BURLESQUE (the book)

Is it possible to dislike a work and still enjoy learning about how it was made? Absolutely! I disliked the movie Burlesque, yet the book Burlesque is a fine peek behind the curtain at all the visuals that went into the movie.

Burlesque is a photographic exploration of the movie, usually with commentaries from the people involved. The photos appear even before the book's introductions (from Cher and Christina Aguilera) and foreword (from writer-director Steve Astin), and they keep appearing, filling a page and sometimes spilling across adjacentpages. There are photos of all the movie's stars (you'll see a lot more of Kristen Bell and Julianne Hough here than you saw in the movie), plus the fashions, makeup, and even colors and lighting in the movie. Preliminary sketches sometimes appear next to the final results, showing the transition from planning to shooting.

Burlesque isn't just a picture book, though. Everything was done consciously, and the inspirations and reasons behind the choices are explained by the crew of the movie, from the costume and production designers to makeup artists and "department head, hair." Actors also share their recollections of the pictured scenes, as does Antin: "When planning a film, you can't shoot all the musical numbers back-to-back. They're a tremendous amount of work for the dancers and it would cause injuries. Plus, you'd wind up killing some of them."
Burlesque is an interesting visual trip into the different elements that went into the movie. While I found the film's story trite and predictable, it turns out that great care was taken to create an atmosphere relating to the characters' point in their stories. Burlesque is not a how-to guide for making a movie, or even how to stage a burlesque show, but it's a nice photographic trip down the making of this visually impressive film.

Overall grade: B
Reviewed by James Lynch
(proud to have the Armchair Critic's first hat trick of reviewing a related book, movie, and soundtrack!)

BURLESQUE

Here's a wildly unoriginal idea for a movie: A small-town girl moves to the big city, struggles at first, and becomes wildly successful, famous, beloved by everyone, and adored by a cute guy. Toss in some risque dance numbers and you have the movie Burlesque.
Ali (Christina Aguilera) is the young woman leaving Iowa for a better life in California. After a very brief job-hunting montage she winds up at the Burlesque Lounge (a pretty unoriginal name for a, er, burlesque lounge) and is enthralled by the sexy dancing. Quickly chatting up cute bartender Jack (Cam Gigandet), she gets a job as a waitress. But wouldn't you know it, she wants to dance! On stage! And she wants them to sing instead of just lip-syncing!
The club has its own problems. Owner/performer/surrogate mother to the dancers Tess (Cher) is drowning in debt and resisting offers to sell the place to real-estate developer Marcus (Eric Dane). Lead performer Nikki (Kristen Bell) shows up late, drinks too much, sabotages anyone she sees as a threat, and apparently has no redeeming qualities.
What else? Let's toss in a funny gay friend, Sean (Stanley Tucci, who steals every scene he's in), who's Tess's friend and works at the club. Let's make Jack more than a bartender, but a sensitive hunk who writes songs. Let's have Ali move in with Jack, but nothing happen because he has a demanding fiancee who's in New York. Let's have baddie Marcus romancing Ali. And, of course, let's have Ali go from a nobody to famous and the savior of the club.

Burlesque was painful, but not entirely so. The music was quite good, Stanley Tucci is hilarious, and the musical numbers are like a well-performed music video. (Burlesque is PG-13, so if you're hoping to see a lot of skin you'll get tease instead of totality.) Unfortunately Christina Aguilera is very dull when she's not singing, and Cher's role has her doing little more than being a den mother. Some of the dialogue is laughably bad, and the villains are so one-dimensional they should be wearing black hats.

According to the IMDB, writer-director Steve Antin got the idea for Burlesque after watching Aguilera performing with the Pussycat Dolls. If only he'd known that sexy dancing alone can't sustain a full-length movie...

Overall grade: D
Reviewed by James Lynch

BURLESQUE soundtrack

The art of burlesque involves both less and more than a striptease: less skin (but still skin) and more art. If you accept this, the Burlesque movie soundtrack makes a lot of sense: The songs here are both soulful classics and could be used to strip down. And they work very well.

This album has ten songs: eight from Christina Aguilera, two from Cher. Unlike Aguilera's far too electronic album Bionic, on Burlesque her voice is given a chance to shine -- and shine it does. Aguilera covers classic songs (Etta James' "Something's Got a Hold of Me" and "Tough Lover," Mae West's "A Guy What Takes His Time") extremely well, capturing the old-time soul of the songs without merely copying them. (Her teasing "But I Am a Good Girl" could also be from that era, but it's an Aguilera's original.) Aguilera also has what could be current club hits, from "Express" to a song that borrows the chorus from Marilyn Manson's "The Beautiful People," and these are terrific fun: a modern contrast to the classic-sounding tunes.

As for Cher, while I've always been indifferent to her music, her two songs on Burlesque are quite good. Her "Welcome to Burlesque" certainly feels like an intro to a burlesque club, and "You Haven't Seen the Last of Me" is both sad and strong, about being tough when things get rough. Cher fans will be thrilled that she's singing again (even for just two songs), and they work well with Aguilera's music.

I haven't seen the movie Burlesque, but I really enjoyed the Burlesque movie soundtrack. This is sexy and fun, the classic and contemporary mixed together.

Overall grade: A-
Reviewed by James Lynch