Chicago (Full Screen Edition)

Rating:
Summary: the BEST MOVIE EVER!
Review: starring Renee Zellweger as Roxie Hart; Catherine Zeta-Jones as Velma Kelly; Richard Gere as Billy Flynn; Queen Latifah as Matron Mama Morton; Dominic West as Fred Casely; John C. Reilly as Amos Hart

Based on the story of two real celebrity murderesses who lived in the 1920s, Chicago has been parlayed into a 1926 Broadway play, a 1927 silent movie, a 1942 film starring Ginger Rogers, and a modern Broadway show, which debuted in 1975 and was revived in 1996. The Twenties are roaring in the Windy City, and Roxie Hart wants a piece of the action. Lights, live music, skimpy costumes and lots of background dancers: she has her sights set on her own vaudeville act. She'd give anything to be like beautiful Jazz songstress Velma Kelly and see her name on the local marquee. And she knows that her marriage to dopey, sweet, un-enthralling Amos won't be her ticket to fame and fortune. So she starts "fooling around" with other men. Fooling around leads to "screwing around" (defined as "fooling around without dinner") with Fred Casely, who says he's got connections down at the Jazz club. Then she discovers that the only kind of connections on Fred's mind happen between bed sheets, and she knocks him off with her husband's pistol. Ironically, she finds herself on "murderer's row" at the women's prison right next to the great Ms. Kelly, who has recently dispatched her own husband and sister after catching them in an affair.

With the help of Matron Mama Morton, both Roxie and Velma get hooked up with smooth-talking lawyer Billy Flynn, who boasts that he's never lost a case defending a female criminal. For $5,000 (and a little action on the side) Flynn vows to create such a public outpouring of sympathy and support for his clients that no jury could possibly convict them. And so he does. Smartly mingled into the story line are bombastic showstoppers and heartrending solo numbers that both develop the characters and give a glimpse of the vaudeville fame to which Roxie aspires. Everyone gets into the song and dance, and it's easy to see why the stage show that inspired this film has recently received revived acclaim on Broadway and overseas.

the Best Picture of 2002

Rating:
Summary: A REAL SHOWSTOPPER!
Review: This is one of the best and most entertaining movies produced in years! Set in the 1920s it tells the story of a show-biz wannabe (Rene Zellweger) who kills her lover in a fit of rage and pairs her in prison with a bigtime cabaret star (Catherine Zeta Jones) who killed her husband and sister when she caught them in bed together. Richard Gere is their attorney and, remembering him for roles like An Officer and a Gentleman, American Gigolo, Pretty Woman and Internal Affairs, it was interesting to see him as a song and dance man. The Cell block and Press Conference numbers are outstanding, but so is the rest of the show. Deserves every Oscar it gets. A must own!!!

Rating:
Summary: It will razzle-dazzle you
Review: I had heard all of the hype and buzz about this film so we decided to go see it. You know how when you hear too much abut a film and then you watch it you are sometimes let down.... Not with Chicago, it gave me an exhilarated feeling. Renee sounded like she belonged in that era. It's like that whole movie has a beat to it, not just the music.

Rating:
Summary: I WAS SURPRISED!!!
Review: I REALLY DON'T LIKE MUSICALS ON THE SCREEN,BUT THIS MOVIE WAS GREAT!! BETTER THAN THE BROADWAY SHOW, WHICH WAS SO-SO.

Rating:
Summary: There's a difference between plays and movies
Review: THE STORY: Roxie Hart (Renee Zellweger) wants to be a stage star, but she gets in the hands of a crook who promises to put her in a show, but he in fact only wants to go to bed with her. So she kills him and goes to jail; Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta-Jones) already is a star, but she finds out her sister is having an affair with her husband. So she kills them and goes to jail; Billy Flynn (Richard Gere) is the publicity-addict shark-lawyer who only defends women and never lost a case, and he will defend them.

THE ACTORS: Renne Zellweger doesn't know how to sing; that's obvious; Richard Gere doesn't know how to sing either and he is obviously embarassed in some of the dancing scenes. Yet, they both star the best scene in the movie, the one where Renee is a puppet and Gere is the puppet-master. Catherine Zeta-Jones knows how to sing AND how to dance, and insisted on cutting her hair short to make plain that it was she, in fact, doing all the scenes, not a dancing stunt (on the other hand, in the tap-dancing scene I was not sure it was really Richard Gere doing the movements, because there isn't a take where he appears full-body and with his face turned to the camera). Praise for John C. Reilly and, specially, Queen Latifah, good and imposing supporting actors (funny as well).

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PLAYS AND MOVIES: When you watch a play in a theater, you, uncousciously, KNOW that it's all a fantasy spectacle. It's a confined space. The actors are right there, in the stage, in front of you. The scenery changes. The actors move out of the stage and come back later. Even if it's the best play ever played, your mind is set to know it's all make-believe. That's why musicals are good when on stage. When you try to addapt a musical-play into a movie, all the magic is lost. There's no one in front of the viewers, there's only a still SCREEN. The space is bigger, there are no boundaries. The name of the movie is "Chicago", but it could as well be "Kansas City" or "Cleveland" or "Fort Lauderdale", because, apart from some thrown-in and sparse references to the name of the city, you often forget about it. As a comparison example, "Moulin rouge" was another movie-musical, but in it Baz Luhrman was able to create the whole ATMOSPHERE of a play, and in "Chicago" Rob Marshall couldn't; in the end "Chicago" was just, well, silly.

The "4 stars" I give "Chicago" is because I could see that all actors and crew members wanted so much to make this movie an unforgettable one. They couldn't, but maybe it was not their fault. Maybe I was on a bad day.

To sum it up, what I would like to say is that, when trying to make a musical, the director and script-writers have to be very careful. I would hate to see a wave of bad musicals making their way into the theaters just because it's an attempt to rediscover lost ties with movie-history.

Grade 8.0/10

Rating:
Summary: Chicago manages to rise above even "Moulin Rouge!"
Review: I walked into chicago thinking that it was going to be just another boring chick flick. Don't get me wrong, I love Renee' and Catherine, but it just seemed so typical. I thought wrong. Chicago was such a great movie. The songs were full of pure emotion and soul. Every person in the cast deserved the role. It deserves to win every one of those 13 academy awards. I loved Moulin Rouge but this was even better. This movie was fun...NOT boring at all. It is not just a chick flick and I highly recommend it!
OVERALL SCORE:95/100! A
CAST:19/20=A
DIRECTION:20/20=A+
PLOT:18/20=A-
FUN:=19/20=A
Special Effects:19/20=A

~CONTENT~
Rated: PG-13 for scenes of strong sexual content including dialouge, violence, language, and some drinking/drugs

(Based out of 10)
VIOLENCE:5
SEX:7
NUDITY:2
DRUGS:3
LANGUAGE:4

Rating:
Summary: Great film could foster the rebirth of the movie musical
Review: We just don't get enough musicals these days. And seeing the musical talent unexpectedly possessed by Renee Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Richard Gere. Who knew that these guys had this degree of talent? I have been a big Renee Zellweger fan ever since I first saw her in JERRY MAGUIRE, and for me she just hasn't been in enough films, but not in a million years would I have guessed that she could have danced and sung as well as she did in this film. I had read somewhere that Catherine Zeta-Jones was an accomplished singer, and I knew she was a trained gymnast, so her performance wasn't as surprising, though I am delighted she was given a chance. And what a shock to see Richard Gere sing and dance! I have since learned that he starred in a production of GREASE onstage before making the transition to film, but he seemed so at ease doing both you are surprised he hasn't done it in film before (though he did play the piano in a famous scene in PRETTY WOMAN). Not wanting anyone to think that a modern day Marni Nixon (the marvelous singer who did the singing for Natalie Wood in WEST SIDE STORY and Audrey Hepburn in MY FAIR LADY) was hiding in the wings, near the end of the closing credits are large declarations that the three principals did all their own singing and dancing.

The three principals along with Queen Latifah and John C. Reilly are primarily responsible for one aspect of the success of this film. There are two others that I would single out. First, all those responsible for art design, set design, and clothing design. Second, those responsible for all aspects of the music and choreography. All the songs are innovative and brilliant, and they are all exquisitely performed.

This film will probably win a bucket full of Oscars, but I hope that Best Director is not one of them. The film does possess one flaw, and one that puts the lie to the oft repeated claim that this film resurrects the musical of old. It does not. Why? Those making the older musicals, beginning with Busby Berkeley and extending on through Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly to the WEST SIDE STORY understood an important principal: busy actors, static camera. CHICAGO instead employs busy actors/dancers and an equally busy camera. Instead of long, static shots with few cuts, there was a directorial and editing decision to make dozens of shots. The camera at times is just out of control, which makes some numbers a tad difficult to follow. Was this done to cover up that the dancers were sometimes not completely professional? I don't think so. I think it was done for artistic reasons. It is not surprising that some of the best moments in the film were those when the camera did become stationary and shot the numbers in long shots, like Roxie Hart's wonderful "Nowadays," the musical numbers actually become more compelling.

Many of the first films made at the advent of the talking era in motion pictures were musicals, and they were mainstays of cinema until the sixties. I hoped a couple of years ago that the brilliance of MOULIN ROUGE would inspire more studios to produced new musicals, and perhaps it made the making of CHICAGO more possible. I hope both films signal the beginning of the reemergence of film musical. We obviously have a lot of talent, and the lack of vehicles has meant that some of today's most talented individuals-the prodigiously gifted Mandy Patinkin springs to mind (many know him from THE PRINCESS BRIDE or ER, but are unaware that he may be the premiere performer of his generation on the musical stage)-have never been able to put that talent on display in film. Hopefully this is beginning to change.

Rating:
Summary: Ho-hum
Review: "Chicago" tries oh-so-hard to be energetic but comes off flat as a pancake. I think the main problem is the music: too repetitive, too harsh, too tuneless, and too much of it. And the casting-largely against type-just can't overcome the lack of energy in the music, choreography, and script. Richard Gere deserves credit for taking on a musical role: his acting is superb and gives it everything he's got. Unfortunately his singing is rather weak, which undermines the powerful arrogance he's trying to convey. Renee Zellweger performs brilliantly, but she's just not edgy enough for her impossibly sinister role. On the other hand, Catherine Zeta-Jones is perfect as a malevolent murderess: she looks it, acts it, and sings it. Queen Latifah's character confused the heck out of me: one minute she's gentle as a lamb, the next minute she's the warden from hell. John C. Reilly, one of the most versatile actors around, does a predictably fantastic job as Zellweger's witless, gullible husband. Overall, this simply does not live up to its hype.

Rating:
Summary: A fun stylish revival of the musical
Review: Reviving the musical with a bang, Chicago brings back the fun of the all but lost genre.

Its simple story satirizing the judicial system and media through a pair of man-murdering women allows the film to flaunt the main intent of musicals: Singing and dancing. The cast is great in their showy performances, especially John C. Reilly in an Oscar nominated supporting role as Roxie's (Renee Zellewager) husband (Reilly though, in my opinion, is the only one really worthy of the golden statue).

The numbers all have electricity sizzling through them, especially a number with Roxie and her lawyer (Richard Gere) doing a ventriloquist act mocking the attorney/client relationship, and Reilly's lonely and heart felt "Mr. Cellophane." The film feels elaborate even though the musical numbers are all on stripped down sets. The simple environments help put focus on the numbers and not on extravagant sets. It is a nice departure from the usual, and fits the film's jazz era.

Still, for all the good the stripped down story does for the performances, the film seems to lack a certain depth Oscar-winning films usually have. Despite of how wonderful and enjoyable the film is, I don't feel it's quite worthy of best picture, but that probably won't stop the academy from declaring it so (though I feel The Pianist or The Hours is more worthy of the distinction). However, it is still one of top 10 films of the year that, if wins, at least will likely rejuvenate the musical genre (If it's decent box office doesn't by itself).

Chicago is a great film for repeat viewing. It's fun, well made and well worth at least one theater experience. Don't miss it on the big screen.

Rating:
Summary: Does This Deserve The Oscar Best Picture ?
Review: Another big budget musical following last year's Oscar Best Picture Nomincation - Moulin Rouge. This time Chicago got 13 nominations. While I have to say Chicago is brilliantly performed and directed, I prefer Moulin Rouge.

Zellwinger acts well as the wanna-be jazz singer, who killed her betrayed boy friend. She, however, is not one of my favorite hollywood stars. Zeta-Jones plays the role as a famous jazz singer, who also committed murdering her husband and sister - and went to the same prison as Zellwinger. Richard Gere, the money-hungry never-lose-a-case lawyer, is attorney for the two murderess.

All singing and dancing are done by these three leading roles, and are doing surprisingly well. Zeta-Jones obviously shows an excellent dancing talent. The puppet scene by Zellwinger and Gere are the best part of the movie.

Directing by Rob Marshall is excellent, though the movie lacks the sentimental feeling of Moulin Rouge (yeah, I agree it's a different story). And I think it's Martin Scorsese's turn to pick the Oscar Best Directing this year. Wait and see.

Does Chicago derserve the Oscar Best Picture ? Your Pick......