Burlesque (Blu-ray Combo Pack)
Directed by Steven Antin
Studio: Sony/Screen Gems
Year: 2010
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1 1080p AVC codec
Running Time: 119 minutes
Rating: PG-13
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 English, French
Subtitles: SDH, French, Spanish
Region: A-B-C
MSRP: $ 34.99
Release Date: March 1, 2011
Review Date: February 21, 2011
The Film
2.5/5
Steven Antin’s Burlesque is a cut and paste job of the most mediocre kind. Part Showgirls, part Cabaret, part 42nd Street with a lot of Bob Fosse, Mae West, Gypsy Rose Lee, and, yes, Cher, thrown into the mix. It’s a predictable jumble not worthy of its participants and thrashed together without any discernible style, class, or taste. There are moments of tuneful aplomb, but they are few and far between, and most of it is hollow and silly. It’s also at least half an hour too long extended to tediousness so that the maximum number of shouted power ballads could be squeezed into the movie which, in the final analysis, leaves one with no major impression of their quality, only their volume.
Tired of her dead-end existence as a waitress in an Iowa bar, Ali (Christina Aguilera) hops on a bus for Los Angeles and after scouring the town all day for jobs, lands at the Burlesque Lounge, a nightclub that presents dazzling showgirls in scantily clad abundance lip-synching to old show tunes and pop songs while gyrating in the most provocative way without actually stripping or pole-dancing. The club is co-owned by former spouses Tess (Cher) and Vince (Peter Gallagher) but is heavily in debt with threats of foreclosure arriving on a daily basis. Business entrepreneur Marcus (Eric Dane) keeps making generous offers, but Tess won’t budge, refusing to leave her little club family in the lurch. Ali pushes her way into a waitress job, but when showgirl Georgia (Julianne Hough) finds herself pregnant, an opening in the chorus opens up, much to the displeasure of resident diva Nikki (Kristen Bell) who is constantly late for shows and sometimes goes on stage drunk. When Ali replaces Nikki one night when Tess has had enough of her antics, Nikki attempts to sabotage Ali by pulling the plug on the sound equipment, but Ali merely begins singing in her own voice bringing down the house and elevating herself into the star spot with Nikki now relegated to the chorus. Business picks up with Nikki as the star, but will it be enough to save the club?
Isn’t it amazing when a writer-director like Steven Antin manages to lure Cher back to the movies after a prolonged absence, and then foists off a tired let’s-save-the-theater story on her AND relegates her to a supporting role in the hopes that the younger, million selling pop star in the lead can bring in a sufficient audience of the desired youth market demographic? The fact is that the two best numbers in the movie are both songs sung by Cher: her opening “Welcome to Burlesque” and a later ballad “You Haven’t Seen the Last of Me” show a singer in control of her vocal instrument without the need to oversing every second of the melody and lyrics. There is power there and control but there’s also finesse, an important commodity when it’s being surrounded by a production which is wildly overblown and oppressive.
Antin’s story works in two suitors for Christina Aguilera (one her age – played by Cam Gigandet – and the older Eric Dane), the gay costumer (Stanley Tucci) who flirts with the girls backstage while mending their wardrobes and later catches the eye of a waiter at the wedding, the box-office manager (Alan Cumming) who also shows up on stage for a number shamelessly borrowed from “Two Ladies” in Cabaret in which he starred on Broadway and won a Tony, the clichéd diva-replaced story with Kristen Bell, the fiancé-replaced story with Dianna Agron, all of them completely lacking in freshness or vivacity. Indeed, the pairing between Aguilera and Gigandet which we saw written in the stars from the first minute they meet at the bar takes ninety minutes to actually reach fruition, and then it’s a complete letdown as her witty after sex rejoinder is that his sexual performance just proved to her that he wasn’t gay! Really, in the 21st century, that’s the best after-sex line a writer can come up with? The grab bag script and the collection of ballads from Etta James and Mae West (“A Guy What Takes His Time” with Aguilera in a pearl-strand costume is not her kind of material) along with more current stuff like “Bound to You” all end up sounding the same despite her endless costume changes and hair styles loaded into the mix in a desperate attempt to keep things interesting.
It’s not Christina Aguilera’s fault that she’s been given a character to play who’s about as believable as Minnie Mouse. She has a big voice, but she’s not an inventive enough actress to be able to do anything with these tired clichés except string along with them until the film’s eventually reached conclusion (another screaming power ballad called “Show Me How You Burlesque”). The face work which Cher has had done often gives the impression that half of her face isn’t moving in synch with the rest of her head. Her strong-willed and stubborn character with a heart of gold is yet another of the characters taken out of the mothballs of the old Busby Berkeley musicals of the 1930s, but she does what she can to give it some energy. Stanley Tucci is less mannered here than he was playing gay in The Devil Wears Prada (though he was much funnier in the earlier movie). Kristin Bell’s bitchy star really doesn’t demonstrate how she gained that position of power in the company (she doesn’t seem any more or less talented or attractive than the other girls in the ensemble) while Alan Cumming, Eric Dane, and Peter Gallagher all are wasted in roles not worthy of their talents.
Video Quality
4.5/5
The film is framed at the widescreen 2.40:1 aspect ratio and is delivered in a 1080p transfer using the AVC codec. The huge production numbers show off the depths of clarity and color in the transfer to great advantage, but focus isn’t always the sharpest (are those soft focused close-up shots of Christina Aguilera deliberate?), and black levels while often very deep and impressive are not always so. Flesh tones are natural away from the garish on-stage make-up. The film has been divided into 16 chapters.
Audio Quality
4.5/5
The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 sound mix gives the musical numbers their biggest shot in the arm as the excellent instrumentation is spread through the soundstage (and into the LFE channel which throbs with heavy bass on occasion) and the audience’s applause and cheers are placed properly in the rears. Dialogue is always easy to understand and has been placed in the center channel.
Special Features
4/5
The audio commentary is provided by writer-director Steven Antin who spends every moment of the track extolling the “amazing” virtues of every member of his cast and crew. There are bits of information along the way which fans of the movie will be grateful to hear, but it’s mixed with the effusive praise of all participants which tends to become a bit tiresome to hear.
All of the bonus features are presented in 1080p.
“The Burlesque Jukebox” offers complete video transcriptions of six numbers: five from the film and one deleted number: “Something’s Got a Hold On Me,” “Long John Blues,” “A Guy What Takes His Time,” “Express,” “Jungle Berlin,” and the cut number “That’s Life.” Ironically, “That’s Life” featuring Alan Cumming is the best number on the disc, the one truly theatrical presentation that features real performing savvy and panache.
The alternate opening merely reorders the opening scenes as they appear in the film without the credits. Neither appears significantly more effective than the other. It runs 6 ½ minutes.
The film’s blooper reel includes many moments where Christina Aguilera breaks up on camera and Stanley Tucci asserts his heterosexuality. It runs 3 ¼ minutes.
“Burlesque Is Back!” is a 3 ¼-minute featurette with Christina Aguilera, Steven Antin, and Julianne Hough explaining what “burlesque” actually is.
“The Performers: The Cast of Burlesque” features brief interviews with Cher, Christina Aguilera, Stanley Tucci, Eric Dane, Alan Cumming, Kristen Bell, Cam Gigandet, and Julianne Hough about their roles in the movie. It runs 8 ¾ minutes.
“Setting the Stage” features interviews with Steven Antin, production designer Jon Gary Steele, cinematographer Bojan Bazelli, and lighting designer Jules Fisher discussing their work on the movie to give it its individual look. It runs 4 ¼ minutes.
“Inside the Dressing Room” features interviews with costume designer Michael Kaplan and the film’s make-up coordinator talking about their contributions to the movie in this 5 ¾-minute vignette.
“The Set List: The Music and Choreography” has dance director Denise Faye discussing with co-dance director Joey Pizzi their ideas for the routines in the movie along with the structure of each of the film’s principal numbers. The longest of the featurettes, it runs 11 minutes.
BD-Live offers movieIQ which can play along with the movie. It also allows the user to stream the numbers from the Burlesque Jukebox (in standard definition quality, of course).
The disc offers promo trailers for Open Season 3D, How Do You Know, The Tourist, Country Strong, and You Got Served.
The second disc in the set is the DVD copy of the movie.
In Conclusion
3/5 (not an average)
As a musical, Burlesque can’t hold a candle to the greatness of Chicago or Dreamgirls (this is closer to the quality of Mamma Mia). The Blu-ray disc does offer an excellent video and audio presentation of the production, and there are enough bonus features to justify a rental or purchase for fans of the film. All others beware.
Matt Hough
Charlotte, NC
