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Burlesque is a 2010 contemporary musical film directed and written by Steven Antin and starring Cher and Christina Aguilera.
The film was released on November 24, 2010 in North America. It was
announced that both Cher and Aguilera would contribute to the soundtrack
album with Christina contributing to eight out of the ten songs with
Cher taking the remaining two. The album was released in the USA on
November 22, 2010.[4]
Ali Rose (Christina Aguilera) is a small-town waitress with a big voice who escapes hardship and an uncertain future to follow her dreams in Los Angeles.
After stumbling upon The Burlesque Lounge, a majestic but ailing
theater that is home to an inspired musical revue, Ali lands a job as a
cocktail waitress from Tess (Cher),
the club’s proprietor and headliner. The Burlesque’s outrageous
costumes and bold choreography enrapture the young ingenue, who vows to
perform there one day. Soon enough, Ali builds a friendship with a
featured dancer named Georgia (Julianne Hough), finds an enemy in a troubled, jealous performer named Nikki (Kristen Bell), and garners the affection of a bartender and fellow musician, Jack (Cam Gigandet). With the help of a sharp-witted stage manager, Sean (Stanley Tucci), and gender-bending host, Alexis (Alan Cumming),
Ali makes her way from the bar to the stage. Her spectacular voice
restores The Burlesque Lounge to its former glory, though not before a
charismatic entrepreneur Marcus Gerber (Eric Dane) arrives with an enticing proposal.[5]
[edit] Cast and characters
[edit] Production
"Of course, me being me, I had to give her one tiny bit of advice. It
was in the scene in which Tess says, "OK, I'm going to build the show
around you." There was a close-up on Christina, and though she had a
beautiful look on her face, I knew she had more to give. I went up to
her and said, "Christina, this is the moment you've been waiting for all
your life. Not your character's life, but yours. It's now or never."
Moments later I watched her pull years of tears out of those baby blue
eyes. Yeah! I know this beautiful child can go as far, and as deep, as
she wants to go. I'm proud of her and I am proud to be in this film with
her."
Cher on scenes with Aguilera.[13]
Aguilera made her theatrical film and musical debut as the lead
character, a "small-town girl with a big voice," who finds work at a Los Angeles neo-burlesque club, inspired by Bob Fosse's Cabaret and European Burlesque entertainment.[14] Burlesque started shooting on November 9, 2009[7] and ended on March 3, 2010.
Cher also co-stars in the film, her first starring role since 2003's Stuck on You and first musical film.[1] She plays Tess, a former dancer who struggles to keep the nightclub open and serves as a mentor to Aguilera's character, Ali. Aguilera's love interest is played by Cam Gigandet, and Stanley Tucci as the nightclub's manager. Alan Cumming, Kristen Bell, Eric Dane, and Julianne Hough have all signed on to the film as well.[7] Antin revised the script originally written by Diablo Cody (Juno and Jennifer's Body).[15] which was later revised and edited by Susannah Grant.[14] Burlesque is one of Screen Gems' most expensive movies, with the exception of the Resident Evil films, with costs of $55 million.[16]
[edit] Soundtrack
It was confirmed after Christina Aguilera had completed work on her fourth studio album Bionic that she had invited Tricky Stewart to start work on the soundtrack album to accompany the film Burlesque.
Together Aguilera and Stewart co-wrote two tracks for the soundtrack
album being "Show Me How You Burlesque" and "Express". In addition to
this, he also worked on various other tracks for the album. He produced
two remakes for the soundtrack - "Something's Got a Hold on Me" and
"Tough Lover".[17] Songwriter Claude Kelly confirmed he co-wrote three songs for the movie.[18] The first single from the soundtrack, "Express" premiered on Ryan Seacrest's KIIS FM Radio Show on November 3, 2010.[19] Aguilera performed the first single, "Express", at the American Music Awards of 2010.[20]
The album features ten tracks, with eight done by Aguilera and two by
Cher, which are Cher's first original recordings in 7 years.[21][22]
[edit] Release
[edit] Marketing
The theatrical trailer was attached to screenings of Step Up 3D and Easy A. The first TV spot premiered during the season 2 premiere of Fox's Glee on September 21, 2010. A third TV spot also aired the following day during Dancing with the Stars, later followed by another during MTV's Jersey Shore. Several teasers have been released for promotional purposes including the Etta James's
"Something's Got a Hold On Me". This was then followed by the track
"But I Am a Good Girl" which was released in November 2010.[23]
On November 22, 2010, Aguilera performed "Bound to You" and gave an interview on Conan. Aguilera also gave an interview to show host Chelsea Handler to discuss the film and other subjects. On November 19, 2010, Aguilera gave another television interview to Ellen Degeneres
she then performed a track from the soundtrack, the Etta James' track
"Somethings Got a Hold On Me". Aguilera also performed "Express" at the
2010 American Music Awards and "Show Me How You Burlesque" at the Dancing with the Stars finale.
[edit] Reception
[edit] Box office
Burlesque was released on Wednesday, November 24, 2010; it opened on 3,037 theaters on the United States and Canada, during the Thanksgiving week. It was the third highest grossing film during its first day, getting $2.86 million;[24]
and by the end of the week it had grossed $17.3 million, $11.9 million
of which were from the weekend alone, ranking the movie in fourth place
behind Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Disney’s Tangled, and Megamind. [25] The week after Thanksgiving is usually a slow one at the movie theaters, and like most movies, Burlesque
experienced a substantial decrease on ticket sales; in spite of this,
the movie managed to climb to the top three of the highest grossing
films of the week, getting another $9.65 million ($6.1 million on the
weekend), to a total of $26.98 million for its first twelve days.[26][27]
[edit] Critical response
The film has received mixed to positive reviews from critics, most
noting that it strikes positively in the genre it fits into and praising
Aguilera's contribution. The film holds a 36% (or "rotten") rating with
an average score of 4.7/10 on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 101 reviews; RT said about the film, "Campy and clichéd, Burlesque
wastes its talented cast (including a better-than-expected Christina
Aguilera) on a movie that wavers uncertainly between 'bad' and 'so bad
it's good.'"[28] and an average 49/100 score on Metacritic, based on 36 reviews.[29] The Hollywood Reporter
gave the film a positive review calling the pairing of Aguilera and
Cher a "stroke of genius" they concluded their review saying, "So Burlesque
celebrates its talented stars and the renaissance of burlesque's cheeky
fun. The only disappointment is that no Burlesque Lounge actually
exists on Sunset Boulevard. On film, it's such a rockin' joint."[30]
Variety
gave the film a mixed review saying, "A certain garishness goes with
the territory, but the rest is all writer-director Steven Antin's doing
in 'Burlesque', an overwrought, underwritten hootchy-kootchy tuner that
desperately wants to be 'Cabaret',
but lacks the edge and historical context to pull it off". They also
said that Cher's character "soon reminds us of her gifts as both siren
and star".[31] Film critic Emanuel Levy
gave it a C+, concluding that it is "a guilty pleasure par excellence,
'Burlesque' pays homage to the world of showbiz as most viewers would
like to know and remember it, as a glitzy, seductive, and competitive
milieu that brings out the best (and the worst) in individuals who need
to be on stage."[32]
Tim Grierson from Screen International
also gave it a positive review, describing the film as "campy, sexy and
shameless in all the ways one would hope", and saying that it "demands
viewers acquiesce to its frothy, strutting tone, and those who do are in
for a hoot."[33] Yahoo! News
gave it a mixed reception, saying that "it's good enough as a guilty
pleasure, simply because it's all splash and no substance." The review
was concluded with two stars out of four.[34] Keith Uhlich from Time Out New York
gave the film a positive review saying "Burlesque is better at
glamming, and that's just fine for those of us with a taste for glittery
spectacle and earnestly campy theatrics. Christina struts her stuff,
Cher belts out a Diane Warren–penned ballad, and Gigandet does an
ogle-worthy swagger while hiding his naughty bits with a Famous Amos
cookie box. That's gonna leave a trademark.[35]
Jessica Grose from Slate gave the film a very positive review saying
"The enthralling dance numbers—flashy spectacles with feathers and bras
made out of pearls and netting—and the combined sass levels of Cher and
Christina Aguilera gloss over the movie's weaknesses. Burlesque is
unlikely to garner a new fan base for either pop star on this
Thanksgiving weekend (good luck trying to convince dad to skip the
Cowboys game to see this one), but it's a worthwhile trifle for admirers
of either icon".[36] Carrie Rickey from the Philadelphia Inquirer
gave the film a positive review saying "Burlesque is a movie with a
definite audience. Namely, anyone who appreciates Cher, Christina, the
"Wagon Wheel Watusi" and knows that the art director set the Burlesque
Lounge next to the fire escape where Richard Gere proposed to Julia
Roberts in Pretty Woman. You know who you are".[37]
The New York Times gave the film a mixed review saying "Burlesque"
nods, though more rightly wags its derrière, in the direction of new
burlesque, but it's strictly old school — at times, really old school —
with a story line that had already gathered dust by the time the
choreographer Busby Berkeley pointed his camera up the collective skirt
of the chorus in the 1933 musical 42nd Street"[38] Lisa Schwarzbaum from Entertainment Weekly
gave the album a mixed to negative review saying "In Burlesque, never
bet against the house. (Never count out the possibility of barking out a
laugh where none was intended, either.) The relationship between Ali
and her bartender beau is, for the most part, as old-fashioned as that
of virginal teens sharing an ice cream cone".[39] Betsy Sharky from the Los Angeles Times gave the film a mixed review saying "Think of Burlesque
as one ginormous music video theme party thrown by Christina Aguilera,
with Cher in the house, plus boas, bustiers and dancing girls and about a
thousand humongous Broadway-style showstoppers. Which is a far better
way to consider "Burlesque" than thinking of it as a movie — there,
words fail".[40]
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
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