Showgirls

Rating:
Summary: A classic howler
Review: It's worth watching if you're a grown-up with a perverse sense of humor. And have a fridge full of beer.

Where to start? This movie is an abortion all the way through. Elizabeth Berkeley pretty much ruined her career by starring in this junk. Even accomplished actors like Robert Davi and Kyle McLachlan are still living it down. The only person who seemed to be enjoying herself is Gina Gershon; one suspects that she realized how trashy this was, and decided to have fun and give a campy performance as a wink to the audience.

One problem some viewers might have is the script's rampant misogyny. Women are shown as either innocent victims or drug-addled, backstabbing, borderline homicidal whores. Supposedly Paul Verhoeven will have nothing to do with Joe Ester-whatever anymore because of this movie's misogyny.

Of course, when a movie is as badly written as this is, the misogyny is less offensive and more a sign of the limited psyche of those involved, and something to laugh at.

The rampant nudity becomes numbing after a while, and even though there's also a generous amount of male flesh on view, in typical Hollywood sexism, you never get full frontal male nudity in this. Boo.

I'd give this one star for being so bad, but at the same time it's so amusingly trashy and unintentionally campy that I find it fun for a few drunken laughs. I just saw it this past weekend, at a midnight show in a Washington, DC theater. They provided a keg of beer and we were encouraged to yell at the screen. It was a blast giving this movie the derision it deserves.

Rating:
Summary: Showgirls
Review: Showgirls is a pretty good movie. I enjoyed it because it gives you a much better idea of what life would be like as a showgirl. I first saw it on VH1 and it grew on me. A good movie overall. Could've been better, probably. But of course, it could've been worse.

The whole boss affair was a bit shocking and so was the part with James. And was I the only one that noticed that James's lead dancer in that private dance was one of the girls who worked at the Cheetah?

Rating:
Summary: MacLachlan Rules the Strippers
Review: I massively enjoyed watching Kyle MacLachlan as a sleazy "entertainment director" doing both Gina Gershon and Elizabeth Berkley in this flick. The dancing is mediocre but Vegas-flashy, the plot is seedy if predictable, but it sure isn't boring and there's lots of barely-clad dancing girls for the guys, and Kyle naked for the ladies. Bon apetit!!!

Rating:
Summary: Hmmmmm
Review: Basiclly, the movie is 100% garbage, it seems like the plot of some TV movie. A girl goes to Las Vegas to become a star, gets what she wants, but realizes it isn't all what its cracked up to be. But the thing is, is that as someone else said on here, even after going through all of these horrible experiences, she's still the EXACT SAME PERSON she was when she got there. Not any wiser from the experience, not any nicer, nada! And that is one of the MANY reasons this movie fails.

Along with the insipid storyline, it has a horrible script with horrible dialogue to boot(The whole Versace thing, can you get anymore dumb?), the characters are all stereotypes and are boring and unintreguing, the only decent character in the film gets messed up just as bad or worse then the rest of the idiot characters, the acting is so bad from everyone except maybe the over-the-top performance by Gena Gershin. She was the perfect stereotypical backstage b*****. The actors take this movie to seriously, it would have been a good spoof, but the film makers also take it seriously, so it seems serious. :(

The seriousness though, is what makes this movie so comical actually. Its just so horrible and trite, its unbelievable. I don't even know what I sat through the whole thing. It fried a few of my brain cells and morals. What did I get out of this movie? - Some people need a bash in the head instead being told a movie like this is worth making. :D

God Bless ~Amy

Rating:
Summary: Good DVD Movie But Should Have Been Both Formats
Review: This is one of those films that probably sold alot of dvd's because people did'nt want to see it in a theatre and one I think people like more than they are willing to admit. I love Showgirls...you have to admit the movie is at the very least visually stunning...and there is of course Elizabeth Berkeley, who is also visually stunning. My main gripe about this dvd is that it should have offered both widescreen and fullscreen versions (as most MGM discs do). While the widescreen version is very useful for many of the dance and stage scenes, it also leaves something out. I have the fullscreen vhs tape, and compared to this widescreen only dvd edition, the bottom 25% of the picture is cut out...I'm not talking about the black bars, but the actual picture...this is a bummer on some of the scenes (particularly for fans of Berkeley's bod)...for example when Elizabeth Berkely walks down the street on the "Ver-says" shopping spree, her legs are cut off... the widescreen shows almost no leg, whereas the full screen vhs goes to about the knee. There are lots of other instances where the full screen is preferable...there are also scenes where the extra wide/side view is better....which is why they should have put both formats on the dvd disc. Widescreen is not always better. If you happen to have the vhs, you'll see what I'm talking about...does'nt seem this fact has been noticed or mentioned. I did a little reading up on the widescreen format, and there are times when indeed the bottom part of picture is missing in the "theatrical" version relatve to "fullscreen" pictures...there are also director's who prefer the "fullscreen" aspect ratio of their movies. Showgirls is a movie which is destined to become, if it has'nt already, a "cult classic"...just wish there were both formats available on dvd.

Rating:
Summary: Okay, there are worse movies
Review: ...Not as unbelievable as "Pretty Woman", but certainly better acted than anything Juliet Roberts puts out. Seriously, even as camp, this one stinks

Rating:
Summary: Not the worst movie in the world
Review: After getting this movie more or less accidentally, I decided I mind as well watch it.. see what the hype (or lack thereof) is about.

Overall, this movie isn't that great. The acting is actually quite average.. nothing special, but certainly not horrible.. this was probably the thing that surprised me most... I was expecting acting on par with a (bad) porno.

Somehow, they managed to make the nudity (and there's a good bit of it in the movie) completely nonsexual .. even the scenes where there's actual sex going on. How they did this, I have no idea.

I could concievably imagine a story similar to this happening in the real world, which is the other thing about the movie that
surprised me. I expected it to have the believeability of a badly written 1950's science fiction movie. So, this was a nice surprise.

If they'd used decent actors, and even if everything else had stayed the same, they may've actually had a good movie to show for it.

Rating:
Summary: Trash
Review: Trashy flick about Las Vegas Showgirls (DUH!), but a great place to see Elizabeth Berkley and Gina Gershon in all their glory. Both ladies make a great effort to get something out of the script and characters (with Gerson winning hands down) but in the end the film is empty and void of any characters you would ever like in real life.

Rating:
Summary: Berkley Just Doesn't Cut It
Review: At the beginning of every film's life, the creators must decide what they want to do with the movie. Do they want to make people laugh, cry, think, etc.? "Showgirls" went drastically wrong when its creators decided to make people take it seriously. This is a movie that would have been much better as a spoof comedy.

"Showgirls" stars Elizabeth Berkley as Nomi Malone, a Las Vegas dancer who attempts to claw her way to the top of the heap. Unfortunately for her (and the audience), it's nothing but a garbage heap.

Along the way Nomi has to deal with lacivious customers, back-stabbing fellow dancers, and a total lack of ... appeal. That is probably the biggest drawback of the movie. We're supposed to buy Elizabeth Berkley as a ... temptress using her body to get to the top when she looks like she should be putting books back on the shelf at the local library.

This is where the choice to make this a serious film falls short. Had they decided to use Berkley's co-star Gina Gershon as the lead, then they might have been able to pull this film off. Instead, leaving Berkley as the lead doomed this film to purgatory.

Rating:
Summary: Great movie!!! So So extra features
Review: Showgirls is by far one of the best films of the 90's. Most people think it is a soft-core porn, and in some ways it is (there is one sex scene, which takes place in the pool), but there is so much more to the movie. It is really a kind of documentary. Showgirls takes a behind the scenes look at the glamour and corrupt/disturbing world of Las Vegas showgirls. Sabotage is frequent as is drug use and deceit. Elizabeth Berkley does a good job playing the part although the former Saved by the Bell-er can be somewhat melodramatic at times. Overall Showgirls is an incredible movie, a movie that everybody should see at least once. Now for the extra features--there is the standard theatrical trailer as well as a short documenraty, talking with the stars type thing. The documentary is very short and it is dissapointing that there are not more extra features for such a controversial movie. WARNING!!!As this movie is NC-17, it is not suitable for young children. There is of course nudity, bad language, quite a bit of drug use, adult situations and sex. There is also a very disturbing rape scene, which is the main reason for not allowing children under the age of 15 or 16 to view this movie.