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Chicago (Widescreen Edition)

Chicago (Widescreen Edition)

List Price: $19.99
Your Price: $14.99
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: YOU ARE WRONG!!!
Review: This movie deserved to win BEST PICTURE whether you like it or not. Everyone gave an impeccable performance, especially Cathrine Zeta-Jones. I fully recommend this movie!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: overrated movie with overrated cast
Review: This movie completely sucked. For it to win the academy award is beyond me. Kathereen zeta jones who has no talent whatsoever won best supporting actress? Oscar has become a joke. Save yourself the time and watch a football game instead.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This is the Best movie EVER!!!
Review: As in the title, this is the best movie ever! The plot is totally true to the time, as in you can track down the setting and general plot to a history book! But, as I am a middle school girl, I don't care about that junk. I care about the awesome songs, dancing, plot, and of course, what all immature boys like (although I am a girl, I grew up with two immature brothers), GORE!!! There is only one scene, but it satisfied my brothers. I also love how they don't do it where the character suddenly break out in song for no dang reason. The songs appear when Roxy Hart (the main charater) is going through a tough time of her life and pretend that her life is a broadway play. The CD is also great. My favorite songs (in the movie and on the CD) are Cellblock Tango (now my absolute favorite song ever) and All that Jazz. In fact, I like it better than all the punk rock that popular now, like Good Charlotte. i also want to by Roxy Hart for Halloween now. I recommend this movie to anyone who loves music, dancing, a historical film, and alot of guns!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: "Highly disappointing"
Review: Siggghhh!! everyone said it was so good! Well........What the HECK is wrong with them?!! Keep in mind I didn't see this in the theater, and when it came to video I didn't see it right away either. So I had to hear about how great it was for eight months, and when I finally watched it last week, as you can imagine I was highly disappointed!

I suppose the days of those fabulous, heart-warming musicals, that you can't help but love, and when no one is listening, sing along with. Recently, however, there was a more than pleasant revival of the musical age with the release of "Moulin Rouge" which, by the way is one of my favorite movies, and one that I will be giving due credit to in an upcoming review.

I really do wish that I could do the same for "Chicago". I really wanted to like. But.... I just could'nt. besides tolerably good acting from Renee Zellwegger, and Catherine Zeta-Jones, I really don't think Jone's Oscar was deserved. she is good, but the actual "acting" is cut very short by her song and dance sequences, and her limited role. I think the Oscar should have gone to Zellwegger who turned in a slightly better performance. Richard Gere was Richard Gere. In reality nothing could really be expected of him, but foolishly I thought that this would be his coming-of-age, so to speak, performance. It was not, his acting was but a mere trifle, and there is no other way to describe his musical numbers, than by the words annoying and intrusive. The other musical sequences were good, but very much short of phenomenal. In short they were entertaining, but I'm terribly sorry that that wasn't enough.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Good God! Does the Academy think this was good???
Review: Given a choice between watching this movie again, and death, I think I'd choose the dirt nap. This thing was so horrible I couldn't stand it. They segue from a few scant seconds of dialogue into a horrible musical number every two minutes, and none of the songs or music advanced the plot in any way.

I think I'd rather be forced to watch that Turkish Star Trek remake over and over before I ever see another minute of this film. Save your money.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: "THE OLD GRAY GERE'S BACK TO WHAT HE USED TO BE!!!"
Review: THE OLD GRAY GERE'S BACK TO WHAT HE USED TO BE!!! In the late 1980s and early 1990s Richard Gere became the most successful gray haired leading man since Cary Grant with movies like INTERNAL AFFAIRS and PRETTY WOMAN, but then for some reason someone must have told him to die his hair brown in a series of flops like KING DAVID, CAPE FEAR, and UNFAITHFUL--which only made him look like an old man trying to look young--Richard Gere is back at the top of his game--with a terrific looking head of gray hair!--as Lawyer Billy Flynn in CHICAGO. Not only does Gere look as good as ever, not only does Gere play a lawyer better than most lawyers play lawyers, but Richard Gere steals the show in CHICAGO with his scenes with Renee Zellweger, especially in one on a stage where he has her on his lap like a puppet, with himself as the puppeteer!!!

Renee Zellweger is terrific as the out of step female she always plays, Catherine Zeta-Jones is a surprise as a singer and dancer, and Queen Latifah is Queen Latifah, but it's Richard Gere who makes this slow musical better than average.

THE OLD GRAY GERE'S BACK TO WHAT HE USED TO BE!!!

Chari Krishnan RESEARHCKING

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Zzzzz!!! What A Yawner!!!
Review: After being treated to last year's aural and visual treat, "Moulin Rouge", I must say that "Chicago" is a huge letdown. The only ray of light in this dismal production is Catherine Zeta-Jones in the role of Velma Kelly. She can sing, she can dance and she looks fabulous!

Please beware of the reviews claiming that this is the greatest musical of all time. That's just flat-out ridiculous. As far as modern musicals go, both "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" and "Moulin Rouge" run circles around "Chicago" for sheer energy and entertainment.

How this film won Best Picture is beyond me.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: IT WILL RAZZLE-DAZZLE YOU...
Review: This is a fantastic musical. From the beautifully designed sets, to the period costumes, to the show-stopping song and dance numbers, it will simply razzle-dazzle the viewer. The director and his singing and dancing troupe of stars simply pull out all the stops in this brilliantly executed musical.

The film, which provides a cynical and satirical look at fame and fortune, centers in nineteen twenties Chicago around two murderesses, Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and Roxie Hart (Renee Zellweger). Velma, who together with her sister, was a dance hall success, killed her husband and her sister when she caught them together en flagrante delicto. True to the maxim, however, that the show must go on, she goes on stage immediately after dispatching the two lovers, where she is promptly arrested.

Roxie Hart, an admirer of Velma Kelly, is married to Amos Hart (John C. Reilly), a good-hearted, regular Joe, but she longs for tabloid fame and fortune. She begins to have an affair with a man who promises that he could get her a stage gig only to find that he lied just to get her in bed. So, she ends up killing him. Her long suffering husband stands by his little woman as she is trundled off to jail to await trial. There, she meets her idol, Velma Kelly, who finds her hero-worship annoying.

In the jail, Matron "Mama" Morton (Queen Latifah) reigns supreme over the inmates, accepting bribes for favors. Velma Kelly, represented by star defense attorney Billy Flynn (Richard Gere), is in tabloid heaven. Roxie Hart, longing to be in tabloid heaven as well, gets her husband to retain Billy Flynn on her behalf. Before she knows it, she, too, is in tabloid heaven, playing the media like a violin.

The legal profession also gets a cynical slap in the guise of the slimy, fast talking Billy Flynn, who looks for the best selling point rather than for the truth. He understands the thirst of the media for the perfect sound-bite and he gives it to them. Guilty or not guilty, it doesn't matter. What matters to him, as a hired mouthpiece, is the media mileage he can get for his client, as well as for himself. To that end, he is the ventriloquist, and his client is no more than his dummy.

The razzle-dazzle musical numbers move the story along. Catherine Zeta-Jones is terrific, looking impossibly beautiful and showing off her musical theatre background to great advantage with "All That Jazz" and "Cell Block Tango". Queen Latifah is outstanding as the sly and voracious Mama Morton, who goes whichever way the wind is blowing. She also has a show-stopping musical number, "When You're Good To Mama" that is simply memorable. Renee Zellweger, though not a professional singer or dancer, shows that she can sing and dance with the best of them.

The men also shine in this musical. John C. Reilly, as Roxie's long-suffering husband, also has a terrific number, "Mister Cellophane", that is truly heart rending and poignant, as well as metaphoric. Richard Gere gamely rises to the occasion in his first musical, making the slick Billy Flynn character an integral part of the film with his "Razzle Dazzle" number and his tap dancing.

I love this top notch, clever film, finding it hugely entertaining. It deserves every one of its six Academy Awards, including that for "Best Picture". Director Rob Marshall deserves kudos for this brilliantly directed, seamlessly edited, musical masterpiece. While it is a fairly faithful screen adaptation of Bob Fosse's Broadway musical, it has Rob Marshall's contemporary imprimatur on it. It is a film of which he can be justly proud. Bravo!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One Of The Better Musicals
Review: One reviewer here said they could not remember one tune at the end of this movie. I wish it were so for me! I could not get these songs out of my head! Don't get me wrong, I loved the songs, but they don't leave your mind. For that reason I didn't dare buy the soundtrack.

CZJ blew me away with her underused talent. I had no idea she could sing or dance that well (and she is the most beautiful movie STAR in the world today.) Well deserved Oscar. She absolutely steals any scene she's in, including the ones with the very full of presence Queen Latifah. I never liked Richard Gere, but he did a very decent job in his first musical. Rene Zellweger I never cared for and could never see what the big deal was with her.

Very fast paced, beautiful sets, interesting story. My major beef, as with other viewers, was the nano-second editing. Everyone was allowed two or three steps, then the scene was edited. Under these conditions, even Two-Left-Feet me could look like an accomplished dancer! I don't think the director thought anyone would notice.

Anyway, I'm glad it paved the way (hopefully) for more musicals. Too many movies out with special effects, comic book/TV show characters, sequels, zzzzzzzzzzzz........

This movie is raunchy, bawdy, adult fun...with a touch of class!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A Little Disappointing
Review: I was a little disappointed when I saw Chicago at the theatre and I felt that same disappointment when I watched it last night on DVD.

All of the principles performed well but, of course, this is a musical and, while Catherine Zeta-Jones, Renee Zellwegger and Richard Gere are all fine actors, none is really a singer or a dancer despite the fact that Zeta-Jones began her career on the musical stage.

One can see they gave their parts their all, however. Zeta-Jones, I think, did the best job; her voice is strong and more centered than Zellwegger's and she's more athletic and rhythmic.

The storyline, of course, was bare bones, though clever and entertaining. But the musical numbers should have taken center stage and they simply did not. While there was nothing wrong with any of the musical numbers, none was so well done as to be memorable. The choreography had to be simplified for the principles and even had their voices been perfect, the music simply wasn't memorable. Thirty minutes after the movie ended I couldn't hum even one of the numbers. The thing I remembered most was how beautiful Catherine Zeta-Jones looked. (I liked her hair a lot better short!)

Chicago is fun and quite entertaining and Zeta-Jones, Zellwegger and Gere give it their all, but this movie simply isn't anything memorable.


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