I see a lot of movies every year. A
ton. But this year I’ve decided I don’t see enough movies, so one of my
New Year Resolutions was to simply see more. And to write about them.
See, that’s the other half of the equation: I see a ton of movies, but
I write about comparatively few of them. There are a lot of reasons,
but they mainly boil down to the fact that I feel the need to do long
form reviews, and sometimes – like in the midst of Sundance – I just
don’t have the time.
And
so was born this new blog! I aim to make an entry for every single
movie I see in 2010. Some entries may be very short, some may be
lengthy. Entries may take a couple of days to be posted. Let’s see how
long this lasts.
One
last thing: one of my main objectives this year is to rewatch more
movies. I know this sounds like a strange goal, but there are films I
haven’t seen since high school, which means it’s been almost a lifetime
since I saw them. Recently I rewatched Black Christmas for
the first time since the 1980s, and I might as well have been seeing
the movie for the first time. I’m interested in getting a look at some
movies I loved or hated twenty or even ten years ago and seeing how I
feel about them now.
Let’s begin…
#3 Chicago
2002
d. Rob Marshall
So I’ve been really enjoying Fox’s Glee, and this put me in a musical mood. My girlfriend has been wanting to watch Chicago for a little while, and Kurt did a very nice Mr. Cellophane on Glee, so I figured what the hell – let’s revisit this one.
I ended up having it on in the background because while the songs are amazing, the film itself couldn’t hold me. I loved it at release, but now the main conceit – all the numbers are in Roxie’s head – pisses me off (see my Tyranny of Realism Advocate). I got especially pissed whenever a really nice dance sequence would get interrupted to flash to some ‘real world’ bullcrap.
Richard Gere’s the weakest link here; while he’s actually great casting as Billy Flynn I don’t like his voice. It’s the problem of the modern musical – you need stars, and stars don’t necessarily know how to sing anymore (see Sweeney Todd for this in action).
On the other hand I feel the film is too over-hated. The Oscar stuff will make people go overboard, but taken as a film on its own Chicago is decent. And if you don’t have the real soundtrack handy it makes nice background music.
4 comments
Yeah, the fantasy sequences on the stage were the most annoying aspect for me, but the whole movie just looks like a filmed play. And so do the previews for Nine, for that matter. Does Marshall actually understand the difference between the mediums? Is Pirates 4 going to look like a high school theater production of The Pirates Of Penzance?
Chicago sucked balls. It really just simple lacked 'all that jazz'. I've loved every musical from Seven Brides (47B) and Student Prince to the Xena and Buffy episodes. I think the point of this piece was to nonchalently tell us you had a girlfriend and think we would believe it because you were talking about Chicago and saying it so cas. No dice big guy, cept mebbe if you put up a shameful link to that grunting scene in Zoo.
Wait, does Devin have a girlfriend now? Hard to tell considering he feels the need to force her inclusion into every one of his blog posts. We get it dude, you're a loser who finally found someone to tolerate your fat, hairy left wing body. We get it.
Why is that fanboys seem to have the characteristic of nitpicking the stupidest things to get angry over? So Devin mentions his girlfriend in his backstory, SO FUCKING WHAT? Anyone in a serious relationship knows that other person crops up all the time if you're trying to talk about your life. This isn't a movie review, its a blog. And why the hate? Get off these articles if you hate him so much and go do something productive.
As for Chicago, I agree with Devin's points. I'll never forget it as the first movie that introduced me to the increasingly awesome John C. Reilly.
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