Showgirls Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		2.5

Showgirls Blu-ray Movie Review

Sparkling, glittering garbage.

Reviewed by Casey Broadwater June 15, 2010

There are three possible approaches that critics and audiences alike take toward Showgirls, director Paul Verhoeven’s sleazy story of an ambition stripper in the phony world of Las Vegas excess. The first is to dismiss it entirely—often before even seeing it—as a reprehensible piece of cinematic schlock, a gratuitous, boob-addled display of boundless misogyny, the stuff of adolescent masturbatory fantasies. And that, I’d say, is a perfectly valid judgment. Women are objectified, breasts are near-constantly bared, and the film’s idea of sex is a grotesque charade that involves much gymnastic flailing. The second, less widely held take is to see it as a cleverly disguised satire, an indictment of the Vegas skin-dustry and a jab at the juvenile desires of the film’s intended audience. While there’s certainly a case to be made there, it’s much more likely that the viewers and critics who ascribe to this approach are fishing for artistic integrity where there simply is none. The third opinion, though—the one that made Showgirls a cult classic on home video—is to watch it as a so bad it’s good guilty pleasure, to ironically revel in the film’s inane dialogue, ridiculous plotting, and sexual absurdities. This is the only reason the film is even remotely worth watching.

Tastes...like...Henrietta Bazoom...

Former Saved By the Bell good girl Elizabeth Berkley takes a naughty, frequently bare- assed turn as Nomi Malone, a hitchhiking drifter with an uncertain past—get it? No me, alone—who dreams of making it to Vegas and becoming a dancer. Within minutes of arriving in the city of neon and gold, she gets scammed by a pompadoured idiot and befriends Molly (Gina Ravera), a kindly costumer who offers—like any complete and utter stranger would—to let Nomi crash at her place indefinitely. Six weeks later, Nomi is working as a stripper—sorry— dancer at one of Vegas’ seamier establishments, The Cheetah Club, the kind of place where the manager’s advice on your first day goes something like, “If you wanna last longer than a week, you’ll give me a blowjob.” You know—classy. (Here we also meet Henrietta Bazoom, an obese, grandmotherly stripper, who tells unprintable jokes and wears a dress rigged to let her ample boob-age pop out to accentuate the punch lines. Hilarious.) While Nomi wiggles her T&A and—in one of the most unhygienic scenes in recent cinema history—licks a stripper pole lengthwise, she’s noticed by Cristal Connors (Gina Gershon), the bisexual headliner of a dance show at the moderately more upscale Stardust Hotel. Cristal commands Nomi to give a lap dance to her boyfriend Zach (Kyle MacLachlan), the hotel’s artistic director, and to show she’s got what it takes, Nomi aggressively dry humps Zach until he stickies his pants. Now that’s a good first impression. (This is the first of two laugh-out-loud sex scenes with the unfortunate former Agent Cooper.)

Needless to say, Nomi lands a gig dancing in the hotel’s ongoing program, “Goddess,” an over-the- top, New Age-y, Zeigfield Follies-meets-S&M musical that’s—and I say this with all respect— basically the gayest show on Earth. Showgirls essentially becomes a softcore All About Eve, with Nomi in an understudy role for her newfound rival Cristal, who—oops!—ends up conspicuously falling down a flight of stairs. We’re in what would you do to make it to the top territory here, as screenwriter Joe Eszterhas—who was paid a whopping, wholly unearned $2 million for this trash—doles out every possible backstage backstabbing cliché. The script is a big old sex-befuddled mess, with hazy motivations and a plot with more unfilled holes than an abstinence rally. Take Cristal, for instance, who’s portrayed as a “big star,” attracting paparazzi wherever she goes. What, then, is she doing baring her chest in what, for all intents and purposes, is a burlesque show for rich people? The show’s producers even talk—seriously—about getting Latoya Jackson or Paula Abdul to fill the role after Cristal takes her tumble. What kind of alternate universe Vegas is this? And the dialogue…oh the deliciously stilted, emotionally retarded dialogue. In Eszterhas’ sexed-up fantasy-fulfillment-land, the topics of women’s conversations are confined to their nails, their breasts, sex, and how brown rice and vegetables are “worse than dog food.” My, what dimensional characters he’s drawn! What paradigms of femininity!

To say Showgirls is an affront to women is an understatement akin to saying Hitler was a little bit racist. There is, of course, a fine line between showing misogyny and actually being misogynistic—it’s all about attitude and intent—but Showgirls crosses it far too often for there to be any misunderstandings. With the exception of Molly, the only character with a conscience, the women in the film are all busty, two-bit bimbos, personality-free sex objects, or world-class bitches. And just when you think it can’t possibly get any more demeaning, poor naïve Molly pays for her relative purity by being brutally gang-raped and beaten within an inch of her life. It’s the only truly ugly moment in the film; the rest is just tacky, as gaudy and artificial as Las Vegas’ myriad recreations of international landmarks. Fake as a boob job, as desperate as Botox.

If you’re in the right frame of mind, though—a state that, ideally, involves like-minded friends and a generous amount of alcohol—Showgirls is grade-A material for an ironic, oh my gosh, I can’t believe we’re watching this viewing party. The intentionality of the humor is dubious, but there’s a lot to laugh at here, especially when it comes to Elizabeth Berkley’s completely bipolar performance. She seems to have two modes: staring vacantly, dumber than a china doll, or flying insanely off the handle. And, well, of course, there’s also her sex mode, which involves thrashing worse than an epileptic being shocked with a cattle prod. When Zach has sex with Nomi in his pool, their motions call to mind a stoic fisherman trying to angle the most frantic, flapping swordfish imaginable. With its infamous NC-17 rating, Showgirls has a reputation as a sexy, adults- only-style film, but I’ve seen cooking shows on TV that were more erotic. Though Berkley spends nearly one sixth of Showgirls in various states of undress, the nudity is so rampant that it becomes essentially meaningless and unaffecting. Verhoevan gives us what he thinks his 18 to 35 male audience wants—strippers, bared breasts, lap dances—but as it turns out, it’s only good for a laugh.

Showgirls Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Showgirls shows off on Blu-ray with a seductive 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer, framed fairly closely to the film's original 2.39:1 aspect ratio. What you'll notice straight off are the eye-popping colors in nearly every frame. Vivid neon lights pulse above the Vegas city streets. Dance clubs are awash in pinks, violets, and blues. Fiery bursts of orange erupt from an on-stage volcano, while gold sequins glisten and red lipstick gleams wetly. Skin tones—and naturally, there's a lot of skin—are warm and natural. Just as importantly, black levels are deep and solid, and contrast is tightly tuned, creating an image with ample dimensionality and presence. Clarity is also much stronger than I had expected. Skin texture and fine facial features are easily apparent in close-ups, and you can make out just about every detail on the exceptionally gaudy costumes. Though lines and borders are sharp, there's never any trace of overt edge enhancement, and the film's fine grain structure is wholly intact, with no evidence of DNR or excessive filtering. The print itself is in terrific condition—I noticed maybe three or four white specks throughout—and the encode takes up most of a 50 GB disc, running at a high bit rate and exhibiting no compression-related issues whatsoever. Eye candy indeed.

Showgirls Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

If the picture quality is eye candy, then the audio is aural sex. This Blu-ray's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track has just as much mid-range perkiness and shaking low-end as the film itself —if you catch my drift—and it's an immense improvement over the DVD's Dolby Digital mix. The soundtrack is absolutely booming here. The strip club numbers throb with potent LFE response, and the music during the "Goddess" show at the Stardust Hotel blares—loudly but cleanly—from every channel, effectively putting you right in the middle of the audience. The surround speakers are almost always occupied, and not just with music, but also with immersive ambience and surprisingly deft sound design. Coins clink from slot machines, lusty audiences clap and cat-call, motorcycles zip through the rears, fireworks shoot every which way, and water splashes everywhere in the ridiculous pool sex scene. For not being an action film, there's a lot going on in this track, and it's all reproduced with power and clarity, down to the almost unbelievably inane dialogue, which is clean and perfectly balanced in the mix.

Showgirls Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The Greatest Movie Ever Made: Audio Commentary by David Schmader
David Schmader, a writer from Seattle, started hosting screenings of Showgirls, where he would give scene-by-scene commentary and explain how the film was "the most misunderstood work of art in the 20th century." Instead of sending him a cease and desist, MGM contacted him about doing a proper commentary for the film. And here we are. Obviously, his line about the film being a misunderstood work of art is delivered sarcastically—even if he isn't obvious about it—and he spends most of the track making fun of the movie or ironically loving on it.

Pole Dancing: Finder Your Inner Stripper (1080p, 11:54)
Sorry fellas, there's no real stripping here. Teri Jaworski, director of S Factor—a stripper pole-based fitness regime—explains how to do several pole moves, techniques with names like "The Snake," "The Pole Cat," and "The Descending Angel."

Lap Dance Tutorial Featuring The World Famous Girls of Scores (SD, 4:56)
"Believe me ladies, if you learn how to do a good lap dance, anything you want can come true," says one of the "world famous girls of Scores." Man, whatever happened to staying in school and working hard? Here, we get a ten-step tutorial on how to "leave him wanting more."

A Showgirl's Diary (SD, 10:54)
In these four sections, we get to see some of Paul Verhoevan's storyboard sketches, along with on- set, behind-the-scenes footage of the corresponding scenes.

Pop-Up Trivia Track
It really says something that even the officially sanctioned pop-up trivia track makes fun of the film.

Theatrical Trailer (1080p, 1:59)

Showgirls Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

You likely already have an opinion on Showgirls—it's either irredeemable garbage, a clever bit of show-biz satire, or a guilty pleasure on par with Barbarella. (And Paramount, if you're reading this, we could use a Barbarella Blu-ray, stat.) If you love the film—for whatever reason, I won't judge—and you're wondering whether this 15-year anniversary Blu-ray edition is worth the upgrade from the DVD, don't hesitate. Showgirls looks and sounds better than ever. I can't bring myself to recommend the film to newcomers, but if you're already a fan, have at it.