Movie Review: 'Burlesque'

I like crappy movies. There, I said it. I don’t care what other critics are saying about a movie. If it looks like I’ll enjoy myself, then I’m on board, which is exactly the way BURLESQUE played out for me. I saw the trailer and instantly thought to myself: “That looks so good!” In actuality, that mental statement would be translated into words a little more like: “That looks like such an entertaining movie!” Good or bad, who gives a damn? Unless you’re on the hunt for the next Best Picture contender, most of us go to the movies to escape for a little while and enjoy ourselves. And let me tell you, BURLESQUE hits the spot. The movie follows Ali (Christina Aguilera), a small town girl with big city dreams, who moves to L.A. and finds herself swept up by a Burlesque club run by a former performer, Tess (Cher). Sound familiar? Well of course it does! That’s because it pulls from all the great dance movies…and even the not so great. We get some MOULIN ROUGE, COYOTE UGLY, CHICAGO and FLASHDANCE. So already you know a movie isn’t aiming its standards too high if its pulling inspiration from COYOTE UGLY (which, admittedly, I adore).

We get the obligatory montage overload (think Julia Stiles dancing while walking in SAVE THE LAST DANCE), and the real reason to see it in the first place: some truly dazzling numbers. I’ll give Christina credit…. no one can sing quite like her, and she’s an excellent performer. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about her acting ability. There were moments when her delivery of lines sounded more like nails on a chalkboard in its insincerity than human vocal cords. While this irked me to no end, she looks so inhumanly beautiful most of the time, that you can almost (almost) put it in the back of your mind. The real surprise for me though, was Cam Gigandet. Known as either “the guy from The O.C.” or “the guy from TWILIGHT”, he’s finally gotten a leading man role, and he’s terrific. Exceedingly charming and funny, he carried the acting scenes when Christina couldn’t quite keep up. So here’s to hoping that BURLESQUE we’ll be his ticket to finally being known simply as “Cam Gigandet”.

BURLESQUE is a glitzy, glamorous, campy foray into the world of dance movies. While the sets, costumes and performances weren’t up to par with say CHICAGO or MOULIN ROUGE, they were an achievement in their own right. Combined with some soundtrack-buying-worthy songs, BURLESQUE was an incredibly entertaining flick that is exactly what you would expect (and want) from a movie starring Christina Aguilera and Cher.

Rating: B