Burlesque (2010): Dir: Steve Antin / Cast: Christina Aguilera, Cher, Stanley Tucci, Eric Dane, Kristen Bell: Total xerox of Showgirls as if that is much of an inspiration. It regards expression and how a small town waitress ventured to Las Angeles in hopes of becoming a sensation. Director Steve Antin is backed by several energetic musical numbers that are full of flair but the story is just a recycled mess. Christina Aguilera is traveling familiar territory from small town to big time impressing everyone. She definitely has the pipes to carry a concert but as an actress she isn't quite as polished as someone in the heights of Cher, but as a musician she holds her own. Cher is the one solid performance as club owner struggling to pay to keep her business. We know that she will be impressed with Aguilera and ultimately save the club, but saving the film is beyond her reach. Eric Dane as the bartender whom allows Aguilera a place to crash is a complete prop. He is basically there to romance her while talking about an out of town girlfriend who is not available just enough so that it becomes unnecessary. Stanley Tucci plays Cher's gay production director who assists Aguilera while providing emotional support for Cher. Even Kristen Bell makes an appearance and all her charm cannot muster up a hint of originality. The dance numbers are not bad, and sometimes even flashy and inspiring but it is within a screenplay that is anything but inspiring. Not so much about dancing as it is its lame sidetracked subplots that we have seen in a dozen other films about hopeless dreamers. Score: 3 ½ / 10

Several attempts have been made to re-create stories based upon The Star Is Born. A few of those have been based upon Burlesque theatrical dance. This movie is one of them. The burlesque style is essentially women dressed as prostitutes dancing provocatively on stage without exposing their bits.As a movie showcase for Christina Aguilera songs it succeeds. Christina is sweet then raunchy and performs her routines with the high quality visual sexiness we have come to expect from her music videos. This movie came after her Back To Basics album which explored a variety of 20th century dance and singing themes. In the movie she is joined by Cher as the club owner, who in my opinion, has the best ballad in the movie.In spite of the raunchiness, this is a movie directed at the female audience rather than at the boys. It is about woman having fun dressing up, applying their make-up and enticing men around their little fingers. There are no doormen throwing out troublemakers from the club and no fist fights let alone a gun. This is the opposite of say Roadhouse. Humour is provided superbly by Stanley Tucci.The song and dance acts are stylish, however the plot of the story is tediously predictable. You won't find a single surprise in this movie.Burlesque scores highly for it's imagery but it falls far short of the movie Cabaret as a story. Burlesque plays safe whilst Cabaret was a lot more edgy.

Ali Rose (Christina Aguilera) leaves her small Iowa town waitress job for the lights of L.A. Tess (Cher) is the owner of the Burlesque Lounge. She struggles to keep the aging venue going. Ali hires herself as the new waitress. Alexis (Alan Cumming), Sean (Stanley Tucci) and bartender Jack Miller (Cam Gigandet) work there. Ali gets kicked out and stays with Jack thinking he's gay. It turns out that he's engaged to Natalie (Dianna Agron) who is away in a NY play. Vince Scali (Peter Gallagher) is Tess' ex-husband who owns half of the club. Nikki (Kristen Bell) is the club's diva star. Georgia (Julianne Hough) is looking to replace her as the star. Real estate guy Marcus Gerber (Eric Dane) is dating Nikki and trying to buy the club from Tess.Aguilera is too old to play the young innocent thing who comes into town. The story is older than Cher. It has no originality at all. The song and dance is fun for a little while. Aguilera knows how to sing and even Kristen Bell does a good job. However all the performance are too similar and they wear thin really quickly. They get repetitive and boring. I don't mind Aguilera's acting although she's not winning any awards any time soon. She has charisma and that's a good start.

Ali, a small-town girl from Iowa, life is about to change dramatically. Hired by Tess as a waitress at the titular Lounge, Ali escapes a hollow past and quickly falls in love with the art of burlesque. Backed by newfound friends amongst the theatre'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......If you only see one film with Christina Aguilera and Cher starring, make sure it's this one.It's clearly obvious that the makers wanted a vehicle for the singer after seeing her with The Pussycat Dolls, melded the stories of Coyote Ugly and Rock Of Ages, gave it a sassy remix, and this is what came out of its back end.Its trashy stuff for sure, and the stereotypical characters you see in these sort of films are so blatant, that Tucci may as well wear a T-shirt saying 'Camp assistant who everyone loves'.But its clearly watchable stuff, released at the height of Glee's popularity to get more revenue, and deep in the story, it's just basically David vs. Goliath, the small good time club, up against the bigwigs who want to open up a massive 'complex'.But complex is something the story is not, and its nothing you haven't seen before. You know she will get the guy, you know the popular dancer before her will eventually warm to her, and you know Cher will become more horse like as the film progresses.Its a silly film, but entirely watchable. A lot like a Christmas tree in the day, pretty to look at, but not much going on...