Movie Review: Showgirls (1994)
This one is especially for you, sarah_1228 :D <3
So: here we have perhaps the most notorious case of the first big budget, adults only feature to hit cinemas of all time: Paul Verohoven's mastur-er-MASTERPIECE, Showgirls. For those of you who want to know the story, here it is: woman with a sordid past arrives in Vegas to 'make it', only to lose herself (wait, she had an identity) in a world of sleazy strip clubs, sex, drugs, glitz, glamour and VER-SAYCE!
Peek-a-boo, you joke's on you.
I'm sorry, was this movie meant to be an erotic thriller/drama, because I completely didn't read it that way. What I saw was a blustery vulgar comedy of errors that just happened to have a lot of nudity, seizure-sex and colourful terms for genitalia. I'm not joking! I thought this was meant to be a screwball comedy. It has all of the typical stylings of one:
-One dimensional characters ie. the 'Good Girl', the 'Bad Girl', the Good Girl's Best Friend, the Douchebag, the Mother/Father figure of the Good Girl, etc...
-Laugh-inducing plot turns and 'twists'
-Potentially offensive racial stereotypes
-Despite all of the tribulations the Good Girl has gone through, she makes it out in once piece and lives happily ever after.
Looka me, Mommy, I'm a STAR!
So imagine my surprise when I read Verhoven intended Showgirls to be a serious film that he wanted to titillate the audience.Verhoven, who has also been responsible for Robocop, Total Recall and The Black Book wanted to make a movie that would be talked about for years to follow- well, we can't argue with that, but it hasn't been spoken about in the way Verhoven was hoping. For example, how can one take a movie seriously when you have dialogue such as this running all the way through it?
If this stuff wasn't an exercise in hilarity, it would be offensive. I mean, how many people do you know talk like this?
Next, this movie tries so hard to be sexy that it fails miserably:
As an aside: Who dances that way? Like, was that meant to be sensual or was it interpretive?
And finally, the cherry on top of this cheesy nipple, the infamous pool sex scene (if you could call it that). If the overtly sleazy pool isn't enough to make you roll around on the floor with laughter, Elizabeth Berkley's... interesting... version of the best sex she's had in her life probably will. If anything, this performance educates the viewer that if the person you are having sex with starts to flop around like a fish on crack while screaming in near mortal agony, chances are they are having a seizure and must be taken to to the ER, pronto!
I love the look on McClachlan's face when she starts to do her floor show. :-P
I believe the only actor who truly knows what sort of movie they are in is the lovely Gina Gershon- she is constantly chucking knowing winks to the audience. Later on, she said that sleazy men have came up to her, eyed her up and said "You know, you were in Showgirls", to which she said "Yep. And I got to kiss beautiful women. What's your point?".
You go, Gina
If you haven't already guessed it, this is an awful movie, but it's a movie that is so awful it's awesome. If you haven't seen it, do yourself a favor, rent this out, have a beer, sit down and have a jolly good laugh- Paul Verhoven- In You We Trust.
Credit to JoBlo for the fantastic vids.
So: here we have perhaps the most notorious case of the first big budget, adults only feature to hit cinemas of all time: Paul Verohoven's mastur-er-MASTERPIECE, Showgirls. For those of you who want to know the story, here it is: woman with a sordid past arrives in Vegas to 'make it', only to lose herself (wait, she had an identity) in a world of sleazy strip clubs, sex, drugs, glitz, glamour and VER-SAYCE!
Peek-a-boo, you joke's on you.
I'm sorry, was this movie meant to be an erotic thriller/drama, because I completely didn't read it that way. What I saw was a blustery vulgar comedy of errors that just happened to have a lot of nudity, seizure-sex and colourful terms for genitalia. I'm not joking! I thought this was meant to be a screwball comedy. It has all of the typical stylings of one:
-One dimensional characters ie. the 'Good Girl', the 'Bad Girl', the Good Girl's Best Friend, the Douchebag, the Mother/Father figure of the Good Girl, etc...
-Laugh-inducing plot turns and 'twists'
-Potentially offensive racial stereotypes
-Despite all of the tribulations the Good Girl has gone through, she makes it out in once piece and lives happily ever after.
Looka me, Mommy, I'm a STAR!
So imagine my surprise when I read Verhoven intended Showgirls to be a serious film that he wanted to titillate the audience.Verhoven, who has also been responsible for Robocop, Total Recall and The Black Book wanted to make a movie that would be talked about for years to follow- well, we can't argue with that, but it hasn't been spoken about in the way Verhoven was hoping. For example, how can one take a movie seriously when you have dialogue such as this running all the way through it?
If this stuff wasn't an exercise in hilarity, it would be offensive. I mean, how many people do you know talk like this?
Next, this movie tries so hard to be sexy that it fails miserably:
As an aside: Who dances that way? Like, was that meant to be sensual or was it interpretive?
And finally, the cherry on top of this cheesy nipple, the infamous pool sex scene (if you could call it that). If the overtly sleazy pool isn't enough to make you roll around on the floor with laughter, Elizabeth Berkley's... interesting... version of the best sex she's had in her life probably will. If anything, this performance educates the viewer that if the person you are having sex with starts to flop around like a fish on crack while screaming in near mortal agony, chances are they are having a seizure and must be taken to to the ER, pronto!
I love the look on McClachlan's face when she starts to do her floor show. :-P
I believe the only actor who truly knows what sort of movie they are in is the lovely Gina Gershon- she is constantly chucking knowing winks to the audience. Later on, she said that sleazy men have came up to her, eyed her up and said "You know, you were in Showgirls", to which she said "Yep. And I got to kiss beautiful women. What's your point?".
You go, Gina
If you haven't already guessed it, this is an awful movie, but it's a movie that is so awful it's awesome. If you haven't seen it, do yourself a favor, rent this out, have a beer, sit down and have a jolly good laugh- Paul Verhoven- In You We Trust.
Credit to JoBlo for the fantastic vids.