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DVD Chicago (Full Screen Edition)
Bob Fosse's sexy cynicism still shines in Chicago, a faithful movie adaptation of the choreographer-director's 1975 Broadway musical. Of course the story, all about merry murderesses and tabloid fame, is set in the Roaring '20s, but Chicago reeks of '70s disenchantment--this isn't just Fosse's material, it's his attitude, too. That's probably why the movie's breathless observations on fleeting fame and fickle public taste already seem dated. However, Renée Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones are beautifully matched as Jazz Age vixens, and Richard Gere gleefully sheds his customary cool to belt out a showstopper. (Yes, they all do their own singing and dancing.) Whatever qualms musical purists may have about director Rob Marshall's cut-cut-cut style, the film's sheer exuberance is intoxicating. Given the scarcity of big-screen musicals in the last 25 years, that's a cause for singing, dancing, cheering. And all that jazz. --Robert Horton
"This trial... the whole world... it's all... show business."
So says Billy Flynn (Richard Gere), a hot-shot Chicago attorney who makes his living by saving young girls who happen to have killed someone from getting the rope around their beautiful necks. And allow me to add "this whole movie" to that sentence I just quoted. In a non-derogatory manner, by the way, because "Chicago" is show business from beginning to end and that's its very soul.
In this case, if you are a woman and want to make the front page of the newspapers, the best way seems to be killing your husband, getting caught by the cops and getting Flynn to take over your case in court. That and $5,000. The rest is, as they say, history. And rightly so because you'll go down as quickly as you went up, as soon as the girl next door does the same thing you did. Because it's Chicago, and "you can't beat fresh blood on the walls", as Flynn tells Roxie (Renée Zellwegger), the new kid on the block as she finds out her fifteen minutes of fame have ran out.
My advice is that you don't go see "Chicago" looking for a whodunnit kind of thriller involving cabarets and stage dancers. Instead, if "Moulin Rouge" bringing the musical genre back to the spotlight pleased you, this one is also definitely for your liking. I'm no expert in this kind of movie (it's not even my cup of tea) and so I have a hard time figuring out whether what we have here is story interrupted by songs or songs interrupted by story.
That duality brings an interesting quality to the film, though. Whereas the songs are full of color and splendor in good Broadway tradition, the rest is shown in bleak tones, suiting 1930's Chicago. The story however is never to be taken seriously, but always lightly. It makes sense but it is also goofy in a way.
The acting is all great and it's no wonder because a) they're all accomplished actors and b) most have stage formation and experience. Zeta-Jones is especially hot and on the spot as Velma Kelly, as her past as a professional dancer in London really shows. I just don't know if this performance is Oscar worthy but then again that's a tricky business. Scorsese must be thinking the same thing after his "Gangs of New York" was put out to dry...
You'll Love Chicago... And All That Jazz!
I first saw this in theaters a couple years ago with a friend and didn't quite know what to expect... and to be honest first time through I was like ugh - this is feminist crap (they were all talking about killing dudes...eh not so cool in my book ladies).
I enjoyed some of the musical numbers though - my favorite being "We Both Reached For The Gun" - Loved Zellweger!
After seeing it at the movies and talking about it to one of my other friends - he said that the person who wrote CHICAGO originally based it kinda of actual events at the time because women, generally speaking would have less severe punishments then men for the same crime - and often times let go; it kinda shows how corrupt the system was...er, is. Which made the movie more interesting to me and whenever the US Broadway TOUR CHICAGO came to my city I went and saw it.
Maybe it's just me, but personally after you see the movie and it razzle dazzles you - the live production was quite disappointing. Loved the music - the acting, etc. Just that they didn't really have all the lavish costumes and stage settings that I thought they might have after seeing the movie.
Personally I prefer the movie to the live production. It's a great movie and if you love broadway, musicals, and/or history - you will fall in love with CHICAGO! Oh, and girls if you are going through one of your 'I HATE MEN' stages you will love this flick - all the chicks in prison killed dudes - Eek!)
Very entertaining!
I recently saw the Broadway play Chicago & loved it that I had to see the movie. The movie was excellent & both the play & movie were as good as each other. Renee Zellweger did a terrific job as Roxie Hart and has a wonderful voice! Every song & dance number are excellent and tell an entertaining story of murder & life in prison. This was one of the best musical movies I've seen!!
A dazzling and yet frequently maddening bid to bring the movie musical kicking and screaming into the 21st century, Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge bears no relation to the many previous films set in the famous Parisian nightclub. This may appear to be Paris in the 1890s, with can-can dancers, bohemian denizens like Toulouse-Lautrec (John Leguizamo), and ribaldry at every turn, but it's really Luhrmann's pop-cultural wonderland. Everyone and everything is encouraged to shatter boundaries of time and texture, colliding and careening in a fast-cutting frenzy that thinks nothing of casting Elton John's "Your Song" 80 years before its time. Nothing is original in this kaleidoscopic, absinthe-inspired love tragedy--the words, the music, it's all been heard before. But when filtered... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Baz Luhrmann DVD Release Date: Released the 14 October 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Although it's not as bold as Oscar darling Chicago, The Phantom of the Opera continues the resuscitation of the movie musical with a faithful adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's blockbuster stage musical. Emmy Rossum glows in a breakout role as opera ingénue Christine Daae, and if phantom Gerard Butler isn't Rossum's match vocally, he does convey menace and sensuality in such numbers as "The Music of the Night." The most experienced musical theater veteran in the cast, romantic lead Patrick Wilson, sings sweetly but seems wooden. The biggest name in the cast, Minnie Driver, hams it up as diva Carlotta, and she's the only principal whose voice was dubbed (though she does sing the closing-credit number, "Learn to Be Lonely," which is also the only new song).
Winner of eight Academy Awards, including Best Director (Bob Fosse), Best Actress (Liza Minnelli), and Best Supporting Actor (Joel Grey), Cabaret would also have taken Best Picture if it hadn't been competing against The Godfather as the most acclaimed film of 1972. (Francis Ford Coppola would have to wait two years before winning Best Director, for The Godfather, Part II.) Brilliantly adapted from the acclaimed stage production, which was in turn inspired by Christopher Isherwood's Berlin Stories and the play and movie I Am a Camera, this remarkable musical turns the pre-war Berlin of 1931 into a sexually charged haven of decadence. Minnelli commands the screen as nightclub entertainer Sally Bowles, who radiantly goes on with the show as the Nazis rise... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Bob Fosse DVD Release Date: Released the 19 August 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Choreographer-turned-director Bob Fosse (Cabaret, Lenny) turns the camera on himself in this nervy, sometimes unnerving 1979 feature, a nakedly autobiographical piece that veers from gritty drama to razzle-dazzle musical, allegory to satire. It's an indication of his bravura, and possibly his self-absorption, that Fosse (who also cowrote the script) literally opens alter ego Joe Gideon's heart in a key scene--an unflinching glimpse of cardiac surgery, shot during an actual open-heart procedure.
Roy Scheider makes a brave and largely successful leap out of his usual romantic lead roles to step into Gideon's dancing pumps, and supplies a plausible sketch of an extravagant, self-destructive, self-loathing creative dynamo, while Jessica Lange serves as a largely allegorical... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Roy Scheider - Jessica Lange Director(s): Bob Fosse DVD Release Date: Released the 19 August 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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