THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE IFFY (11)

THE GOOD:  "CHICAGO"  Director Rob Marshall's take on this musical is pure genius.  Telling the story from the viewpoint of Roxie Hart puts a delightful spin on the whole thing!   Renee Zellweger plays Roxie and Catherine Zeta-Jones fills the shoes of Velma her nemesis and fellow jail bird.  Yes, they are both awaiting trial for murder.  Richard Gere is the lawyer overseeing these matters and Queen Latifah and John C. Reilly fill other spots  Look closely, and you'll find Chita Rivera (an original Broadway cast member) in a cameo role.  Nominated for thirteen Oscars and winner of six, including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actress for Ms. Zeta-Jones, the film was directly responsible for the restoration of the musical movie to its rightful place in the annals of film.  The choreography (Mr. Marshall) is reminiscent of the Bob Fosse original steps and yet it takes on a life of its own and shows the artists in their best light (particularly, the final duet featuring Zellweger and Zeta-Jones) I must have seen this film a dozen times and it's still a thrill and all that jazz!




THE BAD:  "SHANGHAI SURPRISE"   A vehicle for newlyweds, Madonna and Sean Penn, the vehicle rapidly becomes a crash. To quote one critic, "There's something rotten at the core about a movie that would recycle lines like "That's very white of you"."    Madonna won the Golden raspberry award as the worst actress of the year and it was well deserved.  Penn was nominated as was the picture for other "Worsts."  The film is supposed to be a shaggy dog adventure story.  Shaggy, no.  Dog, yes.



 THE IFFY:  "BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S"    While this is one of Audrey Hepburn's signature roles (and George Peppard and Patricia Neal are equally good), the problem (and the reason it's on my"iffy" list) is Mickey Rooney's performance as her Japanese landlord and upstairs neighbor.   It is such an "over the top" stereo-type of a  Japanese-American that (by todays standards) it borders on racism as well as bad taste.   The director, Blake Edwards was even quoted "Looking back, I wish I had never done it....and I'd give anything to be able to recast it, but there it is.."   So, times have changed, I guess.  It's too bad that it couldn't be altered and through the magic of CGI have Mr. Rooney replaced by an Asian actor the likes of Ken Jeong.  Don't get me wrong, it's still a good film but...………..

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