A sparkly, glossy guilty pleasure that demands a pre-viewing cocktail and a healthy pinch of salt.
Intentionally or not, it might be the comedy of the year. The music and dance are thrilling and the costumes saucy enough to satisfy, but the whole is so camp and clichéd that it must be deliberate. Right?
So everything works out very well--except for the audience, which is lumbered with all the embarrassment the film refuses to feel.
Grotesque.
If you can ignore the dreadful plot, you’ll enjoy the music.
The only relevant choreography would have shown Bob Fosse spinning out of his grave.
Of the lot of them, Cumming is by far the sexiest beast. To everyone else involved: put some clothes on, please?
Instead of the camp buffoonery of Showgirls we get Aguilera storming to stardom on her big show-off vocals and Cher belting out a power ballad that makes Bette Midler's "Wind Beneath My Wings" look modest. Awful.
Bulresque may star Cher and Christine Aguilera, but there's too much glitter.
Burlesque is too hilarious, too often, to be anything other than a pleasure.
There are far worthier, more intelligent movies showing at your local cinema now. But - and I hate to say it - few of them are quite this enjoyable.
The film collapses under a heap of boring love triangles, tame backstage rivalries, ear-splitting musical numbers and hyperactively edited routines.
It doesn't just embrace genre conventions, it gives them a great big sloppy kiss.
Burlesque is the type of film that made musicals go out of fashion. It plays up the kitsch in order to cover its many deficiencies.
Burlesque--Another go at the no-clothes show
Cher could teach Christina Aguilera a thing or two in Burlesque
Christina Aguilera on her divorce heartache
General release. Check local listings for show times.
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