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I’ve always been fascinated by burlesque. With beautiful bombshells like Dita Von Teese and the Pussycat Dolls making people curious about this form of theatrical entertainment (in my case, its rich history), I can’t help but want to watch this movie. Whether or not I like Christina Aguilera.

So of course, when I saw the trailer, what with all the singing and dancing, I became determined to see the darned thing. Plus, almighty Cher gets top spot. I was pleasantly surprised to find Stanley Tucci (Nigel of The Devil Wears Prada) among the actors as well.

Burlesque has enough funny dialogues, especially with Tucci and Cher in the cast. Not to mention, the colorful dance routines are really something to behold. (BFF Cris accuses me of just wanting to see dancing tushies, but secretly imitating the Pussycat Dolls with my gay friends is actually one of my guilty pleasures.) Still…

Hm. I was half expecting to regret seeing Burlesque on the big screen and I was actually correct. I felt like I had been tricked. The only fun burlesque routines appear during the FIRST few and the LAST few scenes. The rest are full of ho-hum drama, accompanied by boring Aguilera ballads, that drone on and on and on and on… Getting to the actual conflict takes ages.

If I must summarize Burlesque, I’d say that it’s a cross between Moulin Rouge and Coyote Ugly with the pacing of the first Twilight book. Burlesque certainly reminded me of the time I had to go through more than 400 pages of mush before I could actually read about a rather short-lived conflict. Gah!!

I think the soundtrack is worth buying, though, especially for stellar tracks like You Haven’t Seen the Last of Me (you are just awesome, Cher!!!) and Show Me How You Burlesque. I wish the soundtrack comes with a bonus DVD of just the theatrical routines. I mean, the movie is truly a visual (and aural) treat at the very least. I don’t care about the story. Haha!

(Good thing I have a Pussycat Dolls Live in London DVD. It filled the void left by Burlesque.)

Here’s the official trailer, by the way.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2r_8l1c2nQ]