Some thoughts on SHOWGIRLS

[indianasmith]

A friend mentioned she had never seen this movie, so I sent her this Email which kind of morphed into a review of the film:

I watch a LOT of bad movies, as you know.  Most of them are deliberately bad, cheaply shot, direct-to-video crapola that is badly filmed, badly acted, and badly edited.  Don't ask me why I like them (gratuitous nudity? cheesy dialogue? cheap effects?) but I always have.   They amuse me. They don't take themselves seriously, they are out to amuse the audience and make a few bucks and they are generally free of pretense.




   But every now and then you get a serious film made by well-known directors and producers, starring big name actors and actresses, that are just AWFUL.  And the thing is, all these talented people, who have produced high quality films in the past, don't realize just how terrible these films are.  They think they are producing powerful, stirring works of art, when in fact they are dumping a big steaming shovelful of horse hockey on an unsuspecting public.  ISHTAR was one such film from the 1970's, but it pales into insignificance compared to SHOWGIRLS.



   SHOWGIRLS is the poster child for such films.  It is almost majestic in its badness, steeped in cheese and lame one-liners, decrying exploitation while being exploitative to a degree few films have gone, rising to unseen heights of arrogance while simultaneously plunging into bottomless pits of awful.  It has to be seen to be believed.  This movie single-handedly broke the NC-17 rating and blighted the careers of just about everyone associated with it, and won a grand total of 7 Razzies, including worst film of the decade.  It cost $45 million to make and made $20 million at the box office, but its failure was far more than financial.




  Elizabeth Berkley, the blond cheerleader from SAVED BY THE BELL, plays Nomi, a hot young drifter who comes to Las Vegas with dreams of being a headlining showgirl.  Gina Gershon (who is INSANELY hot in this movie) plays Cristal, the lead dancer in GODDESS, the biggest show in town.  Screenwriter Joe Esterhaus produced this clunker of a script, insisting on ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT and other shows that this film was a groundbreaking, powerful story about powerful women emancipating themselves from male chauvinist stereotypes in powerful ways - mainly by taking their clothes off and dancing in front of crowds of sweaty, horny men.  OK, he didn't say that last part, but it was understood.  Berkley, sounding even more airheaded than usual (drugs?), went on the rounds of the morning shows, calling it a stirring masterpiece about "women in their power."  (She loved that phrase and used it in every interview, apparently meaning that women had to get naked to be powerful!)  The critics didn't buy it.  The show was universally panned, and it was said that during the (endless) swimming pool sex scene, many of them actually started laughing out loud.  (It is pretty laughable, Berkley splashed so much water out of the pool it looked like Rosanne Barr had jumped in it off of a high dive.)  Is the movie explicit?  Yes, there's tons of nudity.  No actual intercourse is depicted, although if co-star Kyle MacLachlan didn't ejaculate during the lapdance scene, I'd be surprised!  But yes, there's lots of nekkid women and a brutally graphic rape scene.


   But it isn't the sexual content or the poor acting that makes this movie hold so many records for badness.  It's the truly cringe-worthy dialogue! I mean, "Dancing ain't f***ing!" is one of the BETTER lines in the movie.  In short, this is a film of truly radiant badness, worth watching both to laugh at and wonder at. It's also a ton of fun to riff on.   If you've never seen it, you ought to.  You'd be swiveling back and forth between titillation, nausea, and hysterical laughter for the better part of an evening!




   SHOWGIRLS - the greatest disaster film of all time that wasn't intended to be a disaster film!

[kakihara]

Great review Indie! You summed it up pretty well. I was a young teen when this came out and I can remember the buzz. Everyone was talking about it, it was the most controversial movie ever made. Then I saw it. sigh. Such a horrible piece of cinema. I will always remember Elizabeth as "Jesse".
 
check out Jesse's Saved By the Bell "Im so excited" video on youtube. I think it compliments Showgirls very well.

[bob]

I still haven't seen this

[indianasmith]

I was a bit surprised to see Andrew never reviewed this one.

[ER]

I heard Showgirls referred to as the worst movie ever made...by those who were being generous to it.

[FatFreddysCat]

I still haven't seen this

Me neither. It's been on "the list" to check out for years but I've never gotten around to it.

[claws]

Instant camp classic. If you like Mommie Dearest you'll love Showgirls.

[Rev. Powell]

 Elizabeth Berkley, the blond cheerleader from SAVED BY THE BELL....

Good Lord man! Do your research! Berkley was a STRAIGHT-A STUDENT in SAVED BY THE BELL!  

Otherwise a perfect review of a truly great bad movie!

http://youtu.be/bflYjF90t7c

Those pills she's taking... amphetamines? ecstasy? no, much worse.... CAFFEINE!

[javakoala]

 Elizabeth Berkley, the blond cheerleader from SAVED BY THE BELL....

Good Lord man! Do your research! Berkley was a STRAIGHT-A STUDENT in SAVED BY THE BELL!  

Otherwise a perfect review of a truly great bad movie!

http://youtu.be/bflYjF90t7c

Those pills she's taking... amphetamines? ecstasy? no, much worse.... CAFFEINE!

That you know this much about SAVED BY THE BELL makes me question your whole life, sir. I don't know what to believe in now.

[CheezeFlixz]

I watch it with the volume turn down.

[Ticonderoga 64]

It's like one looonnngg bad MTV video from the '90's..just add schleppy music to background and turn down dialogue..