Showgirls: A Masterpiece of American Cinema

[GRLMGC]

The dramatic rise and fall of Nomi Malone. Who knew it could be one of the funniest movies EVER. Whether edited for cable or uncut, it is still, truly a cinematic jewel.

[cynatnite]

1. There is something about it...

It's truly awful and you can't help but watch it.

[Drunken Irishman]

8. It's the boobies.

[sarge43]

9. The 'Citizen Kane' of boobie films? n/t

[MrScorpio]

2. Love it

Is has that certain Return To The Valley Of Dolls je ne se quois

[GRLMGC]

3. Yes, it does

Its not really something one can easily explain, but it really has an allure. Something so crappy that it transcends its crappiness into something else.

[cynatnite]

4. crappy transendence maybe?

:shrug:

[GRLMGC]

5. Perhaps

Perhaps. In any case, it is truly movie magic!

[WCGreen]

7. It's not even in the same class as Beyond the Valley of the Dolls...

[driver8]

6. A friend of mine had never seen it and I told him, "You will not believe how bad

this movie is." He said, "Nothing's that bad."

So, we rented it.

He watched about 20 minutes of it and said, "You were right...turn it off."

[Wetzelbill]

10. Decades from now, it will be recognized as a brilliant underrated film

It has certain qualities that will make it transcend time. It seems trashy, but it has something about it that resonates. Paul Verhoeven is a very good director, and this film it has a B movie quality about it, however there is something to it. An epic story. An intriguing protagonist. A unique setting. 30 years from now, film buffs will be talking about it the way something like Mean Streets is talked about now.

[terrya]

12. That's an...interesting perspective.

One wouldn't imagine referencing "Showgirls" and Scorcese in the same review.

[Wetzelbill]

13. normally I wouldn't

and I am still not a big fan of the film, but it has certain qualities in it's favor. It'll never be considered an overlooked "Lawrence of Arabia" or anything, but I think certain aspects of it will help it resonate over time.

[Frank Cannon]

11. Never has a movie with so much sex and nudity...

been so mind-crushingly boring.

And that includes most porn videos. Showgirls makes any given bukkake video look like Lawrence of Arabia.

[Wetzelbill]

14. dude, I just mentioned Lawrence in another reply

:)

Oh yeah, it is boring. Never been a fan. But it does have some things going for it. The sort of stuff film nerds like. I've been told by a film professor that it's one of those movies that nobody likes and ridicules, but when you step back and watch it years later, it has a certain level of brilliance.

[Frank Cannon]

18. I actually worked on the post-production of Showgirls

And even then while collecting my paycheck, I knew it was a piece of shit. But I can see how some people might find it "so awful, it's good". Hell, XANADU is one of my favorite movies of all time.

Verhoeven's Starship Troopers, for me, kind of fits the framework of what you're talking about. I know a lot of people that hate that movie, but watch it again today and you'll see that it's an amazingly prescient parody of the War on Terra, years before 9/11.

[Wetzelbill]

19. you know, I liked Starship Troopers

I don't know how intentional it was, but having Doogie Howser in a Nazi uniform was effing brilliant! :)

It is a very prescient parody. It's funny how stuff like that has so much truth to it.

[HughBeaumont]

15. The "sex" is PG-13 and fraudulent. Nudity - articifial and airbrushed.

The script reads like the worst magnetic poetry thrown on the side of a Frigidaire.
It has the pacing and movement of a train derailment and recovery put on loop.
I mean, who the hell was THAT casting director? Let's put the worst participant in the "Saved by the Bell" cast (and that counts the various extras that said nothing) as your LEAD?
One critic called it "smut" and "porno", quite a stretch since there weren't any discernable elements of it that I saw.

Showgirls . . . well, you really HAVE to call it a masterpiece of American Cinema. That is, if we're discussing films that take the most shameful excesses of waste, superficiality, vapidity and an assload of DUMB and combined them into a 2-hour plus steaming-hot pile of bison shit in a canister.

[DS1]

16. I had a huge crush on E. Berkely from Saved by the Bell

so seeing her in this movie was a little taste of heaven.

But yes, the movie sucked, but who actually listens to it?

[Nikia]

17. My husband and I rented it when we were in college

Although I wouldn't call it great, I wouldn't call it bad. I did not find it particuliarly funny though. I thought that the story and how it painted the industry was interesting.