"Burlesque" Movie Review

"Burlesque" movie poster.

"The Burlesque Lounge has its best days behind it. Tess (Cher), a retired dancer and owner of the venue, struggles to keep the aging theater alive, facing all kinds of financial and artistic challenges. With the Lounge's troupe members becoming increasingly distracted by personal problems and a threat coming from a wealthy businessman's quest to buy the spot from Tess, the good fortune seems to have abandoned the club altogether. Meanwhile, the life of Ali (Christina Aguilera), a small-town girl from Iowa, is about to change dramatically. Hired by Tess as a waitress at the Lounge, Ali escapes a hollow past and quickly falls in love with the art of burlesque. Backed by newfound friends amongst the theater's crew, she manages to fulfill her dreams of being on stage herself. Things take a dramatic turn though when Ali's big voice makes her become the main attraction of the revue." (Written by Bobby_John on IMBD) 

I just saw this movie with a friend of mine last night. It was a fun movie. It wasn't fantastic and it wasn't Chicago. Though it resembled the Oscar-winning film, I doubt this movie will win any Oscars, or even get nominated. Someone had posted online that it was sort of like watching a string of music videos, and it did sort of feel like that. 

Christina Aguilera isn't a wonderful actress, though the lines she had to say weren't the best either. Although Stanley Tucci managed to turn every one of his lines into gold. Cher spent much of the movie being a funny but morose bitch. I'm not sure I wanted to see the tall and powerful diva that way. But she did break a car window and that was fun. Alan Cumming was also in this movie, though he played a bit part. 

Aguilera's boy toys looked oddly alike and I don't know why that bothered me but it did. There wasn't the good and bad, yin and yang that I expected. Which leads to one of the only clever lines in the movie: 

Wrong Guy: How does this make me the bad guy? 

Aguilera: It doesn't make you the bad guy, just the wrong guy. 

Another "Burlesque"
movie poster.

As clever as the line is, it doesn't make any sense. He is the bad guy because he was trying to buy out Cher's domain, which was why Aguilera's voice was important in saving the "Burlesque Lounge". And the reason why her character was there and the reason for the main storyline behind her character. 

As short as this film seemed to be, there could've been more editing done. They could've cut the beginning short. There was almost no reason for that first scene at all. The audience would've known she's the new small town girl in the big city. And the postcard scene made no sense; who was she supposed to send it to if we're to believe that everyone she could've sent it to is dead? 

The music was good, but I would say that only half of it was original material. The music did go with the film though. The costumes were good but there could've been more interesting stuff for them to wear. They were pretty clothes, but we have all seen sequined bras. And the dancing was suggestive and sexy, but it could've been more than just S&M and booty shaking. 

I don't know if I would watch it again. Overall, it was a hot pink version of Chicago without murder or Bob Fosse.

3 out of 5 stars.