Year:
1995
Studio:
United Artists
Movie:
3/5
DVD:
1/5
Teaser
This is a classic plot: girl comes to the big city, tries to make it
big, realizes that she has to give up a bit too much of her soul to
succeed, leaves the city poorer but wiser for the experience. In this
case we have Nomi Malone (Elizabeth Berkley), a young woman "from the
East Coast" who has arrived in Las Vegas to make it big as a dancer.
Things don't start out well for Nomi as her ride ditches her and takes
her suitcase with all her belongings. Luckily, she falls in with Molly
Abrams (Gina Ravera), a stylist at the Desert Sands, who takes Nomi in.
A few weeks later Nomi is struggling as a stripper -- she's has a
"natural" talent but is quite hot-headed. Nomi catches the eyes of
Cristal Connors (Gina Gershon), headline dancer at the Sands, and Zack
Carey (Kyle MacLachlan), entertainment manager at the Sands.
Soon they get Nomi an audition and then into the show and then she's
rocketing to the top. But it's not going to be that easy because
there's fierce competition from the other dancers and some sort of
sexual infighting between Cristal and Zack as they both try to seduce
Nomi. What is Nomi willing to do to get ahead? And when will come the
line that she'll refuse to cross?
Movie
Lots of people really panned this movie, some calling it one of the
worst movies ever. So I wasn't expecting much when I watched
"Showgirls" and perhaps that's why it was an ok movie. There is a lot
of nudity and a couple of soft-core sex scenes that caused this movie
to get an NC-17 rating.
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Truthfully,
Elizabeth Berkley looks beautiful, as does Gina Gershon,
but a dozen topless girls eventually just blend in together.
Beyond the superficial sex it's a standard story. Nomi has had a tough
life and she has had to do some things that she doesn't particularly
regret but she'd rather not talk about. When you get down to it she's
tough and fickle and not nice at all, but you can see why she is that
way. Everybody's trying to use each other and Las Vegas is quite a
dog-eat-dog city.
Funny thing is at the end of the movie Nomi is headed to Los Angeles
and I'm thinking "ok, now she's going to be a porn starlet".
Actors
It takes guts to do a movie like this because it could end your career,
at least for the women. Kyle McLachlan had nothing to worry about --
it's not like he was naked throughout the movie. Elizabeth Berkley on
the other hand was topless a lot with some full frontal nudity. But the
role hasn't seemed to hurt her career, though I'm sure she's tired of
hearing about it. I don't recall Gina Gershon getting any sort of
negative publicity. I guess the difference is that she was only topless
for a few scenes and she hadn't just come out from playing a
high-school student for four years.
DVD
Nothing special on the DVD. Wide-screen format movie, theatrical
trailer, and a 4-1/2 minute featurette are included.
Recommendations
If you've phantasized about Elizabeth Berkley this is the movie for
you. If you just like her maybe you don't want to see her this way, but
she did act well regardless. Likewise for Gina Gershon. |