JunkerSeed Posted December 29, 2002 Share Posted December 29, 2002 Yes, despite the presence of Richard Gere (who actually does a *gasp*, good job), this is a very good movie! It's one big ball of energy. Very fast movie, it just keeps... moving... coulda been 5 hours and felt like 1. Chicago tells the story of a wannabe performer standing trial for murdering a man. It's a great story about celebrity, spectacle, and the media. The movie goes by as quickly an chaotically as somebody's time in the spotlight. Very good stuff. While pretty much everybody did a fine job on the musical side of things, Catherine Zeta Jones easily stole the show. She was cool as hell, seems born to do this type of performing. Renee Zellwegger does very well for herself too. Gere is hit or miss, his first song is kinda odd, he lays the accent on real thick and sounds like a wannabe sean connery, but he does alright in the other songs. Queen Latifah is in this, and I might have been able to enjoy her song, if her enormous, disgusting boobs weren't hanging out of a tight dress for the whole goddamned thing... god that was sick.... Even John C. Reilly (Magnolia, Gangs of new york) has a cool little song of his own, I was glad they let him sing too. Anyways, I wouldn't mind seeing a few more of these musicals trickle in if they keep the same great kinetic energy, style, and heart that this one and moulin rouge had. Wouldn't be surprised if this was a big oscar contender, stuff like "the hours" "Far from heaven" and "gangs of new york" might be a little too dreary and depressing for the academy. Fine movie, I know nothing about musicals, and I've never seen the stage version, so it'd be cool to hear the opinions of the people on the board into that stuff (I know you're out there!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spiffytee Posted April 17, 2003 Share Posted April 17, 2003 Saw this last sunday with aadil and chihiro... and we were quite refreshed! Ok, let's start off with this. Back in the day, during high school, so far away... (just came out like that.... if i continue, this is all gonna suck.) i was into drama/theatre etc. We mostly did plays, but the final project that i participated in was a musical called "Give my regards to Broadway." Here, i got to understand and respect the added stress of what a musical brings - choreography (sp?,) singing, and freakin more coreography. together with your normal theater basic knowledge, projection, fade out, stage direction, and limited set, a musical can be quite a pain. Here's where i get that respect for the performances in chicago (recently found that gere had prior theater experience.) during our script filtering, we did try to do chicago, but didn't have enough female actors.... mabye if IC (nick) joined we could have pulled it off..... haha... but we did skim the script over. however, i forgot what happened in the story, so chicago was all the more entertaining for me. You think of a broadway production turned movie, you think, great.... singing. This style of movie has been untapped for quite awhile (reminicent of crouching tiger, since an easternized epic hadn't come out in awhile.) Unless you count moulin rouge. Now, don't misunderstand... this is no moulin rouge - it's not sappy! Moulin rouge fans, go back to your local BB's romance section - that's not chicago. think broadway; alla way. The movie chicago plays like a movie and cuts in a song when one is performed. The action usually continues as the song continues (there are, however a few instances where it's just the song and no action.) The song/action will have different costumes and environments, kinda like another dimension; one of performance and one of real time events. This is great, especially when a character is described.... ie queen latifah's 'mamma.' (not a big fan of hers, but it works) all in all, this movie is definately enjoyable. i am a rene fan, but yes, i admit yall, zeta jones really went all out and ran away with the gold in this movie, even though rene is the lead character (she lost a lot of weight for this role, is planning to gain back the weight for briget jones diary 2, if i'm not mistaken.) you won't forget the songs.... especially 'he had it coming' and 'cellophane.' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reverend Jax Posted April 17, 2003 Share Posted April 17, 2003 Yep, saw this one a few months ago and forgot to post on it. Good, not as good as Moulin Rogue, but good. Best picture? Sure, why not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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