Entertaining Performances, Flabby Story

Rating: 7/10 (4 May 2020)

What sticks with you from this movie is what a good singer Christina Aguilera really is. She polishes off "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" in better voice than Marilyn Monroe. The plot of the film is cliché-ridden, and no one who really performed in burlesque would recognize any of this as burlesque. But that is not the point. The reason to see this is to get a glimpse at what makes Aguilera so popular and to see how Cher's latest plastic surgery is holding up. As a story, it is predictable, but it takes some effort to produce so old-fashioned a musical in the 21st century, and Cher fans (of which I am one) will adore her singing "You Haven't Seen the Last of Me." ---from Musicals on the Silver Screen, American Library Association, 2013