Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Yash Wade Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Nicole I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

sharky_55 Editing is the life and breath of All That Jazz, the glue that binds every hazy strand of director choreographer Joe Gideon's life together. Sweet Charity had already demonstrated Fosse's prowess in syncing movement with sound - that's just basic choreography. Here he injects rhythm with the cuts themselves, condensing an afternoon of initial dance rehearsals into a montage bursting with vitality and colour. The dancer's movements are spliced and rearranged into a single cohesive unit - graphic matches merge their individual pirouette into one multicoloured blur, like a spinning top. They drag their feet to the sultry beat of George Benson's On Broadway, and leap into the air in perfect sync. The experience is a complete performance on its own, and already Joe has his eyes on a select few (and not just purely for their dancing). For him the only ritual more steadfast and constant is in his morning sacrament, a Dexedrine, AlkaSeltzer, and copious eyedrops, all enlarged in grotesque extreme close-ups. Is playing Vivaldi over it all an attempt to convince himself of some semblance of serenity? If so, it's an uphill battle. This daily intravenous drip allows him the zest to commit to several different creative projects at once, a string of women and a thick smog of chain-smoking, and then to do it all again the next day. Joe is a true artist in the sense that he is a perfectionist in his work, and a hurricane's wake in his private life. This being showbiz, the two often intermingle in an incestuous embrace, with dance as the sole bridge for conversation. That may be the only way to get his attention, as all three of ex-wife, girlfriend and daughter discover. Joe may have giddy tears in his eyes as the latter performs an impromptu rendition of Peter Allen's Everything Old Is New Again, but the acerbic cut to his morning routine suggests an unchanged man.Why does he throw himself into these projects, even at death's door? Some contemporary critics note the flaw of his impenetrable character; Joe's motivation remains ever-obscured behind a haze of drugs, sex and musical numbers, with hardly a moment devoted to why. Why? The show is his life, and his life is a show, forever destined to contest for centre stage. They can chastise his lack of devotion or loyalty all they want - it isn't something he doesn't already know anyway - as long as it's done in costume, and in time. Fosse's choreography suffers none from this maddened attentiveness; his bodies stuttering from movement to a frozen strut, limbs cocked at odd angles and splayed across each other. It's sexy and suave all at once, and none too pleasing for the anxious financial backers sitting in the test audience. "Now Sinatra will never record it," they moan as the dancers bare their chests (and see how Fosse splices together their yawns in the opening rehearsal). Joe is loyal only to Angelique, an angel of death played by the glittery Jessica Lange. Their tango takes place in an imaginary set decorated with both past and present relics of his life, costumes once worn and now discarded. She's his witty equal, an angelic figment of the imagination that is at his every beck and call - no other girl could suffice, or put up with his constant professional negligence. His daughter Michelle gives it her best shot, although her presence is one of the film's glaring oversights, a chatty, flippant teenager who only fits within this frenetic, showbiz lifestyle because Fosse pipes in her wit through poorly dubbed ADR. Watching her tease Joe on the free-flowing sexuality of one of his numbers is like witnessing a comedic skit of an entirely different film.Only in his daydreams do these dances attain his final seal of approval. While the business executives are busy musing over the potential financial gain of his early demise (bluntly overlaid graphic images of his dissection), he's hard at work stage-managing procession. It's usually here that detractors bemoan Fosse's excess, the self-indulgence of an artist who can't even bow out without a blasting fanfare and at least three elaborate set pieces. In some ways, they're not wrong (I like my dream sequences fleeting and with a devastating gut punch, like the finale of Claire Denis' Beau Travail). And yet, why would Gideon/Fosse ever want to hold back? A little heart attack never hurt anyone, not when there is dancing and directing to be done. It's showtime, and the show must go on.

Woodyanders Arrogant and self-destructive, yet gifted and driven stage director and choreographer Joe Gideon (a terrific performance by Roy Scheider) grapples with his own personal demons and failing health while trying to get a troubled Broadway production off the ground.Director/co-writer/choreographer Bob Fosse's barbed, vibrant, and exhilarating autobiographical love/hate letter to show business exposes all the behind the scenes backstabbing, fierce competitiveness, hedonistic excesses, raging over-sized egos, petty rivalries, irksome squabbling amongst financial backers, and constant womanizing with a bracing and brutal candor that's both poignant and profound in equal measure. Of course, Fosse certainly doesn't skimp on the ol' razzle dazzle: The bravura opening "On Broadway" auditions, incredibly erotic number "Take Off With Us" (Sandahl Bergman positively sizzles here), and the spectacular "Bye Bye Life" closer rate as three of the best and most exciting musical set pieces ever filmed.The splendid acting by the tip-top cast keeps this movie humming: Jessica Lange as seductive siren Angelique, Ann Reinking as Gideon's sweet, but log-suffering girlfriend Kate Jagger, Leland Palmer as Gideon's fed-up ex-wife Audrey Paris, Erzset Foldi as Gideon's precious daughter Michelle, Cliff Gorman as sharp-tongued stand-up comedian Davis Newman, Ben Vereen as dynamic dancer O'Connor Flood, Max Wright as antsy producer Joshua Penn, John Lithgow as smarmy opportunist Lucas Sergeant, and Deborah Gaffner as eager young hopeful Victoria. Giuseppe Rotunno's sumptuous cinematography provides an appropriately glittery look. A total pip.

Blake Peterson I wasn't clear what kind of film All That Jazz would be before I sat through it. Would it have the same attitude of a vehicle that features Liza Minnelli throatily singing about how much she loves New York, wrapped in a scarlet feather boa and draped in jewels? Or if it would be the kind of thing The Band Wagon was, only covered in pills and booze? All That Jazz is thankfully neither. Directed by legendary choreographer and director Bob Fosse, All That Jazz is painfully autobiographical; we know it, and so does Fosse. What we receive is a film that is both robust but recklessly uneven, uncompromising in its vision. Joe Gideon (Roy Scheider) is aging in his long and paramount career. As a man in love with the stage and never willing to invent a normal, strictly crowd-pleasing production, he has become exhausted; he works only with frenetic energy and is willing to stay up hours upon hours to perfect his goals. But all those years of light sleeping, pill-popping, alcohol consuming, womanizing, and smoking have finally caught up with him. Joe can barely handle it.In All That Jazz, Fosse's ideas are fearless, conveyed only in lightning speed. But only about half of them are thoroughly successful. His inhibitions are sometimes extremely dynamic, energetic, even touching, while others remain dynamic and energetic but lack that impassioned stinger. Take the "Take Off with Us" sequence, for example. The scene sees Gideon previewing his planned dance numbers for his upcoming play to executives who are offensively conservative but scared of being, dare I say it, mean. The one that comes before "Take Off with Us" has all of that theatrical ambition of a Fame piece; the executives already have the feeling that they're witnessing moments from their newest blockbuster. But what follows turns the practice studio into a smoking orgy of choreography, dubbed "Airotica," leaving its dancers nearly nude, sweating profusely, and rumbling around in sexual energy. It's one of the best dance sequences I've ever seen in my life. It's the pinnacle of the film. Nothing truly follows it with that same brash excellence.Fosse is a treasure in the world of Broadway and a sporadic genius in the movies. All That Jazz is his 8 1/2, both stylistically and in tone. In style, it's slightly Truffaut, unafraid to jump cut, use "natural" music, and combine the contempts of real life and the joys of fantasy. In tone, it's almost uncomfortable in its self-reflexiveness, as the film mirrors Fosse's life.Yet in the end, All That Jazz is split down the middle between annoying self-indulgence and filmmaking brilliance. Fosse's boldness is easy to appreciate, but there are times when the film's in your face style leaves you with a headache rather than a new lease on life. But Scheider is terrific and so is Fosse's choreography; All That Jazz is the definition of a mixed bag, if there ever was one. Read more reviews at petersonreviews.com

MartinHafer This film is about an EXTREMELY manic Broadway producer (Roy Scheider) who burns the candle at both ends--pushing himself in such an extreme and unhealthy way that eventually he has a heart attack in the midst of a production. Will he survive? Well, while waiting to find out, the film takes an amazing turn. Up until the heart attack, it's a SOMEWHAT conventional film about the making of a play. BUT, after the attack, it suddenly becomes VERY surreal--with many song and dance numbers that explore death! In this sense, the film really is a lot like Fellini's "8 1/2"--but with song and dance numbers! I could say more...but don't want to spoil what happens next. Just hold on...the final scene is one of the most amazingly stunning in film history!!"All That Jazz" is one of those rare films that I didn't particularly enjoy BUT I really respected what it tried to do. While it is similar, in some ways, to a few other films (such as "42nd Street"), the total package is wholly unique--and for that reason alone it deserves to be seen. But, I am warning you, it's very possible you won't like a lot of the film because the leading man is pretty awful--drinking to excess, using drugs to excess, using women to excess--heck, doing EVERYTHING to excess! Interestingly, the film's director, Bob Fosse, intended this as a sort of autobiography--so I assume Fosse was a very talented but incredibly screwed up man...AND, he welcomed the world to see this!! This was either a case of incredible narcissism or perhaps a cry for help or understanding--I have no idea which the case might be! I mentioned how "All That Jazz" is a lot like "42nd Street". This is because in "42nd Street" (the film), Warner Baxter is in many ways the manic Broadway producer that Scheider is in "All That Jazz"--and, in the end, he burns himself out and dies--all for the sake of the show. As far as "8 1/2" goes, it's much more likely you've seen that and it's a very strange film that explores a film director whose life is VERY hectic and he retreats into fantasy and day dreams to cope with his out of control life. All these films are well worth seeing and would make a great triple-feature.By the way, less than a decade after "All That Jazz", Fosse really DID die of a heart attack at age 60. Talk about art imitating life!! NOTE: This film has many adult themes, language and nudity. Think twice before showing this to your mother or kids.