Not great but don't stop making them.

Rating: 6/10 (29 November 2010)

A hokey but passable story about small town youth(s) who come to tinsel town to make their mark but then get tossed around by the nightclub business. Love interest, good guys, bad guys, happy ending, it's all there. Some good acting. Don't blame the actors for the script. Sher is timeless as a stage/screen presence and she can read any line she wants. Music score, excellent. Dance routines are OK but are badly fractured by the rapid clip changes. The film editor gets a C minus or maybe they couldn't hold their dance routines for more than 1.5 seconds.
I'm a song and dance kind of guy. Big screen, big sound all the way. But, we've seen it before. The ancestor to this genre, for me, was the best of them all - Caberet. With a nod to 'Chorus Line' and 'Chicago', nothing else has since come close on the screen. That doesn't mean this wasn't a good effort. But "Good efforts" are in the same category as "nice guys" who are supposed to finish last.
Don't wait for the small screen on this one. but go to the bargain matinée. As you leave give a quiet thought to Bob Fosse and Rob Marshall. There may be an Academy award nomination somewhere here, but I'm probably not smart enough to see it.