CHICAGO
Released: December 27, 2002
While not quite the successful tour de force that "Moulin Rouge" was, this is still a very fun ride. Catherine Zeta-Jones and Renee Zelwegger stars as dancers with criminal behaviour that could threaten their careers - unless star lawyer Billy Flynn played by 53 year old Richard Gere saves the day. The musical portions are fun and you can tell they really worked on it. Story and music are blended together in a way that keeps the story flowing all the time. A dance number actually covers a lot of narrative in a short amount of time and "Chicago" succeeds here like "Moulin Rouge", only without the poaching of readily known pop hits. There's lots of humor throughout and the support work from John C. Reilly, Queen Latifah, Christine Baranski, Taye Diggs and Lucy Liu is really fun to watch. The main principle cast members also sing on screen too, adding to the fun. I haven't seen the original stage musical this is based on but a movie version this good would be hard to match. From first time feature director Rob Marshall, who previously helmed several musicals on Broadway and was initially courted by Miramax to bring a movie version of "Rent" to the screen...
114 Minutes
Miramax/Buena Vista