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DECEMBER 9, 2010 / THE SOURCE WEEKLY / 29


way into a job slinging drinks. Ali lives on Bartender Jack’s (Cam Gigandet) couch and through studying the girls’ dance moves is able to convince the lounge owner, Tess (Cher), to give her a dancing job. Burlesque is filled with unending


X-TINA GETS CRAZY, SEXY, COOL. FILM Not Quite Legendary Burlesque hits the right notes musically, but


misses on plot BY ANNE PICK


Burlesque takes place during present


day, which was a shock to me, as the trailer made it seem like it was the roaring ‘20s. The movie employs a story that’s all too familiar—Ali (Christina Aguilera) moves from middle America to Los Angeles in order to make it big and escape the confines


of her small town. While searching for a job as a singer or


dancer, she stumbles upon The Burlesque Lounge, where she instantly falls in love with the idea of performing on their stage. Despite being turned down for an on-stage job, she grabs a tray and waitresses her


amounts of glitter and lingerie, and estro- gen flows through the lounge like pints of Pabst in a college town. With two of the most successful female vocalists to ever grace the airwaves, the music is undeniably good. What I found backward was that Georgia (Julianne Hough) doesn’t play a larger dancing role; Ali immedi- ately replaces her after Georgia gets knocked up. Hough is well known because of her history as a pro- fessional dancer, most recently on ABC’s Dancing With the Stars. Wouldn’t you want to utilize her strengths in a film about dancing? Hough wasn’t the only actor in the star-


studded cast whose talents weren’t used to their fullest. Kristen Bell plays Nikki, an alcoholic burlesque dancer who wants nothing to do with Ali. Bell shines as one of Hollywood’s most well-rounded actresses when she makes the right film choices, but in Burlesque her glow was muffled by poor writing and a weak plot. But I guess in guilty-pleasure musicals such as this one, plot and acting talent fall second to singing and dancing abilities. The gifted Stanley Tucci plays Sean, Tess’ right-hand man at the club, who, up until a dude walked out of his bedroom, I assumed was her husband. It’s a shame his talents were sidelined as well.


Beyond Ali landing a job dancing at


Burlesque ★★ ✩✩


Starring Christina Aguilera, Cher, Stanley Tucci, Kristen Bell.


Written and Directed by Steve Antin. Rated PG-13


The Burlesque Lounge, the film centers on Tess trying to save her beloved club from foreclosure. When Tess realizes Ali can sing, she boosts the cover in order to try to make up some of the cash she owes the bank. Tess is too proud to ask for help and keeps the club’s woes a secret from everyone except Sean and her ex-husband. Though Burlesque seems like every other musical you’ve ever seen, it doesn’t take the road most traveled in order to save the club. I would have thought they would have banded to- gether and used Ali’s newfound publicity


to throw a fundraiser, but instead they take a much more boring, though somewhat clever, approach. Burlesque is all about performance and


musicality. Cher’s performance of “You Haven’t Seen the Last of Me” stands out as well as Aguilera’s “Guy Who Takes His Time,” which was by far the truest burlesque performance of the entire film. Georgia and Nikki dance to “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend,” which seemed silly to include, given that the rendition of the song performed in Moulin Rouge was much more memorable. Overall, the film boasts worthwhile mu-


sical performances, but falls flat on story. If Burlesque had focused its attention more on Ali’s rise to stardom or on saving The Burlesque Lounge, perhaps it would have been more successful. The storylines were spread too thin, but the performances were dynamic and entertaining, which is why you see musicals in the first place.


FILM Cowboys and Ninjas


Warrior’s Way is too cute for cult classic status BY MORGAN P SALVO


Oddly, the only movie opening here in


Bend last week was The Warrior’s Way… and what a disappointment. This wannabe visually-stunning modern martial arts Western stars South Korean actor Dong- gun Jang as Yang, a Samurai warrior as- sassin who refuses to kill the last child of the enemy clan, adopting the baby instead. He then hides in the untamed West near a traveling circus. With a great beginning featuring war-


riors battling on snow-covered ground with all that House of Flying Daggers-cart- wheeling-samurais backward-motion- floating-in-space stuff and computer-gen- erated blood mist spraying from countless sliced necks, Way subsequently takes a dive and splats hard. This flick strives to please just about


every kind of audience and is sure to repel them all. Overly cute and then sadistically brutal, Way has the sensibilities of Shrek meets A Fistful of Dollars. Knee-deep in stereotypes, the dialogue is ridiculously


predictable, the acting awful and the special effects (with the exception of one grainy sepia-toned killing spree) are just so-so. Despite all the A-list expensive pro-


duction values, you would think none of these actors had been in front of the camera before. Geoffrey Rush’s cartoon- ish Southern drawl consists of hard R’s and Kate Bosworth’s accent is absolutely deplorable when she remembers to use it. Jang starred in one of the highest-grossing Korean films (Friend), but here, his blank stare and staged fight scenes reveal no acting chops. Attempting the American crossover, he’s no Chow Yun Fat. You know you’re in trouble when Danny Houston, as the villain, gets the juiciest role and hams it up so much that you want to throw in the towel and yell, “I give!” The slew of kooky carnival characters could’ve been better developed, although it’s hilarious to see clowns shoot guns and get knives chucked at them.


ALL COWBOYS SHOULD CARRY SAMURI SWORDS. Writer/director Sngmoo Lee strives hard to


make this movie look good, but has no idea how to put it all together. Even the Sergio Leone clone music is contrived. There are also a slew of disturbingly adorable cut- aways of the baby, popping up like Pampers commercials, but don’t get me started on babies. The Warrior’s Way can’t decide if it’s a


Disney film, Sanjuro, or a spaghetti west- ern. Mainly it’s an over-drawn love story interspersed with blood-drenched bodies.


The synopsis sounds cool and that’s why this movie is so bad – it has all the possibili- ties of a cult classic right up there with Alejandro Jodorowsky’s El Topo, but it wimps out every chance it gets.


The Warrior’s Way ✩ ★★★


Starring Dong-gun Jang, Kate Bosworth, Geoffrey Rush


Directed/written by Sngmoo Lee Rated R


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