:
Elizabeth Berkley,
Elizabeth Berkley,
Gina Gershon,
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:
Paul Verhoeven,
Paul Verhoeven
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: 
: MGM
: 131 min.
: English, Spanish, French
: English, Spanish, French
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"I'm gonna dance," Nomi Malone (Elizabeth Berkley) insists in the opening scene of Showgirls, and dance she does. In this quasi-update of All About Eve, Nomi is a drifter whose sole ambition is to headline the "Goddess" topless dance show at the Stardust in Las Vegas. Of course, even Nomi must pay her dues, and she does so at the Cheetah, grinding poles and lap dancing her way to a future. Fortunately, her roommate, Molly, works at the Stardust and invites Nomi to see the show, where she meets Crystal Conners (Gina Gershon, in the Bette Davis role), with whom she immediately forms a love/hate relationship. Nomi soon learns what she must do to get ahead, and the rest of the film documents her cat-like crawl up the showgirl ladder of success. Directed by Paul Verhoeven, (Robocop, Basic Instinct, The Fourth Man), Showgirls was conceived as the first big-budget "adult" film since 1977's Caligula, and the first such production to wear the NC-17 rating; its failure at the box-office discouraged further attempts at large-scale adult productions. ~ Dylan Wilcox, All Movie Guide
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| The Showgirls Drinking Game
by randomcha
June 21, 2005 - 10:22 AM PDT
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2 out of 4 members found this review helpful
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The only way to appreciate this film is to play the Showgirls Drinking Game:
If someone says "dancin'," take a drink.
If somone says "darlin'," take a drink.
If someone makes jazz hands, take a drink.
Whenever Elizabeth Berkley smacks something (whether person or inanimate object), take a drink.
Whenever someone falls down, everyone must do a shot.
It's a film which is indenfensable on every level, except as trash. |
| How to watch Showgirls (and not hate yourself in the morning)
by redquirk
March 21, 2005 - 4:23 PM PST
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4 out of 7 members found this review helpful
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If you take Showgirls at face value you'll squirm in endless frustration as Nomi pisses off one person after another. It's human nature to try to kindle empathy for a lead character (the old 'benefit of the doubt'), but she operates on a level all her own, consistently snubbing and insulting those who are best suited to help her out. The first fifteen minutes alone are difficult to endure if you have any hopes of seeing Nomi rise above her self-inflicted failures. And the rest of the cast turn out to be equally loathsome, adding to the overall dysphoria.
About a half hour in I figured out the trick to making this otherwise pointless film enjoyable. I remembered reading a review of a book (but haven't found the book itself, unfortunately) that completely subverts the right/wrong message that we all learn as kids. In fact, it's a children's book called 'Rotten Island', with the following description from Ivan Stang's 'High Weirdness By Mail':
** [Rotten Island] is about a land where everything is as bad as it could possibly be. Mind-bending ugliness for tots. "It had acres of sharp gravel, and volcanoes that spat poison arrows and double-headed toads... There was an earthquake an hour, and no shortage of anything ugly. All these horrid creatures dined on one another... They lay in hot embers dreaming up new ways to hurt, or planning how to get even for something that never happened." **
So now watch Showgirls through this cracked prism. At the beginning of each scene try to second-guess Joe Eszterhas by predicting who Nomi will piss off and how she will do it. When Al Torres (the sleazy strip club owner) comes on camera, count how long before he says something that makes you want to punch him. Look forward to each new opportunity for a fight or a screaming match and now Showgirls starts to deliver the goods, scene after odious scene.
No, none of this will redeem the film or its intent, but once you realize that everything about it is doomed from the start then you can relax and enjoy the never-ending train wrecks as they unfold onscreen. And in a strange, nihilistic way, it suddenly all makes sense. |
| What is an MBA?
by WZoller
June 21, 2004 - 2:16 PM PDT
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0 out of 3 members found this review helpful
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Did anyone associated with this movie go on to bigger and better things? I think it would have been better if (like Total Recall) it had been shot on Mars. Maybe it could better explain the characters' actions and the story (?) line.
My favorite quote was by Zach to Nomi after she asks him what an MBA is. He replies, "An MBA is a degree you get in college. It's mostly worthless in the real world."
Just like this movie. |
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