Chicago Review
SPOILERS
Let me put it this way:
Rob is to Moulin Rouge as Stephen is to Chicago.
That's how much I love Chicago.
Now it might not be the same fervor that Rob has, but for me it was more on a bizarrly personal nature that I have yet to explore. To tell the truth, I liked Moulin Rouge, but only for what it stood for. Not as the film's content itself. When discussing this to a associate of mine on one of the message boards that I so lovely placed on the left to you, I think what really re-sounded with me (and actually twisted my thought Moulin Rouge) was how Moulin Rouge seemed a bit too main-"streamed" with all music that were easily recognized. That comment really stook in my mind and I was kinda in denile, saying that Moulin Rouge was the first therefore will be the best ever of modern musicals. Just like even though I hate boy bands I would still rather see the BSB's beat out N'Sync since they came out first.
There's really so much to say on why I love this movie. I would probably have to first attribute it to my, albeit limited, experience with dance and theatre. Not that I seen much ( of most shows I could probably count them with one hand ), but it's just that it really touched me because of the emotion shown in the human body. Secondly I would have to heavily attribute it to Bob Fosse, since he's a god in Broadway chereography. Not to mention that I actually liked most of the music, music that was *made* for the show, and not "mixed" such as in Moulin Rouge.
To start off I would highlight the low points and high points of each of the main characters.
Roxie Hart: She was great, although it was kinda interesting on how Chicago was more advertised to seem like a Catherine Zeta-Jones flick than a rene Zellweger. However it was really refreshing since she is what I consider on the B-List on Hollywoods greats. Kinda flopping around with these neat indie, art-house flicks, but she really shined in this film. She wasn't as burning hot as Catherine, (not in sexiness, I mean dancing) but she did have center stage which she really needed, otherwise Zeta-Jones would have stolen the entire movie. I think it was also a good thing because her character was so un-like most her other roles, so that *really* helped in me beliebing her singing and her being a character.
Highs: Two of them really stood out, Roxie song and the final number. I would have to be more towards Roxie since it was the one that featured more of her singing, although Nowadays (Final dance number) is where her voice was extremely great. Nowadays loses points because of how little of the singing there was compared to the amount of dance in Hot Honey Rag
Lows: Should be pretty damned obvious, Funny Honey her first song. It was pretty horrible, and not that even flattering. It kinda irked me since it almost set me up expecting that it would total crapola, but thankfully it picked up fast. The Nowadays/Hot Honey Dance was also kinda off for me since it took a completely different pace of being more dance than song. Not to mention more Vaudville that Chicago.
Velma Kelly: Delciously great. It was a serious supporting character. Very interesting, since her acting had the hallmarks of a supporting character but it was the singing & dancing that had the hallmarks of a lead character. Would have obviously stolen the show if Roxie didn't have the screen time allotted for her. I think she had the best voice overall for the spirit of the movie.
Highs: Mostly everything. I didn't catch "All that Jazz" but I got enough of it anyways from previews. I think the best part would be when she did I Can't Do It Alone. It combined the best of Fosse (and showed the most of), vaudville and modern dance making it uber cool.
Lows: Nowadays/Hot Honey Rag. With all the work put into making Velma Kelly as this dancer of dark caberets, it seemed really odd to see her in a white dress, as well with with a really bright room. Like I said it kinda put the final say of saying that this was a story about Roxie, whom really fit into the final dance.
Billy Flynn: It was really bizarre to see Richard Gere sing considering that his acting voice was so seperated from his singing scenes. It was weird because I associated with his singing voice with sleaze, however during the reality scenes, he *acted* out his sleaze. Farily good, but also not great. Compared to the women he's barely keeping up, and the weakest link of dancing.
Highs: It's a toss up between We Both Reached for the Gun and Razzle Dazzle. The former was more entertaining, however the latter was more in tune of the spirit and stretched Flynn's range for emotion.
Lows: All I Care About. Bad not a good start off for Flynn.
I didn't really like When You're Good To Mama. Sexy, but still it didn't do justice for me. A tad more geared towards traditional jazz. However I loved Mister Cellophane, it was beautiful. It seemed so good and like Rob Marshall said, John C. Riley was the heart of the film and I would have to somewhat agree. His voice was beautiful and his high point is when he hit that high note on the song. Perfect. My only qualm was that it was too short.
There wasn't anything really bad since it was seriously a film adaption of theatre, which meant a lot of close-ups. Although I wanted basically more wide shots because to see all the good dance shots, but sadly the faces of the stars must be seen. It started very slow but picked up fast, in fact much like an opposite version of Baz Luhrman's Moulin Rouge.
But what I really liked about this film is that the music basically carried the movie. The story was simple, hell for me it bordered on likening it to see a film with Superman just kicking ass for 90 minutes straight without any problems. It's just that these people are one sided, but it's the music that's the true star and those who sing them. These are people you hate but want to see them suceed (such as Superman).
It's just that even with the sad parts such as the hanging of Hunyak, it still was put in such a way with the "un-reality" part with black comedy. This brings up a good point that it really just emphasized the point that Billy Flynn was the *only* lawyer that was good enough for these ladies, considering that absolutely no other lawyers were present in the film. Without him, they're dead.
I also like how the end of the court case showed Amos Hart and Billy Flynn leaving, thus ending the interaction with Roxie. The court had drawn all of them together and everything interacted within the crime, nothing else nothing more. Sure Amos was married to Roxie, but we can see there was no interaction before the crime.
A great film, but full of glaring flaws. But for bringing me on such a good trip I give it.
4.5 stars/5 stars.
It's good.
Isn't it? Grand.
Isn't it? Great.
Isn't it? Swell.
Isn't it? Fun.
Isn't it?
SPOILERS
Let me put it this way:
Rob is to Moulin Rouge as Stephen is to Chicago.
That's how much I love Chicago.
Now it might not be the same fervor that Rob has, but for me it was more on a bizarrly personal nature that I have yet to explore. To tell the truth, I liked Moulin Rouge, but only for what it stood for. Not as the film's content itself. When discussing this to a associate of mine on one of the message boards that I so lovely placed on the left to you, I think what really re-sounded with me (and actually twisted my thought Moulin Rouge) was how Moulin Rouge seemed a bit too main-"streamed" with all music that were easily recognized. That comment really stook in my mind and I was kinda in denile, saying that Moulin Rouge was the first therefore will be the best ever of modern musicals. Just like even though I hate boy bands I would still rather see the BSB's beat out N'Sync since they came out first.
There's really so much to say on why I love this movie. I would probably have to first attribute it to my, albeit limited, experience with dance and theatre. Not that I seen much ( of most shows I could probably count them with one hand ), but it's just that it really touched me because of the emotion shown in the human body. Secondly I would have to heavily attribute it to Bob Fosse, since he's a god in Broadway chereography. Not to mention that I actually liked most of the music, music that was *made* for the show, and not "mixed" such as in Moulin Rouge.
To start off I would highlight the low points and high points of each of the main characters.
Roxie Hart: She was great, although it was kinda interesting on how Chicago was more advertised to seem like a Catherine Zeta-Jones flick than a rene Zellweger. However it was really refreshing since she is what I consider on the B-List on Hollywoods greats. Kinda flopping around with these neat indie, art-house flicks, but she really shined in this film. She wasn't as burning hot as Catherine, (not in sexiness, I mean dancing) but she did have center stage which she really needed, otherwise Zeta-Jones would have stolen the entire movie. I think it was also a good thing because her character was so un-like most her other roles, so that *really* helped in me beliebing her singing and her being a character.
Highs: Two of them really stood out, Roxie song and the final number. I would have to be more towards Roxie since it was the one that featured more of her singing, although Nowadays (Final dance number) is where her voice was extremely great. Nowadays loses points because of how little of the singing there was compared to the amount of dance in Hot Honey Rag
Lows: Should be pretty damned obvious, Funny Honey her first song. It was pretty horrible, and not that even flattering. It kinda irked me since it almost set me up expecting that it would total crapola, but thankfully it picked up fast. The Nowadays/Hot Honey Dance was also kinda off for me since it took a completely different pace of being more dance than song. Not to mention more Vaudville that Chicago.
Velma Kelly: Delciously great. It was a serious supporting character. Very interesting, since her acting had the hallmarks of a supporting character but it was the singing & dancing that had the hallmarks of a lead character. Would have obviously stolen the show if Roxie didn't have the screen time allotted for her. I think she had the best voice overall for the spirit of the movie.
Highs: Mostly everything. I didn't catch "All that Jazz" but I got enough of it anyways from previews. I think the best part would be when she did I Can't Do It Alone. It combined the best of Fosse (and showed the most of), vaudville and modern dance making it uber cool.
Lows: Nowadays/Hot Honey Rag. With all the work put into making Velma Kelly as this dancer of dark caberets, it seemed really odd to see her in a white dress, as well with with a really bright room. Like I said it kinda put the final say of saying that this was a story about Roxie, whom really fit into the final dance.
Billy Flynn: It was really bizarre to see Richard Gere sing considering that his acting voice was so seperated from his singing scenes. It was weird because I associated with his singing voice with sleaze, however during the reality scenes, he *acted* out his sleaze. Farily good, but also not great. Compared to the women he's barely keeping up, and the weakest link of dancing.
Highs: It's a toss up between We Both Reached for the Gun and Razzle Dazzle. The former was more entertaining, however the latter was more in tune of the spirit and stretched Flynn's range for emotion.
Lows: All I Care About. Bad not a good start off for Flynn.
I didn't really like When You're Good To Mama. Sexy, but still it didn't do justice for me. A tad more geared towards traditional jazz. However I loved Mister Cellophane, it was beautiful. It seemed so good and like Rob Marshall said, John C. Riley was the heart of the film and I would have to somewhat agree. His voice was beautiful and his high point is when he hit that high note on the song. Perfect. My only qualm was that it was too short.
There wasn't anything really bad since it was seriously a film adaption of theatre, which meant a lot of close-ups. Although I wanted basically more wide shots because to see all the good dance shots, but sadly the faces of the stars must be seen. It started very slow but picked up fast, in fact much like an opposite version of Baz Luhrman's Moulin Rouge.
But what I really liked about this film is that the music basically carried the movie. The story was simple, hell for me it bordered on likening it to see a film with Superman just kicking ass for 90 minutes straight without any problems. It's just that these people are one sided, but it's the music that's the true star and those who sing them. These are people you hate but want to see them suceed (such as Superman).
It's just that even with the sad parts such as the hanging of Hunyak, it still was put in such a way with the "un-reality" part with black comedy. This brings up a good point that it really just emphasized the point that Billy Flynn was the *only* lawyer that was good enough for these ladies, considering that absolutely no other lawyers were present in the film. Without him, they're dead.
I also like how the end of the court case showed Amos Hart and Billy Flynn leaving, thus ending the interaction with Roxie. The court had drawn all of them together and everything interacted within the crime, nothing else nothing more. Sure Amos was married to Roxie, but we can see there was no interaction before the crime.
A great film, but full of glaring flaws. But for bringing me on such a good trip I give it.
4.5 stars/5 stars.
It's good.
Isn't it? Grand.
Isn't it? Great.
Isn't it? Swell.
Isn't it? Fun.
Isn't it?
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