Review of Burlesque (2009) by Greg W — 23 Oct 2015

While most critics complained that this movie was campy and cliched, Burlesque is actually a very good movie with great songs, colorful effects and great performances from the actors and Cher and Christina, both in terms of acting and the dance sequences. Even though it does have a cliche of misunderstanding and the sort underdog vs bully, the way they are executed is actually pretty well. Because, unlike most movies that have cliche's like that which have the characters do nothing mope in a misunderstanding cliche (a lot of romance films were pretty guilty on this, especially the american ones) and in underdog vs bully cliche, they'd have a character trying to prove itself, then prevent and brought back on the bottom by a bully and then trying to convince other characters in stuff. Here, the characters are actually doing something after having a misunderstanding and Ali, the main character, handles the film's bully character Nikki pretty well. She doesn't react like a scared little underdog who's dreaming of more and trying to make her dream come true. She just handles stuff the way she thinks is best and is always helping the others out.

Now that is what this movie should be given credit for, handeling the cliche's in away that wasn't seen so often.

And this is also one of the better recent musicals, because it feels like an actual musical vs what most nowadays musicals have as songs, which is musicalized dialogues (Frozen and Into the Woods are guilty on this one).

Also, some of the dance scenes reminded me of 2002 musical, Chicago.

So yes, great music, great singing, dance and acting performance and greatly executed cliches. And the song "You Haven't Seen the Last of Me" certainly deserved the Golden Globe award it got.

I say it's worth it, and give it a watch for yourself.