I love this movie! Great performances by Renee Zellwegger, Catherine Zeta Jones, and especially Queen Latifah. I loved the musical numbers, and I thought the sets were very well done. It's a great musical, and I even like it more than the overrated melodramatic Moulin Rouge.

A

B-/C+

Its enjoyable, but it isn't really a movie. Its more like a live play taped on screen. Zeta-Jones and Gere do fine, but it didn't really click. The direction is bad, and so forth. I didn't hate watching it, but theres no way it should've touched a nomination for Best Picture, let alone take it. The competition was pretty good that year too. Pianist, Lord of the Rings, Gangs.

All and all, its still the worst Oscar slip-up of all-time in my mind.

A

Grand, jazzy, funny. Fucking awesome, to put it another way.

I love Chicago.

So I saw the play on the weekend, then I saw the movie the following night on tv. I change my grade to an F. Now now, I know what you're thinking, I must be one of those "Its bad because it can't compare!" guys right? Wrong. My F is justified by a completley different reason, a reason on which they kept hidden by pulling the blindfolds on everybody. Before, I trashed the movie because it looked like a play. But what is kept secret is yet another detail. Its just doesn't look like a play, it is the play. What I mean by that is that in the script, they used every single line. EVERY SINGLE LINE. Everything Zellwegger and Zeta-Jones and Gere and etc. say is directly lifted from the play. Every gesture, joke, even the most finite details. Rob Marshall didn't write a script for this movie. He borrowed it from a local theatre, taught it to his actors, and filmed it. They didn't even try to alter anything, they didn't try to come up with anything on their own. Basicly every word is straight from the show. I've heard of too faithful adaptations like To Kill A Mockingbird or Harry Potter 1 & 2, but this is unbelievable. Its a staged reading. They didn't contribute anything to it. That BP win was murder.

Chicago is the most unoriginal film of all time.

Flawless musical like Sound of Music, Oliver, and Cabaret.

A+

Right. Bill Condon wrote the script for this movie.



I've seen the play too....and I'm not entirely sure where you're coming from, as there are plenty of differences, starting with, but not limited to, the fact that the musical seqences in the movie are all figments of Roxie's imagination....a dimension not found in the play.

But they are similar in most respects, including a great deal of the dialogue, and I can't help but wonder: is there anything truly wrong with that? A play adaptation is a lot different than a book adaptation; when it comes from the stage, the script essentially already exists. A show plays to an audience for about 2 hours-just like a movie. Think of a classic, Oscar-nominated film like 12 Angry Men (the PERFECT example). That is an absolute, 100% word-for-word replication of the original play (maybe a line or two have been altered...but it would literally only be a line or two). Does that get an F too? And it's not the only mostly word-for-word filming of a play (Born Yesterday, The Glass Menagerie, etc.). Hell, Shakespeare is usually filmed like that, it you want me to take this point to the absolute logical extreme. Does Shakespeare need altering for the screen?

Note: I realize the silliness of comparing Chicago and Shakespeare. Nonetheless...

Heh, I just had to add that the Cell Block number in the movie is a TANGO sequence.

Carry on.

I Love this movie, Its a musical that isnt boring.

A

I despise this movie. Despite the set pieces, the passable music sequences... it looses the glam factor on repeat viewings and just doesn't stand as the classic it should. Cabaret is better.

Despite what I said when I posted under my former, alternative personality, I can objectively say I would only give this movie a C+ or **1/2 (out of 4). I just don't care for it.

Hehe...I love Chicago too! The movie AND the city!

A-

Chicago: Old-Fashioned Sexy Musical


Being a huge fan of 2001's two mega-classic new musicals (i.e.: Moulin Rouge and Hedwig and the Angry Inch), I daren't hope for another as good in a decade. And, well -- that has held true so far, despite my viewing of Chicago tonight. It's very good, but not great. Still, it was certainly good enough to tide over musical lovers until the next oasis comes in sight. It was certainly an old-fashioned style musical - I mean this baby must of been around since the 70's! But, the song and dance numbers are each gems of lewd lyrics delivered with panache by the bizarro cast. The connecting story certainly isn't all that jazz, but -- really! -- who cares -- this is movie musical land...

5 out of 5.

It's not a film. It's a joke. Hollywood makes films like this to see how many people they can fool into liking it. It gets a so called A-list cast and then nominates people who have no business even being in the same room as some actors and then they retire to champagne rooms and congratulate each other for fooling all of you again. Renee Zellwegger?? Best actress? Queen Fucking Latifa for best supporting? And most of you fell for this joke? Was Chris Rock directing? Did Russell Peters produce the film? Was George Carlin creatiev consultant? This "film" is a joke and is perhaps the worst ever best picture win.

0/10

Hehehehe, you already replied to the very same post with your grade on the last page

I love this movie "and all that jazz!" A+++

oh yes
oh yes
oh yes
we both
oh yes we both we both
we both reach for the gun

I've warmed up to this movie a lot, it's very much solid fun, with catchy numbers.

Not Moulin Rouge and not one of my favorites, but... I like it.

On the contrary I think it holds up superbly on repeat viewings.

Yay. I agree (still).

A-

The only thing I didn't like were a few of the songs.

On a technical level, this is miles above any recent musical.

Never replied in this thread? Eh?

I *love* Chicago. Still my favorite musical of the past ten years, which is a pretty big accomplishment considering how much I loved Moulin Rouge and Dreamgirls. Renee Zellweger and Richard Gere are both rock-solid, Queen Latifah and John C. Reilly are wonderful, and Catherine Zeta-Jones devours the ferocious role of Velma in her Oscar-winning performance. Just a great movie all around. A

A

Thoroughly enjoyed this movie. So much fun.

"What if in fact you're just disgusting?"

I can sing every song on the soundtrack. I can sing them by myself, with friends, I hear them in my head when the film is not playing. It's like a ghost, it follows me everywhere. It's the music... It's the excess! The delightful and bitterly ironic songs are amazingly brought to life by a wonderful ensemble. And we applaud and we want more when it's over. But it's that perfect dose of sweet and sour. And did I mention that Christine Baranski is great in it? What's not to love about Chicago's razzle dazzle?

10/10

I was pleasantly surprised when this won the Oscar.

Baumer gave this a 0/10, really?

This is my second favorite film of all-time, by far the best movie musical I've ever seen, and it was one of the first films I ever saw more than once in the theater.

A+