November 27, 2010
Review: 'Burlesque' Greatest. Movie. Ever.
The most consistently impressive quality Burlesque possesses is its unyielding self-awareness. It knows we're here for camp, slutty outfits, dance sequences and to watch Cher's synthetic excuse for a face war with itself to express emotions, and minute-for-minute, that's exactly what it delivers. For example, Christina Aguilera's character goes from being fed up in her small town somewhere to working in Cher's L.A. club with strippers doing gymnastics around her within the first 10 minutes of the movie. There's no time wasted anywhere, and though the movie is a little longer than I expected (it's about two hours long), that's only for the sake of more scenes involving Stanley Tucci making cracks about Kristen Bell drunkenly gyrating to the classics in a body stocking and a wig. So, it's two hours, but it's two hours of sheer entertainment!
This movie does warrant all the comparisons to Glitter, Showgirls and Crossroads before it, but the difference is that those movies, as wonderfully lovable as they are, took themselves incredibly seriously. They were earnest attempts to get the women in them taken seriously as actors, and the results were laughable. Burlesque is gleefully light-hearted and self-deprecating, without being cloyingly meta or eyeroll-inducing. When you laugh at Burlesque, you're laughing with it. Those other movies? Quite the opposite is the case.
I've been describing it to friends as Showgirls, minus all the brutal rape and period humor. It's like if Showgirls took a mega dose of antibiotics, entered into a witness protection relocation program, met Julianne Hough (who is somehow adorable in this movie) and took a crapload of dance lessons. It's just so great. Earlier this week I was joking that Burlesque might be so good it could possibly kill me, and while that was just a joke at the time, there was one moment where Cher attacked Kristen Bell's car with a crowbar and it was so awesome I experienced a little bit of heart failure, but luckily I gathered my wits and recovered in time for the pivotal "everyone's-jealous-of-Xtina's-sequin-feather-shoes" scene that followed it.
Oh, and Alan Cumming has a spectacular series of little cameos as basically the Emcee from Cabaret, and Christina Aguilera didn't even annoy me one bit -- in fact, I'd actually describe her as endearing and well-cast in the role. I mean this movie is just an anomaly on every level. You simply have to see it.
Examiner: 'Burlesque' OST Burn Up The Charts
The album highlights the music of the film sung by Christina Aguilera and Cher. The album is said to not only compliment the experience of the movie but could be a stand alone piece that any fan would appreciate. According to the Amazon description, Aguilera took a big part in the performance and behind the scenes efforts:
Burlesque, the soundtrack to the Sony Pictures film Burlesque, starring Christina Aguilera and Cher. The highly anticipated soundtrack features new recordings performed and co-written by five time Grammy winner Christina Aguilera, with production by Tricky Stewart, Linda Perry and Ron Fair and songwriting by Claude Kelly, Tricky Stewart and Sia. The soundtrack also features two brand new tracks performed by the legendary Cher, including "You Haven't Seen The Last Of Me", a powerful Diane Warren penned ballad which was produced by Matt Serletic. This marks Cher's first new original song in seven years as well as her first movie musical. The soundtrack also includes remakes / covers of classic songs such as Etta James' "Something's Got A Hold On Me" and "Tough Lover" and Mae West's "A Guy What Takes His Time" all performed by Christina Aguilera.
November 25, 2010
November 24, 2010
Etta James Feat. Christina Aguilera
SOMETHING'S GOT A HOLD ON ME
Etta James Feat. Christina Aguilera
MUST LISTEN
TIME Magazine: 'Dances With Divas'
Ali (Christina Aguilera), a lonely innocent from Iowa newly arrived in Los Angeles, has lucky timing. The heroine of the musical Burlesque walks into a Sunset Boulevard nightclub where scantily clad women are gyrating on stage and Alan Cumming is manning the cash register. "Is this a strip club?" Ali asks. Cumming looks appalled. "I should wash your mouth out with Jagermeister," he says, fluttering his eyelashes. Then Tess (Cher), the Burlesque's owner and resident diva, struts out onto to the stage, as imposing and stiff as a stilt walker, and belts out a number called "Welcome to the Burlesque." Musically it's not quite Cabaret's "Willkommen," but for an orphaned aspiring showgirl in need of a mother/mentor figure, it's a dream introduction.
By this film's standards, the main criteria for burlesque seems to be looking good in undies and knowing where your own breasts are, so that you can grab them every 30 seconds or so. Tess is the only performer who actually sings (Cher has two numbers). The rest, including the mean mini-diva Nikki (Kristen Bell), lip sync to the classics. Ali doesn't get a role on stage, but she does manage to wrangle a waitressing job out of Tess — which allows her to watch the show and learn all the numbers. This means that often, as she's moving about the club, she's simultaneously making spastic little flourishes with her hand, practicing dance moves, waiting for a chance to wow everyone. Ordering anything in a martini glass from this girl would be risky.
The movie is frivolous fun, but not, as I had sort of hoped, as sinfully awful as Showgirls, Mariah Carey's Glitter or Britney Spears' Crossroads. Lacking the snap of Chicago or the insane creativity of Moulin Rouge, it's a middle-of-the-road musical. While it took my eyes an hour or so to recover from the chronic soft focus required to make the naturally vampy Aguilera look like an angelic Breck girl, Burlesque doesn't have the kind of stunning bad taste that calls for the immediate invention of a drinking game built around it. Aguilera, making her dramatic debut, is far from a great actress, but compared to Elizabeth Berkley or Spears she is a veritable Nicole Kidman.
And in Burlesque, she is propped up by three of the most fun people in show business: Cumming, Cher and Stanley Tucci, who plays the club's gay (of course) costume designer Sean. None of them are going home with any Oscars, but writer/director Steve Antin has written to their comic strengths and personas — Cher's sarcasm, Cummings's naughtiness and Tucci's gift for being snarky and good natured. The results, while occasionally forced, are consistently amusing. ("What happened to all the great dancers?" Tess grumbles to Sean during an audition. "They're all dancing with the stars," he says.)
What the movie does have in common with Glitter et al is the problem of trying to convince an audience that the adult heroine — Aguilera is about to turn 30 — famous to all of us, really could be an undiscovered novice, or for that matter, an innocent. Actually, Burlesque faces a bigger challenge. Aguilera might not be to your tastes, or mine (the musical numbers are lively, but produced no urge to sing in the shower) but in terms of sheer power, she's impressive — a far bigger vocal talent than a Spears, for example. If Ali were real, she'd have already been discovered on American Idol.
Antin's solution is to run a bulldozer right over that obstacle and others (Bell can't really dance? Shoot her from the waist up.) During the opening credits Ali, alone in a dive bar in Iowa, launches into Etta James' "Something's Gotta Hold of Me." Fully amplified and laughable in its professionalism, the number instantly establishes that we have no need to fret about Ali's future. It's lulling, the narrative equivalent of Muzak. The rest of the movie follows suit, unfolding predictably but pleasantly. At Burlesque, Ali meets her primary love interest right off the bat, Jack the bartender (Cam Gigandet, a young Brad Pitt type) and is soon sleeping on his couch in tantalizing proximity. Jack is engaged, but his fiancée is conveniently out of town.
In addition to finding fame and true love, there's also, surprisingly, a subplot involving the national real estate crisis. Tess and her ex-husband, Burlesque's co-owner Vince (the completely unnecessary Peter Gallagher), are facing foreclosure, which means we get to hear Cher grumbling about balloon payments. The local sleazy real estate mogul Marcus (Eric Dane) wants to buy Tess out, but she refuses. Ali's talent might bring in the punters and save the day, unless she's seduced by Marcus, who comes bearing glittering Louis Vuitton shoes and an opportunity to meet big-time producers. Should we be worried she'll let the club down? Not in this carefully cushioned star vehicle. "That one there," Sean says, gesturing at Ali. "She's beautiful on the inside as well."
November 23, 2010
iTunes NOW: 'Burlesque' Soundtrack Rises
BURLESQUE SOUNDTRACK #1
iTunes Soundtracks Chart
EXPRESS # 2
SHOW ME HOW YOU BURLESQUE # 1
THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE # 9
iTunes Soundtrack Songs Chart
BURLESQUE SOUNDTRACK #10
on iTunes US
Christina Aguilera On 'Conan O'Brien Show'
SOMETHING'S GOT A HOLD ON ME
CONAN O'BRIEN SHOW
OUTSTANDING
Claude Kelly: 'Christina Is One Badass Artist'
CLICK BURLESQUE OST COVER
TO BUY IT NOW!
Finally - Its HERE! The “Burlesque” Soundtrack is available on ITunes! if you love good music, good singing, and good Entertainment - SUPPORT THIS PROJECT!
I wrote “Express” and “Show Me How You Burlesque”
i’m so proud to have been a part of this soundtrack. Christina is one bad ass artist, and an amazing friend. working with her is always a highlight.
hope you love this music as much as i loved creating it!
over and out
Source: ClaudeKelly (Official Tumblr)
November 22, 2010
Producer Alex Da Kid Talks About 'Castle Walls'
While on the American Music Awards red carpet, Kid spoke to MTV News about "Castle Walls," the track he produced for the recently incarcerated rapper's forthcoming album, which features the pop star. Not only did the producer reveal that the song is set to be the next single off Tip's No Mercy, but he also gushed about how the song will grab a variety of listeners.
A reported snippet of the track minus T.I. surfaced on the Internet a few weeks ago and finds Aguilera gently singing over a steady, mellow beat about the downfalls of loneliness: "Everyone thinks that I have it all/ But it's so empty living behind these castle walls (These castle walls)/ If I should tumble if I should fall/ Would anyone hear me screaming behind these castle walls?/ There's no one here at all, behind these castle walls."
"Castle Walls" isn't the only star-studded effort on the MC's new album. No Mercy will also feature appearances from Eminem, Kanye West, Chris Brown and The-Dream.
iTunes NOW: 'Burlesque' Soundtrack Rises
Burlesque Soundtrack #1
on iTunes Soundtracks
Burlesque Soundtrack #5
on iTunes US
MTV: Christina Struts Through 'Express'
Before she even took the stage at the American Music Awards on Sunday night (November 21), Christina Aguilera had already watched a series of over-the-top performances from show-opener Rihanna, an uncharacteristically sedate Miley Cyrus, the always outrageous Katy Perry and a piano-tinkling, snow-shower summoning Taylor Swift.
In other words, she saw the future, and it was a cornucopia of female stars who have taken cues from her career -- and she made sure to show them that she's still got a few tricks up her sleeve.
Preparing to make her big-screen debut alongside Cher in the upcoming "Burlesque," as promised, Aguilera gave a sneak peek at what we can expect in theaters. "It's going to be fantastic," she told MTV News. "And it will give you a fitting little look inside the movie."
Seated in a chair with her back to the audience and wearing a black spangly bodysuit, knee-high boots and a bowler, Aguilera snapped her fingers and leaned into the jazzy, skittery rhythms of the new tune "Express (Burlesque)." As the camera pulled out, it revealed a set made up to mimic the backstage at a burlesque club, with Aguilera surrounded by a squadron of equally scantily clad dancers.
She flashed back to the "Dirrty"-era Xtina, straddling and shimmying on the chair, then busting into the song's uptempo chorus and showing off the throaty pipes that made her a star. Shaking her hair along with her lingerie-clad dancers, the singer was clearly back in her element, mixing club beats with a throwback, "Free Your Mind"-style R&B vibe and strutting across the stage confidently with her patented growly sass intact.
Even after a career spent in the spotlight as a child star on the "Mickey Mouse Club" and a pop icon since her late teens, Aguilera said the difficulty of trying to reproduce the dancing in the film for the AMAs took a toll on her. "It will be another very new challenge for me," Aguilera admitted beforehand. "My legs have been incredibly sore as I stepped into the role of Ali for this." In the film, Aguilera plays a small-town girl with big dreams who stumbles on a burlesque club owned by the feisty Tess (Cher).
Aguilera added that, while relearning the dance routines was grueling, the choreography is amazing. "You're going to get quite the show," she promised. "Quite the spectacle."
While Aguilera is new to the world of acting, Cher told MTV News that the pop star can dish it out with the best of them. "The scenes that she and I had together, I really enjoyed, and I really believe that she's got definite chops," she said. "We worked well together. I enjoyed all of it, and she was toe-to-toe with me the whole time."
November 21, 2010
'Los Angeles Confidential' Feat. Christina Aguilera
Christina Aguilera will grace the cover of the December issue of LA Confidential Magazine.
Check it out on newsstands soon!
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