
Sounds made up. Not that some girl you made up didn't know who he is though. He's not that famous in the US or anywhere anymore. I was never a fan anyway, but your story just sounds made up is all.
Have a nice day though.
@@BennyFrank-m7t Thanks for letting us know!
@@BennyFrank-m7t This really makes one wonder, just how mundane your life has to be to think this interaction like this is made up.
This is the gayest Planet of The Apes I’ve ever seen
You've obviously not seen Planet of the Gapes
If you had asked me yesterday who Robbie Williams is, I would have replied that he was a music artist from the late 90s and early 2000s, and that he made pop music, but I cannot recall a single one of his songs, despite that being prime music age for me, as I graduated high school in 1998 in the US.
I never heard not one single person ever in my life interested in this movie 🎥 🍿
I saw this trailer with 7 other people from 3 generations and we all looked at each other with a collective "WTF was THAT? Pass."
Yeah the PR team failed here. They did not understand what they had.
Nothing about this appealed to me. All I saw were images of a hideous CG monkey and that was enough to pass on that. Finding out more about this makes me even less interested in it.
The CGI of the chimp was very well done. And the story itself is quite good.
@@CynsCorner Is that you, Mrs. Williams?
@ Cool. Still not appealing. I didn't say the CG itself was bad. I said the cg MONKEY looked hideous.
@@CynsCorner You might as well try to pass off the original Sonic model as "very well done".
The entire trailer I wanted to yeet that uncanny valley monster into another sun because our sun is way too close.
maybe his first thought was a CGI monkey dressed as a clown?
The most mundane, uncreative, universal thought every human being has had... I'm different.
I’ll give Pharrell Williams this at least he took a chance with his and made it in Lego 🤣
Like the endless girls who insist they are not like the other girls.
Or the people who really need people to know that they don't care what other people think of them.
Never even heard of Robbie Williams, had to google him and seeing the music I’m not surprised why never even knew he existed….
"Let meeeee, entertain you.." nearly thirty years later and I'm still waiting!
When I saw the trailer, I thought this was a fictional work that copied its main gimmick from "Porco Rosso". The fact I had no clue it was a biopic is telling.
My Uncle used to be a his bodyguard, turned into a total prat, dressed like one, spoke like one, became robbies wannabe twin instead of my dads actual twin 😂
HaHa..ouch.
I was in the 90s.I never heard of that guy.
I saw ads for that movie and I thought it was a planet of the apes movie
How most americans know Robbie Williams:
That old guy One Direction sang with on one of their X-Factor appearances.
The biggest market audience for a Robbie Williams biopic would be middle-aged women.
The demographic who have zero interest in a cgi monkey man are middle-aged women.
And they spent over $100 million dollars on making this? Absolutely bonkers.
Any Falco fans in here, lol
What's the name of that film?
Putting on the Ritz? No wait, that was Taco.
That was a mighty long time ago. Not sure if a lot of your audience is as decrepit as us. 🤔
Der Kommissar!
‘Check it out Joe!’
@@auntykriest Falco: Verdammt, wir leben noch! (2008)
I always thought this movie was going to bomb but I feel his UK popularity is understated in this video. He was MASSIVE here. And well into the 2000s. I have no interest in pop music whatsoever but I reckon I could list off all his singles.
Still doesn't explain why the budget was so high or why he is a CGI ape though. This was never going to appeal to a global audience.
Unfortunately for the movie he is unknown anywhere else.
The chimp persona is explained. And if you actually check it out you might be surprised at how very good it is. It's going to easily make my list of favorites for the year.
@@RenlangRen This is incorrect. Most of the rest of the world knows exactly who he is. Americans often forget there's a big world beyond our own borders.
@@CynsCorner Thank you, Mrs. Williams.
We do but man that budget should’ve been lower ngl
This was 1970s nosecandy levels of insane... 😂😮😢
Wow. It's like the perfect storm of derp.
1: Pick a singer that few of us have ever heard of.
2: Make him a monkey...
3: Spend ridiculous amounts of money on it.
Skydance should be super pissed right now.
Somewhat surprised to hear Robbie is such a nobody overseas, but he's still just a name from the turn of the millenium even in Britain.
When he was big, he was huge, but that was a long time ago
American from 1990s here, can confirm I had no clue Robbie Williams existed until this vid popped up in my notifications.
I *still* don't really 'get' who this Robbie Williams person is supposed to be.
I actually thought it said Robin Williams
Americans are famous for their ignorance tho.
@@SpaceJawa google is your friend
@ Addendum: I also could not care less about who this Robbie Williams person is supposed to be.
Could it be that people are just sick and tired of the entertainment industry in general, and no longer care?
Yes and no. Yes, they are ticked off at the WESTERN entertainment industry, but no - if you give them something fun or enjoyable to watch, they'll come back for THAT exclusively. Example: Deadpool and Wolverine.
Yea most family films as of late are doing well in the box office they should capitalize on that
I think it's a combination of people are stapped for cash so there's less money for mindless entertainment and that we're now in a period of cultural malaise where the product made by mainstream producers just doesn't resonate with people anymore.
There just hasn't been any movies good enough to motivate me to leave my computer chair and actually go so it.
no, it is fear of life size CGI chimps with giant canine teeth singing.
@@sigmacademy There is a shitload of that comic book crap out there. I like the good stuff like Deadpool and Guardians, and the early marvel was good. But the shit coming out now is mostly crap and I am tired of it anyway. Nothing new to see there.
I had no idea it was a biopic about an obscure musician to us in the US. From the screenshots, I figured it was a half-brained take on masculinity.
I felt the same way the first time I saw the trailer. I had no idea that the film was a biopic, had no idea the chimp persona was purely symbolic, and had no idea what the ultimate story of the film actually was. The fact that he's a chimp in the trailer and no one acknowledges it made the whole thing even more surreal, but not in an intriguing way.
hey, you did kind of get it!
That's a hot take but I'll allow it.
NO ONE wanted a Robbie Williams bio except his fans, and who are they? By now they're middle-aged women who may still like him but aren't gonna bother with a movie till it comes on streaming, even then...
I’ll not be watching, but I presume the ending is him in the Whiskas advert?
I think I heard about this movie, but frankly because of the monkey CGI I thought it was a movie connected to Planet of the Apes and not a biographic movie. Also, although Robie Williams is a good singer I wouldn't invest two hours into a movie about him.
I thought the movie was about a chimp becoming a pop star. Like Alvin and the Chipmunks. 🤷🏻♀️
but people don't have huge phobias about chipmunks. All I saw in the one ad was a man sized Chimp with huge sharp teeth.
It looks bizarre. Almost uncanny valley. And it didnt help that it is a musical biopic about someone i hardly know of.
I'm Italian and lived many years in the UK. This video is really downplaying how big Robbie Williams was. I was shocked when I found out recently that he's not famous in the U.S., the same way I was shocked to find out many in the UK have never heard of Iris by Goo Goo Dolls
The UK is a small pond in the western world, tiny compared to North America and Australia. Most British pop music does not do well overseas. Some examples: Girls Aloud, E-17, Atomic Kitten, Jamelia, Take That, Boyzone, Five, Robbie Williams, Mika, Cheryl Cole. All nobodies outside of the UK and Ireland. There are some exceptions to the rule but most British pop music is irrelevant outside of Britain, Ireland and some European countries if they’re lucky.
Maybe they wanted to take the L on this one?
All about the write offs
From Coal Miner's Daughter to Bohemian Rhapsody, I think I'm good now. I never have to see another biopic as long as I live, thank God.
Oh c’mon! You mean you aren’t open to watching another movie about someone who wrangles the ability to planstumble their way to success, let it get to their head, screw up, maybe learn their lesson through failure or punishment with the *Rocky* second wind comeback?
Turns out that most famous people aren’t actually all that interesting.
I think the Johnny Cash and Ray Charles ones were good.
@ Exactly. Well said!
Life Story of David Lloyd George, One Love, Ali, The Messenger, Diana, Blonde are all cringe-inducing.
Nobody in America cares who this Robbie Williams guy is, and the premise is Alienating to humans affected by the Uncanny Valley effect. I'd rather watch Tom Hanks in The Polar Express.
Rest assured nobody here in England cares either. Hence the flop.
Made if you had the guys face it would do better.
Nah, the animation was done very well imo. I didn't find it uncanny at all and for all the films flaws, the animation isn't one of them.
In the UK where Robbie is the most popular. The Marketing has been none existence. No billboards, no poster on buses. I don't watch terrestrial TV so don't if even had any. The marketing has been so quite, my wife how is a fan of Robbie and wants to see this film did not even know it was out.
Plenty of billboards around Portsmouth UK. I stopped to look at one and assumed it was a Planet of the Apes movie.
Nobody in US knows who it is. I had no idea this dude was a megastar overseas.
Here's the thing. Virtually nobody knows who Robbie Williams is. When you asked people they say "who?" Robin Williams? But to be honest? If this were a movie about QUEEN or the ROLLING STONES or PRINCE and they were portrayed as CGI monkeys? Nobody would show up. Who thought spending $110 million dollars on this made any sense at all? It has to be one of the greatest mysteries of all time. Puzzling.
Who is robbie Williams and why would I watch this?
I think he had a hit song 15 years ago or something like that.
I thought it was about Robin Williams. But why would they make him as a monkey? Maybe it’s that night at the museum reference when Ben stiller security guy character slapped that capuchin monkey around and Robin as teddy roosevelt told Ben to stop slapping that monkey.
@@sinical1031 He had a bunch of hits, years ago and was apart of a group called Take That, mostly popular in the UK, but his star faded years ago, much like a lot of the groups from that era, but then these days topping the music charts is pretty meaningless and nobody really talks about the music they like at least in my cricles as the internet pretty much wiped out the singles chart, but then physical media like CDs is hard to come by these days, just like brand new DVDs
Why should anyone go see a movie about Bob Dylan?
@@sioioos honestly don't have a reason for that, either.
Everybody's parents in Argentina (i'm gen z) like "Rock DJ" , "Angels" and "Feel", so i thought if he was known here he would be known everywhere...
Who thought this would work....a weird concept based on a barely there celeb...and a MUSICAL on top of everything else
When a movie over 100 Million to make only makes less than a 10th of the budget, you know something is wrong.
Robbie Williams, you kinda needed to see it coming.
American's "Who is Robby Williams? Is this a movie or some kind of NFT"?
I never heard about Robbie Williams before.
What is Robbie Williams? Is it the Monkey itself? I thought Rbin Wiliams died? Is this another Mandella Effect?
@@UToobUsername01he is a uk pop star. Not robin williams you donkey
@@UToobUsername01 Wikipedia tells me he's a pop singer that had success in the UK from the mid-90s to the mid-00s.
@@RZetlin i guess you americans are as isolated as north koreans if you never heard of him
@paulanerruhrpott6188 Nope. He just never got popular here. At all. Strangely enough, plenty of British musicians have gotten very, very popular in America. If we were so isolated, that wouldn't be the case.
I hear he was more popular than Michael Jackson in the UK. Okay, fine. That doesn't mean anything anywhere else. Blame it on his publisher or distributor. Blame it on his competition here in the states. Blame it on our waning disinterest in boy bands during that time. Blame it on whatever you want.
Regardles, the man is nowhere near as popular here as Elton John or Queen, and their biopics barely broke even. How would anyone expect success from a more expensive CGI-lead-character film about a more obscure singer when those ones barely made enough money to cover their costs?
The concept of casting a CGI chimp as a real person was too strange for general audiences and no one in America has ever heard of this guy. I’m pretty versed on music and I had to look him up and never heard his music. It wasn’t a good idea for a major movie.
all they needed to do to make the movie worse, was dress the CGI chimp as a clown.
When I first saw the trailer for this movie why question was "who is this for?" Clearly the answer to that question is "a tiny handful of people".
I dont understand who could possibly have thought that people would want to see this?
Robbie Williams was virtually unknown in America in the 90s, the following few decades definitely didnt add to his popularity here. I realize movies arent made for the US alone but still.
Ive heard nothing but good things about this movie, but legit have no clue who robbie williams is or was. Im not sure if hes alive. Ill watch it on streaming
Saw it last week, it's amazing!
Aside from not knowing who the movie was about, seeing an angry chimp face in the ads was 100% off-putting to me. Angry chimps rip arms and faces off (among other things). While that was a clever gimmick that might work for a skit, 90min or more of that sounded like torture. And yes, I gathered some folks really liked it, if they watched it, but the gimmick itself was just too offputting, I think.
Thank you! Angry chimps are very dangerous. Put me off too!
THANK YOU!!! If you google a list of things people find scary, Chimps and monkeys are right up there with clowns. Why do you think Pennywise is a clown? If the clown in "IT" was a chimp dressed as a clown, no one would be able to view it.
Robbie Williams was, and still is, fairly big in Australia. I would say that's probably his most successful market in terms of longevity, because he (seems to) embrace Australian culture and is "friends" with high profile, popular Australians. He even flew in and worked the talk show circuit in Australia to promote the film.
did anyone ask WHY a chimp?? I sort of get it but did he ask anyone to name the top 5 things they are afraid of? Chimps, and monkeys, are right up there with clowns. Even sharks are less scary than a chimp.
They spent money on a CGI main character for a biopic about a man nobody's ever heard of.
Most of the rest of the world has definitely heard of him. Many Americans unfortunately seem to forget that there's a big world beyond our own borders. The movie was very good. I already knew who he was, but I don't think one has to know who he is to enjoy it.
@@CynsCorner Mrs Williams, thank you for your input.
@@CynsCorner if he is popular worldwide why was the worldwide box office so low?
Exactly
@@CynsCorner The US drives theaters. It was a dumb decision.
All of the ads i saw for this movie i thought were just some AI crypto scam. I didn't know this was even a movie
Begging your pardon but Take That are still selling out stadiums and venues here in the UK, while Robbie's latest UK tour barely made a blip.
I understand the ape metaphor, but what little marketing i saw about the movie didn't make it obvious what was going on with it.
At first I thought it was a fully ape-ifed movie, but to have him as the only primate was a bit jarring
And while I knew who it was, Robbie Williams was no Elton John or Freddie Mercury, that's for damn sure
legit didn't know this existed
I never saw a single ad for this movie.
its meant to be a really brilliant film but im in the UK where he was (and still is) obvz very famous BUT didnt hear anything about this film until it had been released already! never seen a trailer, just posters on a few bus stops. in this day of tailored ads film marketing just doesn't reach people.
Having not looked into the movie at all and only seeing one image, I assumed it was some kind of NFT movie.
The most recent successful biopics that I have heard of was about NWA, Freddie Mercury, Elvis, Elton John, these were performers who trancended borders with their music.
I have never heard of Robbie Williams, and this is coming from a guy who heard Spice Girls every day on the radio as a kid.
Most of those successful biopics had a budget of 50-80 million give or take.
Betterman had a budget of 110 million, double than some of the most iconic musicians' biopics. Who thought this was a good idea?
Not even aware of this film, not a loss.
To be fair, Robbie did a great impression of Sean Connery in his video for Millennium, and in fact one of his later songs did concern a monkey...But Robbie was never a big thing here in the states so I'm dumbfounded that this ever got greenlit.
I love the idea of putting an absurd twist on a biographical story. The Weird Al biopic starring Daniel Radcliffe was wonderful and takes a bunch of sharp left turns. Though, this film seems more earnest and straight-faced than Weird, despite the lead looking like he crawled out of the latest Planet of the Apes movie.
I've heard nothing but good things about Better Man, and I am interested in seeing it, but not because of who it's about. I am not familiar with his music at all and know next to nothing about him as a person. It's the word of mouth from people like Alan Ng and Gary from Nerdrotic that got me interested. On paper, this film doesn't grab me. To get my attention, I need to know who it's about. Otherwise, I don't really care. And this is no diss on Robbie Williams. I'm sure I would've seen the film already if I had grown up in the UK.
So a film about a fairly minor has-been, portrayed as a CGI ape didn't set the box-office alight? Hold the front page!!
Who the hell is robbie williams?
I wasn't even aware this movie was a thing until it had already flopped.
In the late 90s, my local magazine store carried some UK music mags. That's how I knew of Robbie Williams. Got his LP Ego Has Landed, which had major push in the US. But I think it is a very small number of US based music lovers who know the heck he is is.
This movie would have done well in 1999.
I don't know. Robbie is still a huge name in the UK, and the film bombed there, so it's not just about name recognition.