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Chicago (Full Screen Edition) Customer Reviews (58 - 60 of 120 Reviews)

Chicago - A thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining film!
I would definitely have to say that I approached watching a musical with a small amount of trepidation; but this trepidation was quickly washed away as I found that "Chicago" was nothing less than a thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining film to watch. Although there have been many films that I've completely enjoyed watching, I cannot remember the last time I watched a movie that had me smiling the whole way through. Despite the basic nature of this film being grounded in murder and those who committed it doing whatever they can to get out of it, the way in which the story was written within a musical just makes it so hilarious you'll find yourself just happily enjoying this film all the way to the credits at the end.

It is absolutely no wonder to me at all that this film won six Academy awards, all of which were well deserved. I believe it takes an unusual and refreshing film like this to win that many Academy awards.

Renee Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere, Queen Latifah, John C. Reilly and Lucy Liu all deserve extraordinary praise for their respective performances in this exceptional film. I've read and heard that several people weren't too impressed with Richard Gere's singing and dancing which is an opinion I don't share. Who knew that this big star could and or would do singing and dancing on film; I thought his performance was great.

Director Rob Marshall deserves nothing but the highest praise and accolades for bringing this brilliant film to the theaters and DVD format. Chicago is nothing less, in this reviewer's opinion, than the best musical ever made!

To be perfectly honest, I'm not a huge musical fan, but this film and the sound track for it is just so enjoyable you don't have to be a huge musical fan to enjoy the film and the performances by these great actors.

The premise:

The setting for this film is Chicago in the twenties which makes it the perfect setting for the entire film as it is learned in the "Behind the Scenes" special that it is somewhat ground in the true story of several women killing their husbands or boyfriends and the huge media blitz over their trials. Taking that into consideration and the timing of the film, being in the twenties when women were struggling for more rights, you have all the ingredients for the plot of "Chicago" and then throw in the musical aspect and then throw in several exceptional actors and actresses and you have "Chicago."

Renee Zellweger plays Roxie Hart who is a naïve young woman married to an older, blue collar working man who is gone all day. Take that aspect and her "intense" desire to be on stage doing her jazz singing and dancing. Being a bored housewife, she hooks up with a little side action in the form a furniture salesman who feeds her a huge line about getting her hooked up with somebody at the local jazz club. After several weeks of believing his line about getting her on stage, he finally becomes tired of her nagging and tells her he's just a furniture salesman and doesn't know anybody at the club. She becomes so distraught about being lied to that she whips out a thirty eight and puts him down right at the front door.

Her poor sap husband, played so brilliantly by John C. Reilly initially tries to take the blame for her, right up to the point in which he finds out that the body laying at the front door was the guy who sold them their furniture and boom, he drops the story and off to jail goes Roxie. It's in jail that she meets up with Matron "Mama" Morton (Queen Latifah) and Velma Kelly who is played so brilliantly by Catherine Zeta-Jones who seems to have been born for singing and dancing. Velma has been in jail for some time now after the films exceptional opening with her on stage singing and dancing "All that Jazz." It seems she found her sister in the bed with her husband and she whacked the both of them. Richard Gere shows up not too long after that as Billy Flynn, the big shot lawyer in Chicago that has never lost a case.

What follows from there is nothing less than the best musical to hit the silver screen in years that will have you smiling from ear to ear from the very opening of the film to the credits. I highly recommend this exceptional film to any and all, whether you're a fan of musicals or not, you will enjoy "Chicago." {ssintrepid}

Special Features

- Deleted Musical Number "Class" Performed by Catherine Zeta-Jones & Queen Latifah
- Behind The Scenes Special
- Director & Screenwriter Feature Commentary

Don't Walk Away, Renee
The journey of CHICAGO from stageboards to sound stage is probably worthy of A LOST IN LA MANCHA documentary. Over the years, I had heard rumors of Liza Minnelli and Goldie Hawn, Tracey Ullman, Madonna, all eyeing the chances to play either Roxie or Velma. Contracts and squabbling led to negotiations and renegotiations, and the project sat shelved and ignored for years.

Now, the musical has made its way to the big screen and the wait was hardly worth it. Yes, the score is basically true to the original theater rendering (minus some numbers, abbreviating others)and the dance moments are reminiscent of Fosse's original steps. However, the film doesn't have the energy or the vison of a real musical. Cynical by nature, bleak in subject matter, this certainly isn't MY FAIR LADY or GIGI, but even so, the movie seems self-conscious about presenting its showstopper interludes.

Every song in this play was tailored to present "Razzle Dazzle," for its original performers (Verdon, Rivera, Orbach) were legends of the Great White Way. Zellweger, Zeta-Jones, and Gere are not musical performers in the same caliber. Gere and Zeta-Jones have musical-comedy appearances on their resumes, but Zellweger was a true neophyte, an actual ingenue.

It's Zellweger who anchors this movie. Despite Zeta-Jones's superior dancing skills and belting, full-blown voice, she doesn't really create a character for Velma Kelly. She's beautiful and can take a close-up; she doesn't invest her Velma with any personality. Gere, likewise, looks fabulous, but his Billy Flynn is devoid of the right sleaziness, the correct cockiness and bullishness. (Also, a huge fuss was made about his tap dancing lessons for this flick; yet he is shot in almost total darkness during his big routine. It could have been a dance double doing the two-step.)

It's Renee Zelwegger, with her breathy voice, peculiar looks, gangly body, and exposed nerves that catapults this into a memorable flick. She sings her role, but it's so much more than that. She attacks her characterization. She lets us see how Roxie is dying for fame, so much so, that she kills for it. She invests her song-and-dance numbers with honest-to-goodness emotions, and she uses her choreography to make her character both vulnerable and steely, abused and abusive. She is the tour-de-force.

Unlike MOULIN ROUGE, where director Baz Luhrmann allowed 95% of the numbers to be shot in entirety, permitting songs to flow from start to finish, CHICAGO's director Rob Marshall relies too much on MTV quick cuts and rapid-fire edits. It's as if he is distancing himself from the very medium he is honoring. It's a shame that the Kander-and-Ebb musical waited nearly 30 years to go on screen, and its arrival is at times disjointed and interrupted.

For those who want to see a complete musical, a show that rejoices in its characters bursting into song and movement, rent MOULIN ROUGE or some of the great MGM masterpieces. If you want a sly, wry, cyncial "black" comedy that occasionally makes a melodious point, go to CHICAGO. It may be a hell of a town, but it's not a hell of a movie.

Chicago is the best musical of all time!
This movie brilliantly begins with a glance of Renee Zellweger's magnificent eyes. This movie has a brilliant ending with a dance number from Renee Zellweger as Roxie Hart and Catherine Zeta-Jones as Velma Kelly. The director, Rob Marshall, always stays true to Bob Fosse's vision of "Chicago". It never lets you down even at the end of the movie, it still keep you going and Richard Gere's character Billy Flynn, the attorney to both Roxie and Velma, makes you want to tap dance yourself out of the movie theater, which is brilliant, of course. Danny Elfman's score is sensational and never gives up at a moment's notice. Renee Zellweger is brilliant in her Oscar-Nominated performance as Roxie, Catherine Zeta-Jones is twice as brilliant in her Best Supporting Actress Oscar-Winning performance as Velma, and makes you think who is the better character, Roxie or Velma. John C. Reilly and Queen Latifah are picture perfect in their Oscar-Nominated performances as Amos Hart and Mama Morton. The Oscar-Winning production and costume design, film editing, and sound. "Chicago" also won the Best Picture Oscar for 2003 and which it deserved to win the Best Picture Oscar for 2003. Bill Condon's Oscar-Nominated screenplay is brilliant as the movie itself is. "Chicago" and "Moulin Rouge" both brought back the Musical genre to life and quite well, really. The Oscar-Nominated cinematography from Dion Beebe was great, as the song "I Move On" sung at the end credits by Renee Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Richard Gere's standout performance as Billy Flynn for Best Actor Oscar was extraordinary which he won his first Golden Globe For Best Actor for his performance in "Chicago". I was entertained by "Chicago" because of the songs on the soundtrack which were a little bit better than the songs from "Moulin Rouge". I hope this becomes the best musical ever made.

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