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Chicago
2002
This Hollywood adaptation of the classic Broadway musical sparkles with glamour and reverberates with the energy of good, old-fashioned song and dance. As the film leaps into its first riveting act, Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta-Jones), one half of the famous number she performs with her sister, arrives at the night club late, .. Read more
| Starring | Catherine Zeta Jones, Dominic West, Renee Zellweger, Richard Gere |
|---|---|
| Director | Rob Marshall |
| Genres | Audio Descriptive, Music/Musical |
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Chicago
This Hollywood adaptation of the classic Broadway musical sparkles with glamour and reverberates with the energy of good, old-fashioned song and dance. As the film leaps into its first riveting act, Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta-Jones), one half of the famous number she performs with her sister, arrives at the night club late, dishevelled, and with blood on her hands. Nonetheless, she goes onstage unhindered and wows the crowd with her shimmying rendition of "All That Jazz." Roxie Hart (Renee Zellweger) a young blond who dreams of someday being famous like Velma, watches from the audience with eyes full of envy. Later, as the cops pick up Velma for the murder of her sister, sending her fame to all-time heights as she becomes a tabloid sensation, Roxie also commits a crime of passion--shooting a lover who falsely promised to secure her cabaret debut. The girls wind up together in jail, where Mama Morton (Queen Latifah), a compassionate guard, is their only hope of redemption; and Billy Flynn (Richard Gere) is the lawyer who can get them out. There, through wonderfully familiar songs like "Razzle Dazzle," "Cell-Block Tango," and "Cellophane Man" Roxie and Velma tell their story of competing for bad-girl celebrity.
Director Rob Marshall presents a loveable CHICAGO that shares all the grit and grime of the Bob Fosse Broadway original with phenomenal performances by this grouping of Hollywood stars. The dizzying camerawork and dazzling sets make an easy transition from stage to film.
| Starring | Catherine Zeta Jones, Dominic West, Renee Zellweger, Richard Gere, Queen Latifah, Christine Baranski, John C. Reilly, Lucy Liu, Taye Diggs, Colm Feore |
|---|---|
| Director | Rob Marshall |
| Studio | WALT DISNEY STUDIOS HOME ENTERTAINMENT |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 49 mins Blu-ray: 1 hr 49 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Audio Descriptive, Music/Musical |
| Language | English, English Audio Description |
| Hearing-impaired | English |
| Released | DVD: 04 Aug 2003 Blu-ray: 12 Nov 2007 Production year: 2002 |
| Format | DVD |
Chicago (2002)
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Critics' reviews (6)
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It took more than a quarter of a century to bring the 1975 musical Chicago to the screen, but it was worth the wait to get it right. In this spirited film adaptation, Renée Zellweger stars as Roxie Hart, the ambitious newcomer who dreams of singing and dancing in one of the city's jazz clubs, and Catherine Zeta-Jones plays Velma, the established performer. After the shootings of a lover and a faithless husband, they end up in prison, where the pair find that the publicity surrounding a capital murder case can be a boon to a career in showbusiness. Director Rob Marshall licks the problem of how to film a musical that was presented as vaudeville on stage — it's closer to that style of short scenes and “turns” than to conventional musical comedy — by re-creating the musical numbers as fantasies in Roxie's head. He loses none of the energy of the stage version nor its dark subtext on the corrupting nature of stardom. Oscar-nominated Zellweger is perfect casting despite — or perhaps even because of — her inexperience in the genre, while the Oscar-winning Zeta-Jones sings and high-kicks as if born on Broadway.
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A clever screenplay that treats the songs as moments of fantasy and wish fulfillment, and slick direction make for a diverting, cynical account of short-lived celebrity and the collusions between the media and its stars; it is let down by the singing and
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Most helpful member's review
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13 out of 16 people found this review helpful
BIG SCREEN BETTERS STAGE
Chicago is a near perfect example of crossover when it works. Chicago on stage is thin on story and settings, almost cabaret. But in the hands of Bill Condon, screenwriter, the problems of crossover are met head on and dealt with neatly. Rythm is all as both picture and story are cut to the beat. By this simple device we are propelled through The Windy City's 1920's heyday and the headline grabbing sories of death row murderesses, Zellweiger, Zeta Jones. Any plot shorcommnigs vanish in the sheer razzle dazzle of it all. Richard Gere as Billy the showman Lawyer, no stranger to charm, hoofs and sings and aquits himself well along with his clients on death row. This is a film where pace was clearly at the top of the creative teams list and it is this cracking pace, along with the blistering original score by Cander & Ebb which keeps our toes tapping throughout and sends us out whistling the tunes. By no means a film only for Musical lovers but deffo for MUSIC lovers...
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Most recent members' review
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3 out of 4 people found this review helpful
Unpleasant and unappealing
Chicago certainly does give 'em the old razzle-dazzle, but I for one was not impressed. Bright lights and fancy footwork do not detract from the fact that this is really quite an unpleasant film, with deeply unlikeable characters. Renee Zellweger is quite unappealing as the nasty Roxie Hart. Catherine Zeta Jones is a lot more fun as her idol turned rival turned ally. Richard Gere is as smug as always, and Reilly turns in his by now well-worn cuckold routine (The Hours, The Good Girl). Murder is treated as a song and dance, murderers as celebrities - this may well be the films' point, but in presenting it as innocent entertainment it is also complicit in this view. The most disturbing scene is when the only innocent girl on death row is hung, and this is presented as a circus trick. The songs are not memorable enough to save the awful story, all in all this is far from being a classic musical and thoroughly undeserving of its awards.
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- Chicago - BLU-RAY Version
- Blu-Ray: £12.93
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This Hollywood adaptation of the classic Broadway musical sparkles with glamour and reverberates with the energy of good, old-fashioned song and dance. As the film leaps into its first riveting act, ... -
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Chicago
This Hollywood adaptation of the classic Broadway musical sparkles with glamour and reverberates with the energy of good, old-fashioned song and dance. As the film leaps into its first riveting act, Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta-Jones), one half of the famous number she performs with her sister, ...
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