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Billy Flyn's number one

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3 Jan 22nd, 2003 

2 Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful

Advantages:
Music and dance

Disadvantages:
No Fred and Ginger

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ChazMan

ChazMan

About me:

Hi everyone, I am married with two children and live in Birmingham , England. I write occassional r...

Member since:10.10.2000

Reviews:12

Chicago is a film version of the 1920s stage musical that for me doesn't quite deliver. Part of the problem is that two of the main stars, Renee Zellweger as Roxie and Richard Gere as Billy Flyn just aren't up the singing and dancing. They just can't match the jazz. Catherine Zeta Jones, Velma, is a notch above them but gets less of the movie and is very much the third star.
Fans of Richard Gere will be dissapointed to see him getting down to his boxer shorts but still wearing a flat cap. The scene made me laugh out loud but I don't think it was meant to.
Renee Zellweger, had some dance scenes on her own and despite editing and I guess dozens of retakes still looked clumsy.
There's a need for a live audience to build the music and dance scenes and this is often dubbed on or the scene presented as a stage show to compensate. They just can't quite carry it off themselves.
The plot revolves around the easy mainipulation of naked ambition. In essence Billy Flyn is less of a lawyer and more of a showbiz agent. His clients are fed to him by a corrupt prison warder played superbly by Queen Latifah. She is much more of natural jazz singer than the rest of the main cast.
The style is similar to Cabaret, another Bob Fosse musical, and the story moves on by means of song and dance as much as by spoken dialogue.
Roxie and Velma are killers, the fact that they did it is never in doubt. Velma killed her sister for sleeping with her husband and Roxie her lover for leading her on. They also have in common the wish to be stars and Billy Flyn is quick to put them in turn on the front page of every newspaper. Caught up in their fame they show no remorse and compete over column inches.
There was for me a resonance with the Pop Idol shows where kids turn up willing to do anything, sign anything, for the chance to be a star. Is killing someone a way becoming a star? How far would they go for fame? Would the Pop Idol hopefuls go that far? No but the movie pushes that extreme.
"Billy Flyn's number one client is Billy Flyn" is repeated through the film. Sure enough he ignores both Velma and Roxie when the prospect of a rich socialite, Lucy Liu, comes along as a client. In a years to come an updated version might be called The Story of Hearsay. 

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Chicago (DVD) - review by franproc

Advantages: Renee Zellwegger, the songs
Disadvantages: Catherine Zeta-Jones, the plot

Chicago (DVD) - review by franproc franproc 17.06.2003 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of Chicago (DVD)

Chicago (DVD) - review by onthebeach8

Advantages: Best stage to movie transition
Disadvantages: Richard Gere's voice (god love him!!)

Chicago (DVD) - review by onthebeach8 onthebeach8 27.01.2009 (27.01.2009) · Read review
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Chicago (DVD) - review by Jess_ter

Advantages: For the blokes...Girls in their undies
Disadvantages: Not 100% faithful to the stage show

Chicago (DVD) - review by Jess_ter Jess_ter 30.04.2003 (30.04.2003) · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of Chicago (DVD)

Chicago (DVD) - review by lizzihop

Advantages: Great dancing and music
Disadvantages: None

Chicago (DVD) - review by lizzihop lizzihop 02.10.2003 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of Chicago (DVD)

Chicago (DVD) - review by MRNunki

Advantages: Easy-going and alot easier to understand than the stage show!
Disadvantages: None that I could find!

Chicago (DVD) - review by MRNunki MRNunki 04.01.2005 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of Chicago (DVD)



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