Burlesque Blu-ray Review


Burlesque stars an amazing cast including: Christina Aguilera, Cher, Stanley Tucci, Kristen Bell, and Alan Cumming. The film centers around nearly everyone’s secret fantasy; to move to Los Angeles and make it big. Christina’s character, Ali, is a small-town waitress that decides to follow that dream and makes her way to LA. After struggling to find work she eventually, and through a bit of crafty manipulation, becomes a waitress at an entertainment bar where she eventually works her way up in the ranks. I wont spoil anymore for you, but you can basically figure out what’s going to happen based on the type of movie it is.

The acting in the film is amazing. There are only a few times where Christina comes off a little green, but she does a great job keeping up with the legends that surround her. Stanley Tucci is brilliant in everything he does and definitely delivers a perfect performance in this film as Sean, Tess’ (Cher) right-hand man. Then we get to Cher, a legend in and of herself. What can you say about Cher that hasn’t been said before? She’s utterly breathtaking in this film. Her vocal performance, her acting grace, everything about her in this role lives up to all your wildest expectations; I was very excited to see her come back to acting, and this was certainly an incredible role to come back for.


The video quality in this blu-ray release was near perfect. There were a few instances where the image didn’t come off as crisp as it could have; but it doesn’t distract the eye from the buffet of beauty Sony puts forth with this release. The majority of the film takes place inside a dark bar with very specific colored lights splashing across the stage. The blacks are always perfectly inky and the colors are always vibrant and pop off the screen. The more impressively detailed scenes are the ones that aren’t filmed inside the bar, the natural lighting allows more of the facial textures to be transferred smoothly whereas those in the bar, with the layers of make-up and spot lights leave the faces a bit flat and featureless.


When you think of a musical one this has to come to your mind… Music. So of course Sony couldn’t let this release come out with anything less than a perfect audio transfer; and they definitely succeeded. The DTS-HD MA 5.1 lossless soundtrack handles everything from the whispers of intimate conversations to the window rattling bass or booming voices of Cher and Christina without missing a beat. This film was built with music and performance in mind and Sony doesn’t disappoint.


Thankfully those in charge decided to give us more with this release than with the past few Sony releases that have come out lately. While this film isn’t slammed packed with features, it’s definitely got a few featurettes worth checking out. Check out the full list below:

  • Audio Commentary with Writer/Director Steven Antin
  • The Burlesque Jukebox
  • Alternate Opening
  • Blooper Reel
  • Featurettes
  • Previews: Additional Sony titles
  • MovieIQ
  • BD-Live
  • DVD Copy


I can’t say enough times how much I absolutely loved this movie and thought that Sony did an amazing job with this release. There was almost nothing about this blu-ray release that I would complain about. Even if the film arrived at my door with no video at all the music was more than enough reason to purchase the release; but luckily Sony delivered with amazing image quality as well. No matter your age or gender if you’re a fan of musicals this is most certainly a must own!