Rating: 
Summary: Wow... guess a lot of people missed the point!
Review: I am literally in disbelief over the 1 star reviews of people being mad about this movie's depiction of violence. Are you KIDDING me? 'Chicago' was actually written decades ago, and this movie (as well as the version currently on Broadway) is technically actually a revival. The entire musical, while fun with great music and dancing, has its tongue planted firmly in its cheek and is really about America's fascination with the rich, glam and famous and also the fickle power of clebrity and the "here today, gone tomorrow" phonemoea of Hollywood and the American media. But it sure is a fun fable! And while all of the actors are wonderful, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Richard Gere dance away with the movie! I saw it 5 times and can't wait to own it, enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: And All That Jazz!
Review: This was one of the best movies to come out last year, and it was a stunning film adaptation of a great musical. CHICAGO was a Kander/Ebb affair which Bob Fosse choreographed in its original incarnation on the Broadway stage back in the 1970s. This was the team behind CABARET, and they were ushering in a new more thought-provoking form of musical theatre with deep themes about unsavory subjects - here female inmates on death row who hunger more for fame than virtue. But all of it was done with a glee and aw shucks charm! The movie does not disappoint fans of the show - it stays true to the themes and style of the show. Some songs are cut, and the book is slightly altered - the biggest change is the real world setting which places most all of the musical numbers inside the characters imaginations. The songs are inner monologues of how they wished the world was contrasted starkly with the prison/court room setting of the more gritty real world. The style of the entire film comes from the 70s, and is very reminiscent of Bob Fosse's highly praised adaptation of CABARET into a successful film. It's a piece of art - it apes the style of CABARET so don't expect MOULIN ROUGE. No quick edits or way over the top orchestrations or even sets. This is sexy and streamlined! The cast is top-notch. Catherine Zeta Jones is amazingly well-suited for this kind of production! So is Queen Latifah and Richard Gere. Renee Zellweger is right out of the period, and sings very well! It's all an homage to old school hoofing and singing. Wonderful! You can't go wrong. DVD includes a cut song called CLASS with Zeta Jones and Latifah, as well as featurettes and a director's commentary! Should be the top drawer DVD for 2003!
Rating:
Summary: A GREAT MOVIE
Review: Contrary to one other review of Chicago, I absolutely LOVED it... and I prefer it over Moulin Rouge, which I thought was boring and slow except for the tango scene and maybe the ending... Catherine Zeta-Jones is fantastic in this film... her abilites to sing and dance will never leave you in doubt that she is one great, beautiful and talented actress... This is by far her best role yet... Being a fan of Renee Zellweger's after Bridget Jones' Diary (another great film btw), I thought her role in Chicago didn't do much for her because it seemed to me that she played more of the supporting role instead of the lead role (seriously, Zeta-Jones brilliantly stole the movie)... nevertheless, Zellweger's "innocence" adds a nice contrast to Zeta-Jones' all-out vamp-like dancer character... the music and dancing is great! And Richard Gere will knock your socks off!
Rating: 
Summary: Not as good as the stage play, but still very good...
Review: Chicago is such a great show...the cynicism seems so much like that of our age that it's hard to believe that it is based on a 1975 musical, which is based on a 1920's play, which is in turn based on REALITY. (The playwright was a former newspaper reporter, who turned her experiences covering sensational murder trials into a hit play back in the 20's.) That the plot seems so very up-to-date 80 years after it was originally penned I think goes to the fact that the musical truly captures a part (and just a part) of human nature and portrays it with such gleeful abandon that you can't help but join in the fun. By the way, they cut one of the best songs in the play ("Class"), which I assume will end up in the DVD, since I read that it was filmed. Also, the movie version of Cellblock Tango doesn't even hold a CANDLE to the stage version. But still, a great revival of the movie musical!
Rating:
Summary: I love Chicago!!!
Review: What's not to like about Chicago. Sundays at Soldier Field, summer afternoons at Wrigley and weekends in Lincoln Park. Cruising Lake Shore Drive and boating in the Lake. Brats and sausages. Riding the El to grandma's house. The only thing that gives Chicago a bad name is some terrible musical/movie they made named Chicago.
Rating:
Summary: All That Jazzzzzzzzzzzzzz...................................
Review: I love this movie alot and I can't see how anyone could hate it! The actors are great and so is the story and the music! Also I dont understand why people are making such a big deal about its topic. I mean get over yourselves, Chicago isnt the only movie with the same type of topic! The previews made it pretty clear that these women are in jail and if it was that big of a problem for you then why did you go to see it??? This movie is rated PG-13 for a reason. People under 12 or 13 probably shouldnt see it. I personally think that Catherine Zeta Jones did a better job in Chicago than Renee Zellweger. I did think that Renee did a great job. I think that Catherine and Renee both shouldve been nominated for Best Actress and Catherine totally shouldve won. But Im overjoyed that she won Best Supporting Actress! Every actor in this movie excelled in singing and I personally love this soundtrack! I personally thought that this movie was funny! But maybe I just have a wierd sense of humor since I was one of the few people laughing in the movie theater. I prefer Chicago to Moulin Rouge, but I don't think you can really compare the two. OK, they're both musicals, but Moulin Rouge is a love story, something Chicago definately isn't (!!!) Chicago is "harder" than Moulin Rouge. I liked both movies but Chicago takes the cake! Anyways, with that all said, Chicago is a true classic and should be remeber for years and years to come!
Rating:
Summary: FINALLY someone gets it right!
Review: it's hard for me to believe that ANYONE with any sense of theater or music would think that "moulin rouge" is better. I too thought "rouge" was a wonderful film. But to take a musical from the stage (which moulin rouge is not) and tranform it into film is one of the hardest things to do in this business.
And the cast and production team did this amazingly well. having friends that are in the film might make me a little biased but hearing how great the filming process was for all of them just makes me love the movie even more. get it NOW and enjoy it FOREVER!
Rating:
Summary: Chicago
Review: I have never entered a review of a movie here before, especially when the DVD hasn't been released. But after reading two diatribe on this movie, I simply had to. It appears that the two reviewers who simply hated this movie, hated it for the wrong reason. One was practically a commercial for Moulin Rouge (which I also liked), while the other (Daniel Wahl) was a rant against the IDEA of the movie, rather than the movie itself. The fact that he didn't see the cynicism that was apparent within this movie meant he didn't get it! Wait till he finds out that the stage version has been out since the early 70's (the revival is still playing to full houses on Broadway and on the road). He'll whine about that too. Both of them missed the reason you write one of these things: HOW IS THE ACTUAL MOVIE? It is a damn good one, and very entertaining. I went with a bunch of people who were ready to hate the movie, especially since they have never liked musicals in general, both in movies and at the theaters. We all came out smiling and ready to buy the DVD the day it comes out. Renee Zellweger and Richard Gere - who knew they could sing? Catherine Zeta Jones, to me, was the real star, handling some of the most demanding dance and singing sequence. But all these are superimposed on the backdrop of the cynicism of the story. One would find it rather uncanny when viewed through what happened with the O.J. Simpson trial (Did Johnny Cochran learned all the tricks from Billy Flynt?). I would even equate the cynicism seen in Chicago as that presented in the movie Brazil (with the original director's ending).
Rating:
Summary: MUCH BETTER THAN MOUILN ROUGE
Review: Ok...Chicago is about murder,greed,violence,adultery,fame,and treachery. The plot is simple, two women murder thier lovers and get away with it. But it is so much more than that. Moulin Rouge, despite having no original songs, was barely a musical. Sure there were songs, but very little dancing. Nicole Kidman is a good singer but lets face it Catherine Zeta Jones can really belt it out. Renee Zellweger(love her)also has a lovely voice, it wasn't the greatest but you must remember that she has never done anything like this before. Her voice was actually perfect for the role. Roxie is supposed to be the junior singer, the one who has less experience. The music is great too! It was all written by Kander and Ebb(also wrote music for Cabaret,Kiss of The Spider Women, Steel Pier, The Act, Zorba, etc.) Bob Fosse wanted to make Chicago into a movie for a while before he passed away. In the movie there are a lot of cases were it reverts back to Chicago the musical(the original Bob Fosse musical not the revival). Velma rising from the floor at the beginning of All That Jazz, Roxie on the piano in Funny Honey, the cell bars in Cell Block Tango, the stipping of Billy in All I Care About, Roxie's name in lights in ROXIE, Mama Morton's fan in When Your Good to Mama, etc. Moulin Rouge had fancy sets and all that glam, but even with just a black stage Chicago do so much better. Chicago was ment for stage, Moulin Rouge wasn't. Sorry folks, but Chicago is the real winner and the real musical here.
Rating:
Summary: Exotic, Sultry, Exuberant and Marvelous!
Review: Simply put, this is not your grandmother's type of musical. It's a musical about women who kill.. their boyfriends, their husbands, their sisters and whoever may have wronged them. And when they relate their stories in the show stopping performance of the Cell Block Tango, you quickly discover that the sultry ladies of the Cook County Jail have standards that differ from those of 'polite' society. They are not very likely to win points of sympathy. So it's from this rather questionable basis that Chicago goes on to become a richly exuberant and incredibly entertaining movie musical. If building a musical around a collection or cold-blooded killers, their shyster attorneys, corrupt authorities and scandal feeding tabloid press seems a bit specious for today's sensibilities, consider how Broadway of the Sixties reacted to an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet that substituted street gangs of New York's West Side for the Montagues and the Capulets. And Bob Fosse's Chicago is every bit the ground breaker that Jerome Robbin's West Side Story ever was. Director Rob Marshal brings Chicago to the screen with a style that sacrifices none of the stage play's energy; and in many ways enhances it with fast paced editing that pulls the viewer along on a thrill ride of music and dancing. I confess that when I heard of the casting for this production, my first thought was 'the studio execs have sunk another one.' After all, Catherine Zeta-Jones is gorgeous, Renee Zellweger can be cute and Richard Gere is always adequate as the eye candy for females, but these were all demanding roles that require singing and dancing as well as acting! But I stand corrected. Ms. Zeta-Jones steals the show as the exotic Velma Kelly, with a singing and dancing ability that never disappoints. Zellweger brings just a hint of sympathy to the ambitiously scheming Roxy Hart, and reveals a surprisingly good singing voice. And last but not least, who ever knew that Richard Gere sings, much less tap dances? The supporting cast members grab even the smallest roles and imbue them with flair and excitement. John C. Reilly as Roxy's cuckolded husband and Queen Latifah as the matron of the cell block add depth to an already rich collection of performances, along with other gems from Christine Baranski, Taye Diggs and Lucy Liu. Admittedly, story line is razor thin. Roxy wants to be a star. She murders her boyfriend, ends up in jail with Velma (the type of star Roxy always wanted to be), and engages the services of Billy Flynn the flamboyant, press-hungry lawyer. But there isn't a bad song in the entire production. It's the most exuberant movie soundtrack in years if not decades! Last but not least, there is the choreography. It's sexy and fresh as can be, without quite crossing into the territory of vulgar. From All that Jazz, to the Cell Block Tango to the Finale, you'll be left breathless and applauding!
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