Chicago was excellent. I’ve had the musical soundtrack for years and I finally saw the show while we were in London. I honestly didn’t see how they were going to translate it to film. When I first saw the trailers, I thought that the introduction of, like, “plot” and “setting” was really going to bother me. In fact, it was great. The re-imagining of the musical numbers as Roxie’s fantasies really worked. True, it meant they had to cut a couple of songs, but the only one I really missed was “Class”. (Though Amos’s number was sort of a cheat, since the impression it gave of him was more his own than Roxie’s, right?) I was all set to be annoyed that Mary Sunshine wasn’t a drag queen, but then I remembered that I never really liked that number anyway and Christine Baranski is always a good thing. In terms of the leads, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Renee Zellweger were amazing. (Some of you know how much it pains me to say that, given that historically Zellweger has been, well, my nemesis.) Their dancing, singing, and acting were all wonderful. Richard Gere… not so much. I didn’t like the “shoeshine boy meets the full monty” thing they did with his first number. Granted, they probably just wanted to save his razzle dazzle stuff til the big finale, but I always imagined him as a real slick James Brolin type. Not a dorky grinning Richard Gere. *shrug* Other plusses: John C. Reilly is a god. Queen Latifah kicked some serious ass. And the dancing, which I expected to suck having seen Anne Reinking’s choreography for the revival, was actually really good and seemed like a homage without being a total ripoff.

In short, I went in expecting to complain. Instead I came out raving. This is, like, Moulin Rouge good. Oh, and I felt really cool for correctly spotting “Mya” as one of Cell Block Tango girls. 🙂

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  1. nice. i’m glad to hear it was so good! alas, fort wayne theatres have shunned it, because this town is full of a bunch of f*&#ing hicks who only want to go eat at one of our 7,000 restuarants and see that “10 Ways to WHATEVER” movie with matthew mcconaughey – ugh. chicago’s only slated to be in town for 3 days! (and i think today’s the last one. what a bunch of HONKY.)

  2. restaurants? restuarants. it looks weird both ways.

  3. I saw it on Saturday as well and was quite impressed. I went in not quite sure what to expect. I had seen the trailers etc. but I didn’t know the story or much about the musical, but came out very pleased. The number with the press as puppets (not exactly sure of the name of it) was very, very good.

  4. the press puppets was my favurite scene as well, even though i did think richard gere was the weakest of the actors. who really blew me away was catherine zeta-jones… the film as a whole was excellent, and although i really liked the “cellophane man” scene, it did kind of stuff up the whole “musical numbers all in roxie’s head” style they were going for. but i came out grinning from ear to ear, it was a load of fun.
    kris, apparently the dvd will include the scene “class” – it was filmed but because it didn’t involve roxie they felt it didn’t fit in, so it will be on the disc as a deleted extra.

  5. Oh, sweet! I kinda got the feeling that it might have been shot, what with that abbreviated scene where Mama gives Velma the diary.

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