A Razzle Dazzle of a Film! (Chicago (DVD))

Member Name: sewbizzie

Product:	Chicago (DVD)
Date:	29/10/09 (87 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great acting, song and dancing

Disadvantages: None from me

As I had my Nan staying with me last week we both decided that we would take over the TV and watch a film of our choice. We both agreed on this one as we are both fans of Richard Gere much to hubby annoyance!

The film is based around Roxie Hart who dreams of making it on stage, she is even having an affair with a man who she believes can make her dream come true. Things go wrong for Roxie when she finds out the man is lying to her and she ends up shooting him. Roxie sweet talks her husband to take the blame but he soon drops her in it when he finds out the truth behind his murder. Roxie is taken to prison where she meets her idol Velma Kelly who is also there for murdering her husband and sister after she found them sleeping together.

Roxie and Velma are soon competing with each other for the time and work of the top lawyer Billy Flynn who has never lost a case. The prison Matron, Mama is also helping Roxie as she too believes that Roxie would be big on stage and as she is taking a cut of all the profits and goods she is receiving.

Billy soon agrees to take on the case and Roxie's husband Amos has come up with the money and they are working to come up with some good press to make Chicago fall in love with Roxie to get her off the murder charge.

Just how will Velma take the lack of cooperation from her lawyer now he has anew client and will Roxie ever fulfil her dream of being big on stage?

I really did not know what to expect from this film as it stars three big actors but all of whom I have never head sing or watched dance so for me it was a nice surprise. I found Renee Zellweger who played the role of Roxie to be fantastic and she really could belt out the tunes and I found her character to be both naive and powerful which really did make for some good viewing and gave us a wonderful insight into her mind. She worked extremely well with Richard Gere who took the role of Billy Flynn and I think they had a great on screen chemistry together.

I was expecting Catherine Zeta Jones to have had the main role of the film but she played Velma who appeared to be second after Roxie. She too did a great job with her character and gave her such a good competitive edge. I thought she had an amazing voice and loved seeing her in the dance routines. I also found the competitiveness between her and Roxie made for some entertaining viewing.

The supporting actors were all very good and for me the best by far was Queen Latifah who took the role of Matron Mama. She had an amazing screen presence and showed so many different sides to her personality and I also found hr vocals to be excellent.

The film is a musical and I have to say it worked so well. I have not seen this on stage so cannot make any comparison to that but for me the film was excellent. I found the mix of straight acting with the songs to work so well and it all just seemed to fit into place without much effort needed to follow what was going on. The songs throughout were brilliant and despite not having seen this before I did know quite a lot of them so was able to sing along at times. I think the vocals from everyone and not just the lead actors were good and made for some great listening.

The film did start off in a strange way with us being shown Roxie's dreams but after the first 15 or so minutes they did become easy to follow and differentiate between dream and reality.

There was one scene which really did stand out for both me and my Nan and that was when Richard Gere did a routine with the characters and Roxie being puppets. I thought this was all excellently made and really was the highlight of the film for me. Even hubby did say that it was very good.

The film is set in the 1920's in Chicago and this is very apparent from the costumes and sets which have been used. I found it all looked very real and authentic for this year and I loved seeing how different everything was back then. I did however find that at times it was quite dark and just wished we could have seen more of the film shot in the daytime.

The DVD which I have does have some bonus features which include:-

Feature Commentary with Director and Screenwriter
From stage to screen ; The History of Making Chicago
Deleted Musical Number Class

I am not a fan of bonus features so have not taken the time to watch these so I am unable to make comment on them. The running time of the film is 109 minutes and I found this to be a great length and loved the whole thing. The certificate is a 12 as there are some mild sex reference and violence and I do have to agree with this. I managed to pick this DVD up for just £3 in Tesco which I felt to be another great purchase.

Overall I do recommend this to everyone who has not yet watched it as it has a great storyline, excellent songs and dance routines and Richard Gere is excellent and sexy!

Summary: Roxie and Velma compete for the attention of top lawyer Billy Flynn