Burlesque So Terrible It's Funny

Cher is back, starring in her first film in seven years, but critics aren't too wowed by the campy Burlesque, which also feature Christina Aguilera:

• "The choicest dialogue in Burlesque provokes the sort of laughter that other, intentionally funny films only dream of generating," writes Michael Phillips in the Chicago Tribune. "Most backstage musicals are ridiculous, but this is ridiculous."

• Cher's howlingly-bad lines are made even worse by the fact that her "face is now permanently immobile, frozen in a rictus pose that’s long past second thoughts about cosmetic surgery," writes Peter Howell in the Toronto Star, but he does give semi-sarcastic props to Aguilera: "No one could say that Aguilera doesn’t give it her all, though. This is her first real acting assignment, and by God, she’s going to act."
• Even Nathan Rabin, who gives the film a rare positive review on the Onion's AV Club, praises it mostly for being "a terrible film that will delight nearly everyone who sees it, whether they’re 12-year-old Christina Aguilera fans or bad-movie buffs angling for a guilty pleasure."
• "The movie is frivolous fun, but not, as I had sort of hoped, as sinfully awful as Showgirls, Mariah Carey's Glitter, or Britney Spears' Crossroads," writes Mary Pols in Time. "Lacking the snap of Chicago or the insane creativity of Moulin Rouge, it's a middle-of-the-road musical."

(More burlesque stories.)