DVD Review HTF REVIEW: Chicago -- (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!) (1 Viewer)

[Richard Kim]

However, the audio is top notch. Haven't tried the Dolby track, but the DTS is so good who needs the Dolby track. Again, this DTS track represents the DTS track I heard theatrically. Dialouge was clear, and the music was coming from everywhere. Thanks Miramax for a DTS mix on this one.

Actually, I was a bit underwhelmed by the audio. I've seen Chicago twice theatrically, and I remember the sound was really loud and robust. The DVD seemed kind of anemic to me. Then again, I've only listened to the DD track, so maybe the DTS track will be better.

 

[Scott Kimball]

Just watched this Tuesday night... I hadn't seen it in the theaters.

WOW!

I love this film.

I thought video and audio were both top notch.

To this observer, one of the things that was done with most of the musical numbers was to include a lot of backlighting and other lighting effects which manifests itself, depending on the equipment you watch on, as edge enhancement or the "halo" effect.

Exactly! "Complementary Lighting" was used in the "fantasy" scenes... i.e. a subject is lit with both warm and cold gels. Many scenes have an off-axis cold "key" light with warm fill and backlights. Color Theory defines this as "complimentary," and it is used to create a jarring effect. Granted, I watched this on a 32" screen, but I didn't notice a problem with edge enhancement.

Adjacent vivid, complimentary colors can be very demanding on a display device, not to mention an MPEG decoder. Even if your equipment generates a perfect picture, the human eye will intpret such lighting as bold, edgy or jarring.

The DTS track was sharp and accurate, without being overdone.

Awesome.

-Scott

 

[Jenna]

I just loved the movie and the DVD did NOT disappoint!
Just to let you know how diverse this movie is: my redneck/hunter/straight male friend watched this with me the other night and said "I reckon this is one of the best movies I've ever seen." Hmmmmm. I'm sure it didn't hurt that he has the hots for Catherine Zeta Jones, but for him to actually sit through a musical in the first place is simply amazing!

 

[Michael Caicedo]

actually sit through a musical in the first place is simply amazing!

I couldn't do it....
I'm going to give it another spin but the first three numbers failed to win me over. I promptly got up for a "snack" as I told my wife and her friends, and never came back

 

[Mark Bendiksen]

I promptly got up for a "snack" as I told my wife and her friends, and never came back

You probably didn't make it to "We Both Reached for the Gun", which is one of the best numbers in the movie, IMHO. Give it another shot. If you're still not impressed you can always get up to go get another snack and not return!

 

[jonathan_little]

I also think "We Both Reached For the Gun" is the best part of the film. What I like so much about that number is that it's so damn true...

Like I mentioned a few pages earlier on this thread, I really hated this film in the theater. Most of that hatred stemmed from the theater's sound system, which was very loud and obnoxious. The kick drum was rendered in the theater as a huge booming mess throughout the film and gave me a headache. While watching this DVD, I found out that I ended up blocking large chucks of this picture out of my mind-- I honestly forgot about half of the numbers in this film-- because I was so frustrated with the theater's sonic presentation. Anyhow, I'm happy that the DTS track on this DVD (and my basic 5.1 sound setup) renders the soundtrack a lot more gracefully than what I heard at the theater.

My opinion on the film has improved by about two letter grades to about a B- after seeing it on DVD with the volume set at an enjoyable level. I still think it's a lot of flashiness without much soul at all, but that's "Chicago," I guess.

I was highly amused by the listing of three(!) assistants for Harvey Weinstein in the credits.

 

[ScottR]

I thought that the musical numbers were supposed to take place inside Roxie's head. During the "Class" number in the supplements, director Rob Marshall states that part of the reason the number was cut was because it broke that law, in that Roxie wasn't present in the scene. If this is the case, how do the filmmakers explain the number "Mr. Cellophane" in which Roxie is also not present?

 

[David Williams]

This is kind of a technicality, but Mr. Cellophane starts when Roxie is leaving the hospital and glances back at Amos. The middle part when he visits Billy is definitely outside the realm of Roxie's imagination, though... but by this point I don't think the audience is paying attention to the structure.

As for Class, I'm glad they took it out if all the inventive, creative staging they could come up with is the same scene with only some theatrical lighting... and they wondered why it slowed the movie down and test audiences didn't like it? imho, they could have fixed the song with minimal choreography (maybe moving it to the Onyx and playing against the song by doing a striptease, maybe? A burlesque reprise of before?) and slipped it in with a new scene of Roxie returning to the jail during jury deliberations.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Scott,

good call about Mr. Cellophane. The same thought went through my mind. David has a good explaination for it, though personally I think that they "cheated" with that one just a bit...it seems to me that it's really her *husband's* imagination that's being played out in this instance...not her's.

In any case...like David suggests, it sort of slips by "under radar" at that point in the film if you don't think too hard and so I think that overall it's not a problem. And even if it's not Roxie's imagination, it is *someone's* imagination...and so it still adheres to the principle that people just don't "break into song" as though it's normal for every-day events to suddenly transform mystically into live music (yes, for some of us this is normal-everyday life, but apparently not for most )

I also think "We Both Reached For the Gun" is the best part of the film. What I like so much about that number is that it's so damn true...

Agreed. Absolutely brilliant. I think I've watched that one scene 3-4 times now (sans the rest of the movie) just for kicks.

-dave

 

[Ron Reda]

I watched this one yesterday and both my wife and I didn't see what all the fuss was about. Perhaps I'm missing something, but it just didn't do anything for me. In fact, I'm surprised it got best picture. It almost seemed like the Academy was awarding the movie because it was different from the others out there. While I'm not a big fan of musicals, I thought the music and the dancing especially were quite good. As far as the DVD goes, the colors were eye-popping and the black levels on this thing looked simply amazing when viewed on my 51" Hitachi. But alas, I will never sit through it again, so off it goes. Anyone want to buy a once-used copy for $10??? If so, e-mail me.

 

[Carlo_M]

It almost seemed like the Academy was awarding the movie because it was different from the others out there.

Or maybe a form of apology for not naming Moulin Rouge best picture the year before!

Seriously though Ron, I'm with you. I watched it this weekend and thought it to be a good, solid, entertaining movie. But six Academy Awards? Not IMO (unless last year was a very weak year, I don't know I didn't hit the theaters a lot and didn't see most of the nominees).

Contrast that to how I felt when I watched MR! which I totally loved.

 

[Andrew Radke]

I'm not sure if anyone else noticed this, but I noticed an incredible amount of film grain near the beginning of the movie. Most notably when the police interrogate John C. Reilly's character about the murder in the apartment. It's the scene whick kept cutting between that and Roxie's (Zellweiger's) performance. I just turned the movie off after this particular scene, because I found it to be extremely obtrusive. I'm not sure if the grain was "intended" to be there or not, but I found it difficult to sit there and watch all these dark scenes when the black levels were anything BUT solid.

I just purchased the movie today. I don't know if it's a problem with this particular copy or what. But before I either continue watching it, or return it to the video store, I thought I'd get some feedback from those who have seen it. I know many people here including David (the reviewer) praised the video transfer, but I just can't seem to agree with it.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Hey Andrew,

The DVD presents this film almost exactly (as far as DVD can) as it looked in the theater. Some scenes have visible film-grain and others are astonishingly "smooth".

What type of display do you have?

Anyway...try just telling yourself that when you see that film grain that it's an artistic tool intended by the director (which is the truth)...see if that helps get you through the grainy moments. In any case...be sure to try to see the entire film before judging the film-style too harshly.

Let us know if you watch whole movie and tell us what you think.

dave

 

[Andrew Radke]

Well after reading your comments (thank you by the way), I gave the movie a second chance and watched it this morning. For the record, I don't have anything fancy. Basically watched it on a 32" set.

After watching the whole film, I can honestly say that my opinions last night were definitely pre-mature. Most of the scenes looked absolutely stunning.

As for the movie itself, I can't say I like it all that much. I probably should've given it a rent as opposed to buying it straight up. I like the storyline, but I think there were WAY too many songs, even for a musical. Although I found some of the musical numbers to be entertaining (such as "We Both Reached For The Gun", I found a good portion of them to be simply boring. Of course, this is my own opinion, but I don't understand how this film managed to win the "Best Picture" Oscar. It wasn't an entirely bad movie. I just would've preferred a few less songs, and a lot more story. Oh well. To each his own I guess.

 

[Edwin-S]

I bought a copy of this film as a blind buy. I was a little worried that I might find the film kind of boring because I'm definitely not a fan of Jazz music. I was surprised to find that the film was actually pretty good, and I quite enjoyed it. I especially liked the 'Jailhouse Tango' sequence and the 'we both went for the gun' sequence. The show was a pretty solid musical; however, it still does not quite measure up to MOULIN ROUGE. I feel MR is still the better film out of the two. I am not sure how a person could actually find that there was too much music in a musical. CHICAGO seemed to have a pretty good balance of songs and exposition. Everyone of the tunes added something to the overall story. I didn't see anything that was just filler. The film moved at a pretty good pace and never bored once.

 

[Christopher Bosley]

I can't speak to why people would be bored with Chicago, given the superior quality of the songwriting (if hot jazz isn't your thing though, probably not going to do much for you), choreography, and a story that is as timely now as when it happened. I felt it was clearly the best movie I saw last year. As much as I loved Moulin Rouge, that was more an admiration for Baz L. turning the conventional musical on its ear and reinventing the genre in a post-modern fashion, whereas Chicago is excellent in just the opposite way, a straightforward but triumphant return to the Broadway musical on film.

As for the disc, I do agree that it is about 90% perfect with just a bit too much noticeable grain in the first half hour. Haven't listened to Rob Marshall's commentary yet so I don't know if he details what he was going for with those shots. After Roxie gets thrown in the clink, however, the image was rock solid on my 30" Philips direct view 480p. Didn't notice as active a surround field as one normally gets, but the front soundstage on even the DD mix (I don't have dts on my receiver) was phenomenal. The reproduction, for example, of the acoustic instruments in All That Jazz made it sound like the band really was right there in my room. All around great disc but if a Collectors Series comes out this X-mas I promise Harvey a severe kick to the groin.

P.S. Fifth Element used to be my reference disc but I have to say after watching it a few times now that Miramax's O Brother Where Art Thou has about the best transfer out there. Especially given the tricks the Coen brothers did with the color timing, I keep looking for anything to find fault with and haven't found it yet.

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

good call about Mr. Cellophane. The same thought went through my mind. David has a good explaination for it, though personally I think that they "cheated" with that one just a bit...it seems to me that it's really her *husband's* imagination that's being played out in this instance...not her's.

 

[George Caronan]

Hello all. OK, first off, I am not into "musicals" kind of movies so I am not going to get into the details, comparisons to or critiques of the genre at all. I did find the video quality to be excellent with the DTS audio to be outstanding as well. I did like some of the numbers. So some HT rag reviewer whined about the lack of surrounds but it's a musical not a sci-fi, action, adventure blow 'em up movie. You figure some people would at least know... Lastly, absolute truth be told, I only bought the title 'cos Catherine Zeta-Jones is one DAMN FINE woman IMHO!!! So there! Cheers!

P.S. - own Mask of Zorro, The Haunting, The Phantom...notice a trend?