Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3139 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-08-04
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English, Hungarian
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 109 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Adapted from the long-running stage version, this big-screen Chicago is a non-stop singing and dancing extravaganza that may well herald the welcome revival of the film musical. When the part-time lover of wannabe star Roxie (Renee Zellweger) is murdered, she is banged up with Chicago's most famous singing murderess, Velma (Catherine Zeta-Jones). They compete for the attention of the best lawyer in town, Billy Flynn (Richard Gere). Drawn to the special angle of Roxie's case (the sweetest killer to hit Chicago), Flynn offers her a taste of stardom and her daydreams of singing on stage are juxtaposed with the action.

Chicago has transferred well to film, seamlessly merging Dennis Potter-esque dream sequences with the action. Though the stage show uses sets sparingly, here the look has been heavily influenced by the only successful musical of recent times, Moulin Rouge, with heavy velvets and drapery offering a rich feel to the murky underworld of 1920s Chicago clubs. The hot question is: can the movie stars cut it as performers? Surprisingly, it is Zellweger who looks most comfortable in the part, regardless of her awkward dancing. Zeta-Jones is just that little bit too butch to be believable as a flapper girl, despite her stage school roots, and lacks a certain panache. But one thing is in her favour: she's believable as the ultimate starlet bitch. Gere does not fare much better, with his tap-dancing sequence littered with cutaways (mercifully his dancing and singing is kept to a minimum). The real show-stealer is Queen Latifah, whose matron of the cells is perfect and her singing spot-on. More than anything else, though, this film will whet your appetite to see the original on the West End stage. --Nikki Disney

On the DVD: Chicago on DVD demonstrates that the producers of Rob Marshall's Oscar-winning film obviously took to heart the lyrics "Give 'em the old Razzle Dazzle", as the widescreen 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer is rich with the lush colours, vibrant tones and sparkling audio that wowed audiences in the cinema. If only the extras had been given the same treatment. There's nothing like the plethora of special features that greeted fans of Moulin Rouge here; there is a grand total of three: a passable director's commentary, a deleted song, "Class", which is so dull you don't question why it didn't make the final cut, and a making-of feature, which is entertaining but nothing new. All in all, there's a very disappointing and unimaginative selection. --Kristen Bowditch

Special Features

• Audio commentary with director Rob Marshall and screenwriter Bill Condon
  
• Behind the scenes special (28 mins)
  
• Deleted scene with optional commentary

DVD Technical Information:

• Subtitles: English, English for the hearing impaired
  
• Running Time: 108 mins
  
• Region Code: 2

Synopsis
This Hollywood adaptation of the classic Broadway musical sparkles with glamour and reverberates with the energy of good, old-fashioned song and dance. As the film leaps into its first riveting act, Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta-Jones), one half of the famous number she performs with her sister, arrives at the night club late, dishevelled, and with blood on her hands. Nonetheless, she goes onstage unhindered and wows the crowd with her shimmying rendition of "All That Jazz." Roxie Hart (Renee Zellweger) a young blond who dreams of someday being famous like Velma, watches from the audience with eyes full of envy. Later, as the cops pick up Velma for the murder of her sister, sending her fame to all-time heights as she becomes a tabloid sensation, Roxie also commits a crime of passion--shooting a lover who falsely promised to secure her cabaret debut. The girls wind up together in jail, where Mama Morton (Queen Latifah), a compassionate guard, is their only hope of redemption; and Billy Flynn (Richard Gere) is the lawyer who can get them out. There, through wonderfully familiar songs like "Razzle Dazzle," "Cell-Block Tango," and "Cellophane Man" Roxie and Velma tell their story of competing for bad-girl celebrity.
Director Rob Marshall presents a loveable CHICAGO that shares all the grit and grime of the Bob Fosse Broadway original with phenomenal performances by this grouping of Hollywood stars. The dizzying camerawork and dazzling sets make an easy transition from stage to film.

Customer Reviews

Enjoyable but inconsistent
Renee Zellweger (Cold Mountain) stars as Roxie Hart, a woman who has always dreamed of being in the spotlight and when she murders a man; she is sent to Death Row and seeks the help of lawyer Billy Flynn to get her out of trouble and into the spotlight.

Winner of 6 Oscars including Best Picture, Chicago is one of the noughties most recognized musicals, filled with plenty of entertainment, catchy songs and strong performances, if not the best written plot.

Zellweger gives a good performance as attention seeking Hart, filled with exquisite dancing and acting. Her character is exceptionally annoying all the way through, so unbelievably stubborn and self-centred, and can be frustrating to watch.

It is the support cast who the plaudits most go to. Zeta Jones (The Mask of Zorro) won an Oscar for her supporting role as Velma Kelly, another performer on Death Row seeking the spotlight, and is the best character of the film, filled with class and sophistication she is a joy to watch.

John C Riley (The Aviator) delivers on acting and singing levels too with an Oscar nominated performance.

The plot is very inconsistent, with plenty of lapses and too many songs filling unnecessary points during the film. The dialogue is quirky and enough to make up for these lapses, as is the catchy tunes including the brilliant All That Jazz.

The film is mostly set in Death Row, but ironically we do not see much of the dealings or hardship happening, not a true reflection of prison life.

Watch out for a few comparisons to other films, including Latifah' s character resembling a female Red from Shawshank Redemption, her performance helps emulate something of a hard prison life, but otherwise prison life is portrayed as being simple and easy.

Costume design and settings are well established, as is the brilliant lighting which goes a long way in plenty of the songs, including Roxie's vision of her own show, and all the women explaining why they're in prison.

The plot is leading up to a big trial and when it gets there it is major disappointment. As it begins, Richard Gere's impressive tap dancing sequence plays in the background, but it completely ruins the moment of the trial and will give viewers a headache, an awful disappointing climax to an enjoyable well acted musical drama.

7/10

I DON'T NORMALLY LIKE MUSICALS BUT I LIKED THIS ONE
My favorite Academy Award winning Best Picture of the decade thus far, Chicago is a cinematic extravaganza that comes along only once in a long, long time. Richard Gere, Renee Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Queen Latifah, Christine Baranski, John C. Reilly and others explode on screen with music, talent and heaps of fun, in a sarcastic and very ironic look at show business, fame, crime and the thin line that runs between them.

When you come to think about it, the plot is OK, but what really makes this musical light up with fire and passion are the singing bits carried out by the talented cast. Come to think of it, I've only seen the film 4-5 times, but I've heard the soundtrack 20 or 30 times more than that, and it keeps getting better, and more entertaining, each and every time.

Richard Gere is absolutely stunning as Mr. Billy Flynn, the slick attorney who represents the homicidal rising star, Roxie Hart (Zellweger), in a murder case that creates a media frenzy circa the sparkling 1930's. When Gere smooth sings his way through 'We Both Reached for the Gun", you'll wonder why this manly man of an actor didn't turn to Jazz and music from the get go. Zellweger, who's always been a chameleon in her respective roles, fits perfectly into the role of Roxie, the smoking hot murderess who'll doing anything for fame and publicity (even... err, especially, murder). If you need to be convinced, listen to her perform "Roxie", and you too will fall for her. However, the girl who really steals the thunder from her fellow cast members is Catherine Zeta-Jones in her Academy Award winning role of Velma Kelly, the rough murderess who's been through the star-murder-fame road before Roxie has, and now has some advice to give to her fame struck cell-mate (hear also track number 8 in the soundtrack "I Can't do it Alone"). Also in this musical are the always enjoyable (and only "real" singer in the cast) Queen Latifah as the slick prison warden Matron Mama Morton, and hilarious character actor John C. Reilly as Roxie's sap of a husband (hear "Mister Cellophane").

There's been a blessed resurrection of musicals in Hollywood throughout recent years, and while Moulin Rouge might have been the first light that reignited in the interest in the genre, Chicago is the true beacon that shined the way for all the others to follow. And while films like Rent, The Phantom of the Opera and Hairspray might be worthy entries in the genre, Chicago stands high, high above them as a refreshing celebration of music, fame, irony and stardom. If it were up to me, the title of this film would have been Hollywood rather than Chicago.

A fabulous piece of cinema
I absolutley adore this film, I must have watched it a million times since my sister bought it for me.

It is based on a stage play, it is set in 1940s America and the story is about a woman called Roxie Hart (Renee Zellweger) who is arrested for the murder of her lover Fred Casely (Dominic West). And Roxie is a wannabe celebrity who wants to be a singer.

Whilst in prison she meets a famous woman called Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta Jones) who has a smart lawyer named Billy Flynn (Richard Gere) who is going to get her off a murder charge.

Billy Flynn has a reputation for never losing cases and when Roxie faces hanging she wastes no time in hiring him. Suddenly Roxie becomes a celebrity and gets all the attention off the press, thus making Velma Kelly jealous and bitter and the two rival against one another for the most press attention.

When Roxie gets freed, Velma makes her a deal that they both become jazz performers, Roxie reluctantly agrees and the two of them become famous as a double act.

All the acting was superb from the three leads and they all fitted in comfortably in their roles. I liked how they all managed to sing, dance and act which is incredibly hard to do.
This film has everything; a great story, great scenery, impressive singing and dancing, drama, sorrow, crime, and passion alongside a steady paced direction that kept your attention. It's kind of how older films were made before special effects and it has a strange feel good factor to it.