Gracie Mae's Reviews and Writings :-): Movie Review: "Burlesque" 11/24/10

This is a movie review for "Burlesque", released November 24, 2010. I watched this movie on Netflix on July 8, 2020.

Genre: Drama, Music, Musical, Romance

Run Time: 1 Hour and 59 Minutes

Official MPAA Rating (According to IMDB.com):

G / General Audiences

PG / Parental Guidance Suggested

PG-13 / Parents Strongly Cautioned

R / Restricted

Not Rated

Trailer

Notable Cast

Cher ... Tess

Christina Aguilera ... Ali

Eric Dane ... Marcus

Cam Gigandet ... Jack

Julianne Hough ... Georgia

Alan Cumming ... Alexis

Peter Gallagher ... Vince

Kristen Bell ... Nikki

Stanley Tucci ... Sean

Plot

Midwesterner Ali wants to become a dancer, so she catches a bus out to Las Vegas. She stumbles upon the club called Burlesque, run by Tess. Right off the bat, Tess says "no". The bartender Jack gives her a job as a waitress and she studies the show as she tends to customers. She asks Tess again if she can become a dancer and gets a chance to be one of the dancers. When one of the other dancers tries to sabotage Ali's dancing career, Ali shows that she can sing and dance at the same time. During all of this, Tess' ex husband is trying to sell off the club to a real estate mogul. How can they save the club? What is the future of the Burlesque? Can Ali have the career she wanted? (And can she be with Jack, or is the "engagement" to his fiance really going to keep them apart?)

Rating Criteria

0/5 – No value whatsoever. Absolute waste of time.

1/5 – Barely worth any time.

2/5 – Pathetic but has a bit of something to hold the attention a little.

3/5 – Somewhat kept the attention but could definitely have used more.

4/5 – Good, but not awe-strikingly amazing. Could have maybe used a bit more to the movie.

5/5 – Go see it! Wonderful movie all around. – characters, music, theme, story line, etc.

3.5/5 - *SPOILERS* This is a cute movie but not one of my most favorite musicals. Christina Aguilera and Cher are great singers, even though Cher is getting older, but the plot line was thrown together in a sporadic mash-up. We have the drama of the girl getting closer to the guy but he acts as if he is gay, then he turns out to be straight with a fiance that is mostly out of the picture, and then the fiance shows up. I mean come on.... Why does this romance line have to even be in this movie?!

And then we have the sparring between the dancers and Ali. In the clip below, we see how one of the dancers tries to sabotage Ali's dancing career and then it turns out that Ali can sing, which changes the club completely. Why not use all of the talents of the dancers and let the girls sing instead of lip-syncing?

"Tough Lover":

But wait! There's more! Tess' ex wants to sell off the club (since he has half ownership still). There's a dude that wants to buy it, who is being with one of the dancers, but he wants to destroy it and build something humongous. So what will the floundering dancers and Tess do?

All of these plots lines somehow fit together to make the movie and gives you what it can. Some of the songs are wonderful whereas others are just trying too hard.

Well, I suggest that this movie is to be watched but I warn you that it isn't the best musical out there. It isn't a musical per se, anyways. It just happens to be a movie with a lot of music in it. *shrugs* I don't know what else I can say.

If more songs could have been like the opening song "Something's Got a Hold On Me" (seen below), I would have rated this movie much higher.