Rating: 
Summary: Hate musicals, hate Jazz, LOVED CHICAGO!
Review: I hate musicals and jazz. From the first second, I loved Chicago. When I saw it for a third time, when Gere is doing the razzle-dazzle I screamed "this is too much pleasure!" in glee!Thank God nobody heard! What a great great movie!
Rating:
Summary: Such a cool film!
Review: I loved the dancing and the acting was really great , Glad it won the oscar! The story is so funny and I loved Catherine Zeta Jones it really is all that jazz!
Rating: 
Summary: an average candy in a colorful paper
Review: I may be biased, as I must admit I am no big fan of musicals. So, everybody who is into musicals, can easily add an extra star to this rating. I also feel that musical belongs to the stage, and like all other stage performances, it is not so easy to transfer into a film format. This hard task is rarely well accomplished, and to be honest, I do not see any big need of uniting the worlds so separate and different as stage (musical in particular) and cinema.
Having said that, we must remember that making a good film of a musical IS POSSIBLE. "Cabaret" is maybe the finest and best known example. Reviewing "Chicago" we shall not avoid some references to this obvious classic.
To rate a musical really high, it must be not only a good film, but also contain good songs.
Let's start with the songs here and be frank. Come on, the songs here are mostly forgettable! Are there many songs that you really want to sing along during the film and weeks afterwards? Nope! Maybe the only really catchy song here is "If You Are Good To Mama", but the somehow wooden performance of Queen Latifah made it forgettable when I was watching the movie (especially that it was terribly boring to this point), and only weeks afterwards I realised the song was really catchy! Compare it with "Cabaret" and you'll know what I mean! Although not great, the songs weren't also bad, so we can afford 3 for the music here.
If the songs were just so-so, was perhaps the film very good, with an entertaining plot or perhaps with deep inner or social sense? Again, no, no, no! After first half a hour I wanted to go out of the theater - I found the story so dumb and dull. A stupid lady killing her lover because he refused to make a star of her as he promised to do just to attract her. So typical, so cliched story that it's a waste of words even to describe it. But I stayed in the theater and things started to move faster, with another lady-murderer (Zeta Jones), clever but cynical lawyer (Gere), and a bunch of other, quite colourful characters. So, it started to be kinda funny, but never outstanding and really entertaining. I also find the story not so dumb overall. It pictured the totally cynical, amoral atmosphere of pre-war Chicago quite well. ( But the picture of papers and media brainwashing ordinary people is more timeless). Maybe I'd prefer a drama for this plot instead of farce, but it was OK.
The characters were played OK. Zellweger was not very sexy, but played an angel-faced but totally depraved witch quite well. I also do not understand the criticisms of Zeta-Jones performance based on her well-rounded posture. First of all, she is really sexy. Personally, I am very fond of all these round shapes and many other men are! Come on, critics, are you really fans of all these thin anorectics? I do not believe. Also, I am very fond with Gere's performance. It was criticised here as being "wooden". But man, he played a lawyer - so should be a bit wooden! But his face was so cynical that made an almost archetypic lawyer.
I could not stop laughing when I saw him and his small, clever eyes and he reminded me so much of all these too many lawyers I met in my life!
So, I think "Chicago" is an OK. movie, but lightweight and instantly forgettable. I do not regret I saw it, but would rather not buy a DVD or watch it second time (but there were only a few movies I was eager to see more than one time). I have red an interview with Zellweger, where she compared this movie to a beautiful, excellent candy. I would rather compare it to a rather tasteless (although not bad) candy in a very colourful, beautiful paper. As it happens much too often, many people rated this product for the package, not for its inner quality. Even Oscar jury seemed to prefer the beautiful package over real thing. Nevertheless, it's an OK. product and you can see it if you have enough free time.
Rating:
Summary: I loved it!
Review: I loved it so much I went out and got the soundtrack the next day , I loved the songs and the story was funny too , one of the best musicals I have seen.
Rating: 
Summary: This Is Not The Best Movie Of 2002
Review: I have seen plenty of movies in the year 2002 that were better than Chicago. This movie is very puzzling and pointless. I was about to walk out of the theater during the first twenty minutes...
Rating:
Summary: Best Movie Musical since Cabaret
Review: I have been waiting so long for Chicago to hit the screen and boy was it worth it , the cast are so suited and the music has never sounded better , Trust me this was worthy of Best Picture and Catherine Zeta Jones what a voice!
Rating:
Summary: Light entertainment not meant to be meaningful.
Review: I think some of the latest reviews are being wrong about this , This movie is a satire and nothing more , It's just a fun 2 hours , yes the characters are horrible but it's a fun time and I loved it.
Rating:
Summary: Keep up the hype on this wonderful movie!
Review: This movie deserves 5/5 ! for sure , it's funny and has great music and Catheirne Zeta jones is not fat? people in the 30's werent skinny she is perfect as are the whole cast!
Rating:
Summary: A Very Fine Movie Musical
Review: Truth be told, I honestly thought Chicago was much better than Moulin Rouge but then again that's my personal opinion. I thought the latter was a little all over the place musically. I've watched tons of stage musicals as well as those translated onto the big screen & this version of Chicago ranks as one of the best I've seen, both stage & screen. The feel to the entire movie was one of genuine fun & the musical tunes were better than the originals performed by previous performers I thought. Didn't think Queen Latifah nor John C Reilly were particularly outstanding (hence my surprise at their Oscar nominations, one of which should have gone to Richard Gere instead) but still held the film together with their decent supporting performances. The 3 main cast members were very good given that I didn't initially expect much from them from a musical standpoint (til I found out about their musical/dance backgrounds - yes even Gere sang before). Overall a very entertaining film. Well worth watching & listening to a good few more times.
Rating:
Summary: CHICAGO is a Dazzling Musical
Review: Chicago is the most upbeat, amazing spectecular movie of 2002. I mean it has been in theatres since December it obviously did somthing right.
All three main actors give remarkable strong performances. Renee Zellweger as the ditzy, not so smart dreamer does excellent in her role as Roxie Hart. Catherine Zeta Jones does just as good as the gaudy, singer, dancer, and murderer Velma Kelly. And also Richard Gere as the showy professional lawyer Billy Flynn. Included in the Cast is Queen Latifa as the big mama, and also Tay Diggs as the band leader. All along with a hundred dancing singing extras who have a role of there own.
The Music is the best! You will constanlty be singing one of the 14 major songs included in the film. All the music is ubeat and fast, except for a few which are a bit depressing. Along with the music the dancing is unbeliable!! The whole cast dances in there own little way it is amazing.
If your looking for an ubeat, jazzy, cynical, musical CHICAGO is for you. If you don't wann go to the theatre and see it then wait till August 19, 2003 for that is when it will be avaivalbe on DVD and Video. Hey, I already have a copy ordered and can't wait till it comes out. I've already seen it 3 times in theatres. CHICAGO is the best!
|
