Showgirls

Rating:
Summary: Good movie
Review: Showgirls is really good. Don't watch it thinking about what you have read about it, go into it with an open mind. The dvd includes the making of. Showgirls is not a comedy. If you buy this get the NC-17 version.I ordered the dvd, and am waiting for it to get here. I mailed the check yesterday. I have already seen the film, though.

Rating:
Summary: Yeeesh!
Review: I had the misfortune of stumbling across the last 45 mins. of this (bowdlerized) flick on TV a few nights ago. I had hoped to stumble upon a redeeming quality, but I never did. This movie can best be described as high-gloss, highly-produced, heavily-veiled porn that passes itself off as mainstream entertainment. It's a great movie if you're into exotic dancing and topless girls, but if not, you're better off moving onto something else.I cringed at each sight of Elizabeth Berkley's straggly, curly mop hair and too-big lips.

Rating:
Summary: A truly good film...
Review: Okay, first off let me say that i have read all the reviews on amazon. Some are good, and describe what this film really is, and some on the other hand are very bad. This is a very good film. A lot of reviewers have called it a "comedy", but it really isn't.(do you think rape is funny?) A few things in it are meant to be funny (like VER-SAYSE), but it is really dramatic. I think all the actors are great, the plot is great, the directing, producing, and everything else is all great. Really, you have to watch 'showgirls' to know if you like it or not. To do this you must have an open mind. Don't watch it and think about what all the reviews said. If you do ,I do not think you will like it.
There is a lot of nudity (and a lot of sex)in this film, so it isnt suited for all ages. This film is my all-time favorite movie. I recently ordered the DVD (actually, today, so it hasn't arrived yet), and can't wait for it to arrive. I've already seen this film twice, and really want to see it again. ALso, I do not think that strip-tease is anything like this film. I think Striptease is quite stupid.
Thank you for taking your time to read this, and enjoy this movie!

Rating:
Summary: Gives T&A a Bad Name
Review: Have you ever watched a movie and come out of thinking the producers really had something they wanted to say with the film, but you aren't really sure what? That, dear readers, is what Showgirls is all about. Not to say that I really think the producers were out to make more than a mindless, tawdry T&A film -- which is all they got -- but at times, it feels like they were trying to make more.

Okay, in reality, Elizabeth Berkley is the only one in this movie who seems to be trying to make more of this movie than a tawdry T&A flick. Her performance is so schizophrenic throughout the entire movie that it comes off as if she signed on before reading the script, then being an "artist" (in her own mind), fought to play the part differently then it was written. So we get a character that spends a good portion of the time [...] around with a pack of different men trying to sleep her way to the top of the Vegas show circuit, only to head for the moral high ground when she realizes that those men aren't sleeping with just her. Or she gets offended after sleeping around enough to get to the good show in Vegas, when she finds out that the good show means she's just expected to sleep with better clients. I guess the message is that being a [...] is ok as long as she's the one deciding who she gets to be a [...] with and when, when it's only her benefiting by being on her back. At least I think it might be the message. I'm not really sure.

And we don't have to worry about Elizabeth Berkley performing Shakespeare anytime soon, unless Juliet's balcony scene is changed so she's naked and suspended from a brass pole. She's not that good of an actress -- there's a reason why "Saved By The Bell" was never included at the Emmys, it was a bad show with bad actors, most of which have gone on to perform badly in other things. Including Elizabeth Berkley in Showgirls.

Granted, Elizabeth Berkley does have a fantastic body, and if seeing a hot woman -- in fact, several hot women -- dancing nude or having sex is all that's necessary for you to feel a film is worth the price of admission, then imagine I gave this five stars and buy this DVD. Elizabeth Berkley is hot, and she is naked through a good portion of this movie. And so are several other very hot women. I know, I sound like a male chauvenist pig for saying that, but it's true -- the nudity is the ONLY thing this movie has going for it.

In the end, this movie has the not-so-surprising ending of the disillusioned dancer leaving Las Vegas, looking for greener pastures elsewhere. Except that it's clear she's still the same woman she was when she got to Vegas, she's learned absolutely nothing from her experiences (except maybe that she's a player who has been played by the best, so she'd be better off playing elsewhere). Vegas isn't any different for having experienced Elizabeth Berkley. And the audience isn't any better either, for having seen the movie.

Other than we got to see Elizabeth Berkley naked. A lot. And to some people, that is a lot.

Rating:
Summary: Sexy
Review: I think this is a very sexy movie and that it is all it really wants to be, so for its kind it definetly deserves a good rating.

Rating:
Summary: The funniest movie EVER!!!
Review: This is hands down the funniest movie I have ever seen in my entire life!! I own it on DVD and VHS. This may well be one of my favorite movies of all time. I'm not sure why, but I never get sick of it. I'm sure everyone knows by now that it's not supposed to be funny; it just is! The elaborate vegas dance numbers play out like a "Saturday Night Live" skit. The nudity and profanity in the movie are absurd and hysterical. Everything about this movie is so bad it's good. They could not have made it funnier if they had actually tried!! I LOVE it!

Rating:
Summary: about this movie......
Review: The story of the movie is not bad saying that two women are some how fighting for 'fame' in the show. One of the woman is having sex in the personal swimming pool with the guy that is what is in the script for I think is the purpose of fame. The movie makes a good laugh out of it in terms of sex being protrayed in these movies as it tells people that sex is good for adventure, very good and encourages people to try. It makes a good day.

Rating:
Summary: Wow. Just...wow.
Review: I'm still in shock; my mind is still reeling from the experience that is SHOWGIRLS. You'd think that a film that features such unrestrained female sexuality and so much female nudity so prominently would at least be interesting or provocative for the taboos it's supposedly shattering. Not SHOWGIRLS. This is the only film I've ever seen that makes the joy and the wonder and the delight that is the female form LESS attractive with greater exposure.

You know the old saying, "So bad, it's good"? Forget it; it doesn't apply here. You know how some films are sooo bad they go all the way around the curve and arrive at good again? Not SHOWGIRLS. It's sooo bad, it completely redefines the paradigm for bad films.

Was no one in charge? Was no one watching the dailies? Was there no subtlety or restraint to be found anywhere during this production? Everyone involved in the production is so over-the-top, every line is delivered with such breathless intensity -- and unintentional hilarity -- there's no way to describe the experience properly. SHOWGIRLS is sooo far beyond camp...

Forget it. All the hyperbole in the known universe is wholly inadequate to describe the galactic train wreck that is SHOWGIRLS.

Except...

I think I'm hopelessly, helplessly in love with Elizabeth Berkeley. I believe I've found my muse...

Rating:
Summary: If that's all there is my friends, then let's keep dancing..
Review: It is rather amazing to consider how many other films resonate in "Showgirls," the NC-17 film where the film was never equal to the hype. You have the chorus girl wanting to be a star plot line that goes back to "Morning Glory" and beyond, the back stage back biting of "All About Eve," the stylized sexy dancing of "Flashdance," the dancing auditions of "All That Jazz" and "A Chorus Line," the sleazy showbiz world of "Valley of the Dolls," the Las Vegas Glitz of "Oceans 11," the falling down the stairs from "Kiss of Death," the woman taking vengeance on her own angle of "I Spit on Your Grave," and the naked dancing women of "The First Nudie Musical." This list is enougth to convince me that what ever else it might be, "Showgirls" is not a "message" film.

I know the film is now considered a camp classic rather than a mega-bomb, but neither description rings true for me. Nor would I consider the movie to be erotic, although I have no doubt that every lap dancer in the United States would resent the performance Nomi Malone (Elizabeth Berkley) puts on for Zack Carey (Kyle MacLachlan) while Cristal Connors (Gina Gershon) watches and wishes for her own turn in the chair. The scene in the pool is not bad, but it sure seems like all the brief scenes between Nomi and another woman have more heat than any of extended scenes with her and a man. Go figure. Besides, the idea of a putting out a big buck soft porn film is rather oxymoronic because those who find "Showgirls" to be a sexy film were never going to want to go to the local Cinemaplex to watch it; they were going to want to watch it in the privacy and comfort of their own home (it is not like those people were going to ever be able to get a date to go out and see this film).

In the featurette on this DVD Joe Eszterhas takes time out from laughing all the way to the bank and back to tell us that "Showgirls" is really nothing more than a rock and roll musical, which makes sense except for the fact that the music is not exactly rock and roll and everybody is dancing rather than singing, which would make it some sort of ballet. But the idea that the film is a musical is worth considering because it is a simple way of explaining why Paul Verhoeven was the wrong director for this film. Verhoeven's approach is more than voyeur than the auteur and for the most part he does little more with the camera besides point it at the actors while they dance/writhe around (i.e., exactly what he did when Sharon Stone and Leilani Sarelle were on the dance floor together in "Basic Instinct"). I have to think that any director of a second level MTV music video could have shot and cut this film to much better effect. Then again, what better way of defining what is sexy in movies than to say that there is nothing in "Showgirls," with its totally naked star, to rival Sharon Stone totally dressed (almost) in "Basic Instinct."

I do want to add that I do not think "Showgirls" is going to destroy Elizabeth Berkley's Hollywood career. All you need to do is to remember that Jessica Lange did a lot more than merely survive making "King Kong" and you have to think the actress will survive having bared everything (repeatedly) in this film. Berkley certainly turns in an earnest performance, and when she talks in the featurette about working hard so that the stripping was more like dancing than stripping per se, you have to agree that is an accurate description of what we see on screen. Ultimately, it is that the story is emotionally hollow. Nomi keeps insisting she is a dancer and not a whore, but it takes the entire film for her to learn these two things are not mutually exclusive.

Besides the fact that we are supposed to root for the nobody to become somebody in stories like this, there is no reason to even feel sorry that Nomi does not understand this obvious point. Our sympathies are more with her friend Molly (Gina Ravera), the costume designer, and James Smith (Glenn Plummer), the down on his luck dancer-choreographer, who cross Nomi's path. The film ends in a series of melodramatic showdowns at odds with the rest of the film and the final scene provokes the sudden suspicion that "Showgirls" was all one big joke. But maybe the fact that most likeable character in the film was stripper comedian Henrietta Bazoon (Lin Tucci) was a big clue. Then again, maybe there is not more here than meets the eye; maybe there is less.

Rating:
Summary: Silly but Fun
Review: Hokey story of bimbo with a past who blows into Las Vegas and finds herself the highlight of show. Some interesting moments, though acting is mediocre. For some reason, though, it holds your interest throughout and I've acquired it as part of my DVD library. Don't take it too seriously and you'll enjoy it.