Rating: 
Summary: I can't make up my mind. . .
Review: I love campy movies, and this borders on camp. But the good thing about real trash classics is that they are basically likeable. There's nothing likeable about this! This movie reveals a lot of female flesh. After, oh, about ten minutes of nonstop bare body parts, that gets pretty dull. Then you start to notice the people and the words attached to the nudes. . .and, oh my God. . .your breath is sucked away by the stupidity of the dialogue and, OK, I'll say it! The hideousness of the faces! As Gene Siskel said about this movie, "Elizabeth Berkley doesn't look good. I'm talking about her face." That's for sure. When she's not batting her mascara-encrusted eyelashes, she's pouting and snarling. Then, when she opens her mouth, she whines or yells. Boy, I sure would like to know her better! And Kyle McLachlan. Whatever happened to him? After this disaster, he couldn't even get a part on a soap opera. He looks puffy and gross. I don't know if he was made up to look like a jaded Vegas sleazeball, but I tend to think not. He probably did some major drinking to work up the nerve to do his role. Then, last but not least (Berkley is the least), there's Gina Gershon, who, I admit, I will never forgive for doing the travesty 'This World, Then The Fireworks'. What an actress. Do you know what this movie makes me think of? Rodents. Elizabeth Berkley, in a hilariously un-sexy love scene, slaps her back on the surface of a pool like a beaver tail warning away viewers. And Gina Gershon looks like Bugs Bunny. Who would buy her as Vegas' top showgirl? Boy, this review has been disjointed and illiterate, but I found that my IQ slipped about 30 points after watching this movie, and it'll take some reading Mark Twain or viewing 'The Virgin Spring' to raise it again.
Rating: 
Summary: Unique & Different - A Campy Cult Classic
Review: This is a differen't movie, from any other movie that I've ever seen. You could definately tell that Paul Verhoeven had more creative freedom, because of the big-budget, and the NC-17 rating which allows you to do basically anything you want.I LOVED the dance sequences. All of the bright, big, and fancy dances and the over-the-top props and desings. Verhoeven did a good & effective job with the dance sequences. Elizabeth Berkley can't act, but she can dance. The dance at the Cheetah Club, where she dances to a Prince song, is pretty good. Kyle MacLachlan was worse than Elizabeth Berkley; Kyle just can't act anymore, although he was very good in "Blue Velvet". Gina Gershon pulled off "Cristal" very well. She was mean and sneaky. Elizabeth Berkley looks beautiful though. She has a very exotic face, and the differen't color eyes, makes her more mysterious. As a person who likes "Valley of the Dolls", I enjoyed the campy acting, and dialogue. So few movies are afraid to go down that road, that it's refreshing to see something differen't once in a while. Three of my favorite scenes, are when Nomi does the gospel-singing disco dance sequence, and when she finally gets to rise out of that volcano, and the announcer says "Ladies and gentlemen, the stardust proudly presents Miss Nomi Malone!". And my third favorite scene is when Nomi and Jeff drive past the billboard with her face on it, and they drive off to L.A. with the Siouxsie and the Banshees music playing. This movie isn't BAD, it is just too raunchy. The nude scenes and the dialogue from Henrietta Bazoom, are real raunchy. There is only 1 sex scene. I can definately see where people would be offended by Showgirls, but being offended doesn't make a movie bad. NC-17, means that only MATURE people should watch Showgirls because they can handle it, and that means that people who can't handle nudity shouldn't watch it. I was shocked to see Jessie from "Saved by the Bell" doing lap-dancing, and pole-dancing.
Rating:
Summary: Did someone say party????
Review: If ever you find that the most well intentioned party you've given is quickly taking a nose dive into yawnsville, slap this baby on and let the good times role. I love campy films and this whopper is among my favorites, right after Mommie Dearest, Faster Pussycat...Kill, Kill and Pink Flamingos. Elizabeth Berkley should be used as a textbook example and how to overact while simultaneously not communicating a single emotion. The dialogue you ask? So howling bad and unintentionally funny that it borders on the surreal. From what I understand, Joe Eszterhas' brain was on sabbatical during the writing process. Gina Gershon is the saving grace here, folks, even though she is saddle with some of the worst dialogue in the film (if you can imagine) and made to utter "Darlin'" every ten seconds or so; however, there is no sexier woman in front of the camera and her sex appeal alone carries most of the dead weight and I do mean dead. Some reviews suggest that this film is an exercise in misogyny. Really? I am shocked! A film about a back-stabbing, ambitious Vegas showgirl I thought would read out on the screen like a feminist treaty. I am just as shocked as anyone that it comes across as a female-bashing piece of celluloid trash. Let's be honest people, this film is nothing more than "All About Eve" with g-strings, glitter and glossy production values to cover the glaring absence of any redeeming artistic quality. If you are cinephile and can't stand the idea that you've wasted x number of minutes from precious life that you will never get back, stay away, big time. However, if you, like me, enjoy, quoting John Waters on "The Simpsons" the "ludicrously tragic" and just a plain old cheese fest, you will find much to enjoy. Bad script, worse acting, illogical and improbable scenarios, trite sub-plots, one-dimensional characters, etc. Just plain bad, bad, bad...thank goodness!
Rating:
Summary: For the money; a nicely priced skin flick
Review: Well, to be quite honest, this is the greatest NC-17 rated movie I have ever seen. For the $$$, buy it, it is worth owning.
Rating:
Summary: why i love this movie!
Review: Showgirls is one of my favorite movies, but many people just don't get the point of it. Escapism and entertainment at the movies I guess have become out of style. Hello, the whole point of going to the movies is to have fun and Showgirls delivers the goods! This movie is schlocky, ok I admit it, but it sure is entertaining. It's kind of a cult classic now and for good reason. Elizabeth Berkley, from Saved by the Bell tv fame, is Nomi, a wannabe dancer who claws her way to the top of a Vegas hotel show, encountering colorful characters and seedy situations along the way. She's ruthless but vulnerable, and you want her to succeed,to be the best, but you don't like her methods of getting there. But then you can't help but applaud her for knowing at the end that all of the fame and money in the world isn't worth losing your self-respect. I loved Gina Gershon as Crystal, Vegas show Goddess reigning queen. Gina is one of the best actresses out there...see Bound and you'll know what I mean. She has great onscreen chemistry with Ms Berkley and their frail strained relationship finally culminates into a deep understanding between them about what you have to give up to have it all. They're like sisters in their relentless ambitions. Sure the dialogue is laughably bad, but the atmosphere of Vegas is dead-on. Paul Verhoeven did a fantastic job of capturing all the sleaze behind the new Disneyland and the music, sets and dancing are fabulous. The show Goddess itself is way over the top, and I do mean way over the top, but so mesmerizing that you'll feel like a voyeur watching from just meters away. But what a show! See this movie and judge for yourself.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent guilty pleasure
Review: Overacting aside, this was everything it should be. A guilty pleasure.
Rating: 
Summary: Bad, bad, bad
Review: Even Elizabeth Berkley's nudity couldn't save this movie.
It was tasteless and just bad. Period!
Rating:
Summary: amazing
Review: some people just don't understand the art of the "bad movie". it blows me away that people would even take this movie seriously. this is one of the best worst movies of all time. nonstop funny. all kinds of boobies. the only other movie as good as this is "Hard Ticket to Hawaii"...be sure to look that one up as well....incredible
Rating: 
Summary: Um...
Review: Hey, "viewer from USA", if you burned your DVD after the first 30 minutes, then how exactly did you know about the "demented/crazy rape scene" at the END of the movie? That's weird...
Rating:
Summary: painfully bad, even if it's supposedly intentional...
Review: ...aware of the overwhelming critical howls this movie garnered, I decided to rent it of curiousity only after reading a recent review on Salon.com praising this film for becoming a "camp classic" and veiled social commentary. Well, if you say so. Elizabeth Berkley is the single most god-awful actress I've ever laid eyes upon, a study in constant overacting and limited facial expressions (she has about 3 of them)...she makes Madonna seem like Meryl Streep! Equally appalling is that for someone who's supposed to be playing a stripper/dancer, Berkeley's wide, flopping and prematurely cellulite-ridden backside is almost as ludicrous as her acting ability---almost all of the supporting actresses and random extras are better built...and probably better actresses too. Hell, Flipper the Whale could probably outact Berkley; she's so awful that I could barely restrain myself from throwing things at the TV screen. Just about every character, every line of dialogue, and every scene in this movie is a cliche that we've seen a million times before in a million different TV movies, soap operas, especially lousy B-movies, and cheesy Hollywood blockbusters. Maybe Verhoeven/Ezterhas, who brought us the far better "Basic Instinct," really did intend this film to be one big campy joke...regardless of whether one buys into that revisionist viewpoint, this film requires either a strong stomach or copious amounts of alcohol/marijuana/hallucinogenics to get through! Bleh.
|
