Stylish But Predictable

Rating: 5/10 (11 May 2015)

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.