Burlesque [2010]Starring: Christina Aguilera, Cher
Directed by: Steve Antin
2.5/5
A small town girl runs away to L.A and finds a job as a dancer in a run down burlesque club.
We've seen this story 100 times before, and Burlesque doesn't really offer a new spin on this over used "small town girl in the big bad city" type of movie. It does however attempt to give audiences something a little more meaty as far as acting goes, and even though it doesn't really cross any overly impressive lines in that respect, it's nice to see that they at least tried.
The first 30 minutes of this film was almost unbearable, with every cliche under the sun being thrown at us at a very fast pace. There are some unintentional laugh out loud moments where Christina's character prances through the streets practicing her new dance moves, or whipping her hair stupidly while serving customers as a bar waitress. It makes you wonder how the director wasn't laughing at it while cutting the film together, it's cringe central.
The film does pick up a little after the half way mark though, and even though the story stays as obvious as it was from the beginning, it at least started to hold my attention a little more. Sadly, it never managed to really take me anywhere i hadn't been before.
Even the dance numbers offer a mixed bag, with some of the performances being really dull, to others being well choreographed and fun. There are a couple of good songs performed also.
For her first movie role, Christina actually does pretty decent with the type of role that was given to her. She shows real potential as an actress, and even though she does fall into the trap of giving some crappy lines, that isn't really her fault, it's the script writers. Cher was good, and even though her face is stiff as a board, she does look great for her age [she's in her 60's]. Stanly Tucci has great chemistry with Cher, but his need to play gay in nearly every movie he does is really starting to get annoying. Does this guy not get sick and tired of playing the same role over and over?. Outside of those 3 actors, the rest were fairly average. Kristen Bell was boring as the bitchy rival dancer, Eric Dane looked good, but had little to do, and although Cam Gigandet is good looking, his endless pouting and shirtless posing became cringe worthy and tiresome.
I knew exactly what i was in for going into this, so i can't say i was all that disappointed by it. I do feel however, that the movie wasn't written well enough to be truly good [like Chicago], or retarded enough to be entertainingly shit [like Coyote Ugly], so what you get is a fairly "in the middle" average movie that just doesn't really do anything except boringly run it's obvious course while offering a couple nice moments here and there.
It's watchable enough, but you'll forget it soon after.
