texxas-1 I managed to see it through to the end but I couldn't watch this again. There's no real plot, no twists or turns, no excitement. It's basically small town waitress goes to LA and begs for a job as a stripper *cough* a burlesque dancer, because it's "her biggest dream" *rolls eyes*. I find these quite degrading. This actually felt like showgirls but without the action. Although showgirls is trashy and unrealistic, it's still very entertaining. I guess Burlesque was just a platform for Christina Aguilera to make a transition into movies (which rarely works out for popstars). Cher comes off as unlikeable and annoying. I think the point of the film was to watch Cher and Christina perform a song and dance routine...badly.

dinalt10 Have to start by saying the film has little to do with Burlesque, other than some skimpy outfits.But that's fine - it more than makes up for that with the excellent soundtrack.The storyline is far from original, small town girl makes it big. But it's a feel good storyline nonetheless.Acting is good throughout, but secondary to Christinas phenomenal voice. If I'm honest, I was never a fan of the pop music she's sung, but this film clearly shows she really is a talented artist.So faults aside, why give it an 8 ? Because if you enjoyed the film and the songs, you'll doubtless watch it a few times - and I'll give it an 8 for that reason alone.So few films have a rewatch value these days, but this is definitely one to savour - just make sure you listen on a good sound system.

stephen7272 Several attempts have been made to re-create stories based upon The Star Is Born. A few of those have been based upon Burlesque theatrical dance. This movie is one of them. The burlesque style is essentially women dressed as prostitutes dancing provocatively on stage without exposing their bits.As a movie showcase for Christina Aguilera songs it succeeds. Christina is sweet then raunchy and performs her routines with the high quality visual sexiness we have come to expect from her music videos. This movie came after her Back To Basics album which explored a variety of 20th century dance and singing themes. In the movie she is joined by Cher as the club owner, who in my opinion, has the best ballad in the movie.In spite of the raunchiness, this is a movie directed at the female audience rather than at the boys. It is about woman having fun dressing up, applying their make-up and enticing men around their little fingers. There are no doormen throwing out troublemakers from the club and no fist fights let alone a gun. This is the opposite of say Roadhouse. Humour is provided superbly by Stanley Tucci.The song and dance acts are stylish, however the plot of the story is tediously predictable. You won't find a single surprise in this movie.Burlesque scores highly for it's imagery but it falls far short of the movie Cabaret as a story. Burlesque plays safe whilst Cabaret was a lot more edgy.

ashild-blovvig This is a chick flick to the bone. Now I'm not usually a fan of chick flicks, so obviously I don't like this movie.The script is a huge cliché and it has all been done before, and you're gonna guess what happens very quickly. Small-town-girl with big dreams, goes to the city, doesn't have to fight long to get that star role she wants, has a jealous female enemy, love triangle, gets the hot guy, relationship problems follow very shortly, girl solves problems, forgives the guy and everything is fine again. The end.The only strong parts about this movie is it's musical numbers, obviously, since that is Christina Aguilera's strong side. Since she's a pop star already, she's obligated to be a character that sings in her first (and hopefully last) movie. I'm not against singers in movies, and Aguilera is definitely not the worst I've seen, but her character is so thin and without depth that it goes bad anyway.The songs are good (except the ones they obviously put in to have Cher and Christina sing about their current state of mind), the dancing is very nice and the costumes dashing. I only wish I had seen more of Alan Cumming. His number with the two girls were very similar to the "Two Ladies" number Cabaret. Also, the first scene in the Burlesque club is also a huge reference/rip off to Cabaret's first musical number, which sort of made me a little excited. The biggest problem I have with this movie is that the whole Burlesque club is filled with glitter and expensive costumes and enormous props, and let's face it, Tess's financial problems could've been solved right away if she got rid of even half of those stuff and just toned down the club a bit. It would still be good, the dancer's wouldn't be any worse and it's still easy to make it look good. You don't have to make a Broadway musical to make a show good.I love the art of burlesque (both the old kind and the new kind), and this is NOT burlesque. It is a cabaret, with a little burlesque dancing. But they had to make this movie available to all the teen girls who love Aguilera out there, so actual burlesque was probably out of the question.This movie isn't horrible, but it can't be watched with a serious eye. The poor plot and the thin script is laughable and even with great music numbers, the incredible cheesiness of it all makes me not want to see this movie again.