Chicago (2002)

Directed by Rob Marshall

Starring Renee Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere, John C. Reilly, Queen Latifah, Colm Feore, Christine Baranski, Taye Diggs, Mya, Dominic West, Susan Misner, Denise Faye, Deidre Goodwin, Ekaterina Chtchelkanova, Chita Rivera, and Lucy Liu

I love musicals. Stage musicals, that is. Unfortunately, a lot of the movie versions of classic stage musicals tend to disappoint, lacking the same energy and life that make the stage versions such successes. Luckily, the 2002 winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture does not fall into that category. Rob Marshall creates a wonderful film here. The roles are perfectly cast, all with movie actors who few knew as singers, and Marshall creates a stunning visual world that would be impossible to create on the stage. Chicago was the first musical to win the Oscar for Best Picture in thirty-five years, since 1968's Oliver!. This success caused an influx of movies based on hit stage musicals that hadn't been seen in decades. Unfortunately, most of these, including 2005's The Producers and Rent were nothing more than watered-down, inferior versions of their stage counterparts.

Other nominees: Gangs of New York (Martin Scorsese), The Hours (Stephen Daldry), The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Peter Jackson), and The Pianist (Roman Polanksi)