Rating: Summary: A Highly Underrated Film Review: Sure the dialogue was bad, but the terrific cast, entertaining plot, and pretty good acting(yes, I said GOOD, well, with the exception of Kyle MacLachlan), is enough to make this stripper turned starlet story a winner. Elizabeth Berkley gives an underrated performance while Gina Gershon camps it up all too wonderfully. It also includes a terrific supporting cast and great effects.
Rating: Summary: So bad its good Review: I remember hearing all the schlock about this film when it first came out. As a bad movie fan I couldn't wait for it to come out on video to see for myself. Well, being female and all, I was a bit offended by the way women are portrayed in this movie. Almost every woman is a lesbian or bisexual, oversexed and kinky, drugged out and boozy slut with the exception of the main characters best friend who is an angel and of course ends the victim of a brutal attack. I caught the movie again on cable and then found myself enjoying the sheer badness of the whole thing. The fact that this film cost about $40 million dollars to make and was written by the one and only Joe Esterhaz added to fun. The main character, Nomi, insists through the whole 2 hour and 15 minute running time that she is not a whore even though she looks like one, talks like one and acts like one. Then there is scene where Nomi and her rival Crystal bond by talking about how much they once liked to eat "Doggy Chow". Then there is God-awful tacky Vegas act called "Goddess" featuring the leather S&M lesbian show. Trust me, you have to see it to believe it.
Rating: Summary: Showgirls--the best in Guilty Pleasures Review: This film, like many that come from the Verhoeven/Esterhas camp, teems with gratuitous sex, contrived dialogue, abominable direction and substandard acting. The sad part about all this is that I really like this film. Why? Not since "Faster Pussycat, Kill, Kill" has such a female-driven tour de force in camp cinema emerged. Elizabeth Berkley gives her forerunner Tura Satana extreme competition at all levels. She overacts; she dresses like a tramp. Most importantly, however, she uses sex and sexuality to get what she seeks. Furthermore, the supporting cast in "Showgirls," led by the wonderful Gina Gershon (who really IS a respectable actor), adds even more corn to the "camp" fire. Set against the glitz of Las Vegas, "Showgirls" is excess and decadence perfected. Sure, it is technically a horrible movie, and we will not benefit from it culturally. Nevertheless, in this day and age of stress and anxiety I believe that we all need some senseless brain fodder, so chow down on "Showgirls." END
Rating: Summary: Seriously Review: I get a huge kick out of people who bash movies like "Showgirls" and "Poison Ivy" for being "inappropriate" or for in any way taking these movies at all seriously. People that do are hypocrites. They want to be cultured snobs but are too lazy to read books so they demand and expect movies and television shows to provide that intellectual stimulation, and are aghast when it doesn't work out that way. Get over yourselves. Movies are made for entertainment, "escapism" if you will, not to be some big life-changing thing. Just enjoy this movie for its campiness and delightful ridiculousness, and for the fact that Gina Gershon and Elizabeth Berkley are perpetually naked, and therefore, burning hot.
Rating: Summary: Hea, we all know why we love this film Review: Let's all be honest with ourselves. This film is about Elizabeth Berkley and how gorgeous she was in the nude.
Rating: Summary: Brilliantly Bad, Terrifically Terrible Review: As an avid fan of the wonderfully worthless "Valley of the Dolls", I thought I had seen the ultimate in the "so bad it's great" filmmaking genre. Then along came "Showgirls", which showed me just how wrong I was. Glory hallelujah, I have seen the light! Yes, friends, this is the most delightfully deplorable motion picture of all time.As if Joe Eszterhas and Paul Verhoven (who apperantly have some SERIOUS issues with women) hadn't squeezed enough gratuitous nudity and sex in their thoroughly unenjoyable "Basic Instinct", they have topped themselves in one of only two movies ever to get an NC-17 rating ("Crash" is the other one, and it's actually pretty good). This perfectly pathetic film follows the adventures of Nomi Malone, a hot-headed drifter who hitches a ride to Vegas and becomes the biggest thing to hit the sex industry since former president Bill Clinton. Along the way, she'll throw many a hissy fit, befriend an angelic stripper, lock horns with a self-absorbed rival, avenge a brutal rape, and utter some of the worst lines of dialogue ever written for the silver screen. Former "Saved by the Bell" star Elizabeth Berkely plays Nomi like John Travolta played Terl; she overacts to the brink of Spontaneous Human Combustion, shouting the horrid dialogue at the top of her lungs, which surprizes me because they are buried under twin Everests of silicone. The other actors don't fare much better, partially because they are acting to the worst script ever, worse even than the plotline to the Carrot Top movie. So why five stars? Because you'll love every minute of it. The film is howlingly hilarious, from the actors to the script to the dialogue. You'll be awestruck by the film's monumental depravity from beginning to end, and because the movie is 131 minutes long, you'll have plenty to savor. So put the popcorn on the stove, invite your closest friends, and enjoy the most deliciously detestable movie ever made. It's a guarenteed good time, and remember, this flick cost United Artists 40 million bucks. Oy!
Rating: Summary: Better than porn Review: Despite the fact that this movie is terrible, It's probably one of the sexiest movies I have ever seen and the fact that Elizabeth Berkeley was in Saved by the Bell makes it even sexier.Well worth buying if your into porn or campy films.
Rating: Summary: Gnome-y Malone Will Live Forever Review: Among the newest entries into the Bad Movie Hall of Fame, *Showgirls* is an instant classic -it wants to be *All About Eve*, but stops short of *Valley of the Dolls*. Trying desperately to be a morality tale with a twist, it fails so completely, that the viewer, short of leaving the theatre, is held prisoner to its lurid charm. With the minimally talented Elizabeth Berkley playing the skanky Nomi Malone (she might be alternately known as "Gnome-y" Malone, or "Know Me" Malone), a former juvenile delinquent who has just graduated from jail-bait status and hitchhikes to Las Vegas to be a lapdancer. I mean, showgirl. Things start off badly for her, and it becomes evident immediately that she would benefit from anger-management classes. After losing her luggage and money, she is mysteriously befriended by a young woman - mysterious, because it is unimaginable that a stranger would offer assistance to someone so unstable, unpleasant and so trashy-looking. But we *are * talking about Las Vegas here. Gnomey's new friend is a wardrobe mistress at the casino for the show *Goddess* is playing, and sneaks Gnomey in to watch behind the scenes. It is here that Gnomey meets Cristal Connors, played with dazzling authenticity by Gina Gershon, a senior showgirl who calls everyone "Darlin'," and does a lot of cocaine. Originally envisioning Madonna as Cristal and Drew Barrymore as Gnomey, the scriptwriting is cruder than it needs to be, but that is part of its charm. Supporting characters further underscore the bottom-of-the-barrel approach to storytelling - from the owner of the strip club where Gnomey works, to the sleazy "choreographer" who pursues her, to her fellow "dancers," we are treated to a cattle call of unpleasant stereotypes. The scenes are awash in tawdriness that is supposed to represent the underbelly of American life, where everyone's a whore. A dire pronouncement, to be sure, but far more indicative of Verhoeven's state, than America's. As far as being the brilliant satire it was purported to be, that sounds like someone trying to put a good spin on an awful movie. Truly awful. Like a car wreck you can't take your eyes off of.
Rating: Summary: LOVE THIS BOX SET!!!!! Review: This VIP edition is fantastic. The film has a hilarious commentary that makes the whole thing work. SHOWGIRLS is the new BEYOND THE VALLEY OF HE DOLLS.
Rating: Summary: Hot, steamy, sexy with great choreography Review: The choreography and dance sequences in this movie are awesome!!
And I love watching gorgeous nude and semi-nude human bodies in motion. And there are some great provocative scenes in this movie.
The story is a little corny and unbelievable. For example there is this scene in the very beginning of the movie where this big brute of a guy gets a little fresh with the heroine of this story, Naomi and she scares him off with a switchblade. In real life, that big burly guy would have made her eat that switchblade! She should have been packing a .45 Smith and Wesson. There are some other unlikely events in the story, too.
She is supposed to have been running the streets and hitchhiking. But she is too beautiful to have been living that kind of life! Real women that have been living a hard life like Naomi is supposed to have look like they have been living a hard life -- they resemble Charlize Theron in the movie "Monster".
Ah! But this is Hollywood! (or rather, Las Vegas)
Oh well, despite its faults, the movie shines in its dance choreography and eroticism.
At the end, Verhoeven gets up on his soap box and asks the question, "What would you do for fame?" "Would you do anything to get to the top?" I guess with all the sensuality and striptease, he has to throw in a little moral to the story.
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