User Reviews

There's a point in this film, where it takes a sharp, serious and dark turn, out of damn near nowhere, and it's that moment in the movie that encapsulates just how unfocused Showgirls is.

If I was to take this movie seriously, it would be a 3.5/10. If I weren't to take it seriously, then it would be 6/10. The sexiness and erotica points of the film were done relatively well, however, the story, the acting and over acting, the pace and those hilariously ridiculous seizure fests they tried to pass off as dancing or some kind of choreography were just too shockingly laughable.

Showgirls is sexy, especially Elizabeth Berkley, and is as progressive as any ordinary film tends and needs to be without being static, however, it ran longer than it had to, and that just stretched an already poorly handled story too thin. Its structure and pace doesn't allow one to feel the necessary emotions of sympathy, however parts like what happens in the beginning of the movie give it some edge. I'll meet Showgirls halfway and give it 5/10.

Calling Showgirls "poorly acted" or "sexist" completely misses the point; it's like accusing Britney Spears of not being a "real musician," as though you've discovered something.

Of *course* Showgirls is exploitative and demeaning to women. Almost all Hollywood movies are demeaning to women. Almost all of them are male-written, male-directed male fantasies. But most of them cover this fact with a thin veneer of "empowerment" and "sensitivity," making perfunctory, surface concessions to political correctness. It's hypocritical, dishonest and has horrible long-term effects on the psyches of young impressionable girls (and boys). The brilliance of Showgirls is that it gathers all of the worst Hollywood masculine excess and throws it unapologetically in our faces. The movie is straight-from-the-id, primal, brutish male fantasy. Every woman in the movie is a laughable caricature who advances, if at all, by deceiving other women and becoming a sexual object for men. The "heroine," Nomi, crosses every line, sells every shred of dignity, physically assaults her female competitors, sleeps with her boss (in the most over-the-top sex scene in cinematic history), gets her best friend raped... and at the end of the film, claims that she has gambled and won "herself." This tragi-comic nod to empowerment is a slap to the face of anyone who's been paying attention.

Whether Esterhauz and Verhoeven intended it as such, Showgirls is at once a camp classic and a sly satire, an example of everything our culture at once wallows in and disavows. Sure, you can react with righteous indignation, waggle your finger at the movie, and pat yourself on the back for being so enlightened. But maybe you should take a look around, at the billboards, the commercials, the sitcoms, the movies, the music videos, your own prejudices... and think about whether you can't find a better target.

I was entertained and that's what mattered to me the most in this cheesy flick containing massive amounts of beautiful boobs. And what great boobs they were, ranging from Elizabeth Berkley to Gina Gershon, with nipples extending into the night via buckets of ice, to peak our interest even more. I truly wasn't expecting it, and yes I thought there would be a nice bit of nudity here and there, but I wasn't expecting such lovely women displaying nearly all their intimacy so much of the time.

This, however, doesn't make for a good film per se, and there were far too many doubtful moments to make this a classic, such as the first girl that Nomi meets on her arrival in Vegas turning out to be her best friend through thick and thin, which was all too convenient like so many scenes in the film, with both of them doubling up in a rickety trailer when Nomi is clearly earning very respectable money and dating Ferrari-driving millionaires, plus some dubious casting decisions in Kyle MacLachlan, Glenn Plummer and Robert Davi, in fact, nearly all of the men were dreadful (were they supposed to be?), plus the famously wooden acting of Elizabeth Berkley, bless her beautiful soul. And lest not forget the super stunningly gorgeous Gina Gershon who had me erecting out of my chair, good God!

And I can only guess that this film received such shamelessly horrible reviews in its day because of the way we took ourselves so seriously back then, as though each new film was supposed to mean something significant and hit new highs, instead of being what this film actually is, a giant middle finger to our shallow society - we're not here to make a statement - but here to have fun and show off some beautiful tits while emphasizing how banal and basically obvious the male species can be, and often is.

I enjoyed it, so there.

"You want it, you pay for it." - Club bouncer (Showgirls)

Showgirls is an interesting film, though people won't appreciate it for many years to come. The problem with Paul Verhoeven is that nobody realises that he's a satirist. All his films shot outside of the Netherlands are intensely satirical and not meant to be taken at face value. With "Showgirls" he quotes from "All about Eve" and "42nd Street", tearing apart those pipe dream stories that audiences have been so conditioned to absorb.

Verhoeven's real target isn't Hollywood or American crassness, but rather those morally dubious "Star is Born" tales. The audience isn't punished for wanting to see sex and nudity, it's punished for wanting Nomi to succeed. The film is saying that in a crass society, success is bankrupt, and by pushing the pipe dream, you merely fuel this big, ugly machine.

Nomi, the star of "Showgirls", isn't a character. She's a piece of wood. A piece of wood not because she can't act, but because she's a mere slab of fuel, existing solely to be burnt up and combusted by her neon lit environment. She goes from strip club, to dance club, to theatre house, exploited all the way. And she loves it.

By the end of the film it's not funny that Nomi is going to make the same mistakes all over again. It's sad that despite the fact that the Myth has been revealed repeatedly, she is still seduced by it enough to try all over again. It's like those Toys they give kids at Macdonald's. The child knows the toy is total crap, but they just have to collect the other one. Why? Because it's a toy, and the child's perception is that toys are fun.

"Showgirls" deals with this false perception. The toy is crap. It's unsatisfying, but we want it because we can't find satisfaction in what we have and in where we're at.

"Showgirls" is also intensely symbolic. Song titles mirror Nomi's apartment numbers, each of her jobs takes her one step further into hell (which ironically is her goal), she symbolically dies and is reborn, the famous lapdance is shot to mirror the sex scene in the pool, and the film ends with Nomi battered and broken and more importantly, even more ignorant than before. Then there's her "dream man" (hinted at by a billboard at the start) who turns out to be a devilish rapist by the end of the film. This theme of one being punished for ones "fantasies" permeates the entire film and extends outward in such a way that the audience itself participates. At first we're titillated, but by the end, the sex has numbed us and we reel in disgust.

In terms of style, the film is intentionally over the top. It's loud, crass and overly colourful. Nomi herself thrusts her body at us in a ridiculously pathetic manner. The director's aim is not to titillate. He wants us to pity the girl's desperation, her falsity, the tasteless stains of her makeup and desperate contortions of her body. Nomi is dumb and is always begging us to accept her. And so Verhoeven subjects us to visual and aural overload, all designed to numb our minds. We leave the film stupid, and unaroused, poetically blind and unaware of the truths it has shown us.

The best satires tend to raise the most unjustified hate, and "Showgirls" is no different. What's different is that the nudity, sex and overall tacky "bad movie" aesthetic of the film, prevents it from being re-evaluated or even embraced. Future audiences, desensitized to pornography and nudity, will probably accept this film easier.

There's also one really good shot in the film that reminded me of Welles. The shot occurs when Nomi sits on a park bench alongside a busy street. The bench is in the foreground, but perspective is forced in such a way that it dwarfs the Las Vegas buildings surrounding it.

In terms of camera work, the film is also impeccably shot. Verhoeven's camera is precise, with some beautiful steadicam and crane shots.

7.5/10- An interesting satire, intentionally camp, cartoonish and over the top. Though some scenes feel tasteless, the film as a whole surprisingly seems to get better with repeated viewings. Pay attention to one scene in which children walk innocently through a theatre, nude women all around. Moment's later a woman curses violently and the kids and their mother are shocked. Verhoeven's point is clear: language, violence and exploitation are far more tasteless than any naked breast.

* spoilers, nothing but spoilers

In her role of Nomi (an unlikely and symbolically heavy-handed name), Elizabeth Berkeley comes off as someone with an impulse control problem and the attention span of a puppy. She spends most of the movie with a vacant expression on her face that gives way to unprovoked screaming fits. Her character starts the film as a jerk who treats people badly and end the film as a jerk who treats people badly. The plot, in fact, has no effect on her personality. This is amazing, cuz the plot is such a lame moralistic fable to begin with. Innocent girl (from NY City?) makes it to the big city, works her way up and finally succeeds by sinking to the depths of the people around her. This makes her want to leave, cuz, you know, she's become everything she's ever hated or something. The problem with this story is that Nomi STARTS OUT as an awful jerk who would push a colleague down some stairs to get ahead - she just hasn't thought of it yet. So the story, which anyone over the age of four has seen before, is pointless.

The dialogue is atrocious - it's Penthouse Letters stuff. It's how horny old men think young women talk when they're in the bathroom. That said, there's a lot dialogue in this movie that is unforgettable in the same way that Battlefield Earth makes variations on `I have leverage' unforgettable.

Kyle MacLachlan spends the whole movie with a stupid stoner smirk plastered on his face.

The sex… ohmygod the sex. The simulated sex scenes in this movie are comic gold. At least twice that I remember Nomi mounts the MacLachlan character and does this move on him that looks kinda like a fish out of water. Her spine… it sorta whips up and down so that her torso is flipping in mid air. The hilarious part is that one of the sex scenes is in a hot tub and when Nomi does her thing, her body slaps and plops the water. Besides being unerotic, the sex scenes go on forever.

I have never, ever, before in my life, wanted women in movies to put some clothes on. I admit it - I'm disgusting. When the sex scene got started in Muholland Dr., the thought going through my mind was `THIS IS THE BEST MOVIE EVER!' But Showgirls takes the juvenile male urge to stare at boobies and pummels it. About half way through the film all I could think about the all those breasts is that support is a matter of comfort. It just seemed merciless to depict a world where there are apparently so few bras.

Anyway, that's the funny stuff. Now for the awfulness. Black people are nurturing. There are two characters for Nomi to crap on, despite their best efforts to help her out. Glenn Plummer plays a dancer who wants to help Nomi perfect her absolutely jaw-dropping dancing talent and Gina Rivera plays a sweet person who takes Nomi in when she arrives in Vegas. When Rivera's character, Molly, first meets Nomi, Nomi is attacking Molly's car cuz her luggage was stolen and the car was nearby when she needed to hit something. Instead of beating Nomi senseless, Molly buys her some food, offers to be her roommate and help finding a job. And it goes on like that. Nomi is basically infantalized during scenes with Molly. This is true of Glenn Plummer's character as well, who spends most of his screen time chastising Nomi like a parent about wasting her talent. Of course, in the dark world of Showgirls, nice people can't exist. Plummer's character turns out to be a guy who says that every girl is a dancer of extraordinary talent to sleep with them (but with Nomi, he really means it) and after mothering Nomi for half the movie, Molly gets gang raped cuz… I dunno, victims are always asking for jerks to be nice to them and that's what she gets or something equally insightful.

Everyone in the film keeps talking about how Nomi is a phenomenal dancer. I didn't see anything to justify this. Actually, they labored the point so much that it invites scrutiny that her dancing can't live up to. It's kinda cruel really. What if someone made a movie with Steve Buscemi where everyone marvels at how handsome he is? I don't think there's anything wrong with his appearance, but if you spent two hours being asked to look at him and admire his features...

Anyway, this movie is bad in so many ways, but it's memorable. It's like watching Plan 9 for the laughs, but different. It played recently at the Midnight Mass in SF - a venue that plays camp classics like early John Waters and the Mommy Dearest. Verhoeven and Eszthehas set out to make a naughty, dark movie. Instead they made a crude, incompetent and disgusting film. Showgirls is probably exactly the film they intended to make and that's why it's funny.

Gina Gershon didn't stink.

It does not follow. That's the best way to describe this movie to anyone. I've watched it several times now; I admit, the movie is so strange that even though you know it is bad you have to go back and watch it again just because you can't believe what you just watched. That's saying something for me, a person who can only watch a movie once before needing a few months to pass before wanting to watch again.

What I find so intriguing in this movie is how badly the character of Nomi (Elizabeth Berkley) interacts with people, and how, amazingly, they accept her. Not just accept her, they all love her. Nomi, a woman who reacts with violent hostility to simple questions or requests, displaying herself to be a complete sociopath. Yet, strangely, every person she snaps on sees her as something endearing or wonderful for some inexplicable reason. I just don't get it.

In the beginning of the movie Nomi loses it on a total stranger, attacking the woman's car before being stopped and then vomiting for some unknown reason. The woman's response? Take her to dinner, but not before nearly kissing her in the most misplaced and misguided lesbian reaction. I would have called the cops. What next? I'll tell you. Nomi snaps again when asked a simple, harmless question by throwing the food the woman was treating her to and shouting. The woman's response? She asks Nomi to move in with her. What the hell?! Throughout the movie Nomi comes off as totally unlikable to the point that I found myself rooting against her, which is ironic seeing as how she is the protagonist of the film. To be fair, Nomi comes in a few flavors. I want to say she is bi-polar but that would leave out her middle ground: the smarmy bitch flavor. I hate to use that word but it's the only way to justly describe her. You'll see. This is flavor is most often displayed when during any of her many disrespectful interactions with her employers and superiors. The cringe-worthy "I was having my period" excuse to her boss and her taunting of Cristal Conners (Gina Gershon) later in the film.

She seems to follow some set of ill-defined and unbalanced set of morals that make no sense to anyone but her. Nomi all but whores herself out for success but draws a line at icing her nipples for some reason. Then throwing the ice at the casting director and exploding on him. Wow. Then she gets the job.

With respect to Elizabeth Berkley, I don't know why so many people in this film saw her as this amazing beauty with so much talent. She is attractive, yes, but by no means the most attractive woman in the cast (even if you exclude Gina Gershon, who was gorgeous). Which leads up to an incredible, vomit-enducing scene between Nomi and Cristal about how great Nomi's breasts are. They're nothing special, in my opinion. The dialogue here.... Honestly, I can't do it justice. Nobody talks like people talk in this movie. Nobody. "I want to see your ass," "What do you think of your breasts?,""I'm on my period. Check." This movie managed to make nude women, even those as beautiful and talented as Gina Gershon, unsexy. The dance numbers failed to entice any kind of sexual desire from me. How untalented must a filmmaker be to make a nude woman unsexy? Goddess would close in a week in real life.

That just scratches the surface. There's so much about this movie that is just awful and makes little sense that I have no idea where to begin. When I have more time I hope to watch this movie and ammend my comment as I go.

As awful as it is, it has more rewatchability than most movies I have ever seen. It's not because this movie is sexy, as the creators hoped, but because it is a moving demonstration of absurdity and a world that could only exist in the mind of people with no scope of social and sexual reality. It is funny, I admit, but still awful.

This review is going to be short and sweet because there is so little to talk about as relates to this film. The entire plot of the movie can be summed up like this: A hooker hitchhikes her way to Las Vegas, ruins the lives of every single person she comes into contact with, and then leaves.

That is literally the entire movie. And this takes over two hours to trudge through. Nomi Malone is the most unlikeable protagonist (if you can even call her that) in cinematic history. I never thought a movie could make naked women boring, but this one did just that. Avoid this like the plague.