Showgirls (15th Anniversary Sinsational Edition) (1995)

If you previously bought the SHOWGIRLS VIP edition this is the exact same disc only packaged without the box and all the trinkets that came with that edition. You get commentary by a guy who is a fan of the movie and helps host late night screenings, the Scores girls talk about stripping and critique those sequences, and there's an old promotional piece made during shooting that is called "A Diary". The transfer is good and the extras are fun, though none of them seem to cover anybody associated with the film. If you did not purchase the glam deluxe box set this is a cheap way to get all those features without hunting it down. Otherwise if you have that edition, this is merely a double dip and repackaging of the same disc with new cover art.

This is the NC-17 cut and no additional material has been added. If you have that edition already there is no difference in the movie at all. There are no deleted or extended scenes. This is the version shown in theatres and released twice before on DVD.

SHOWGIRLS begs for better extras. I would love to hear a director's commentary or Elizabeth Berkley and Gina Gershon talk about the film. But that hasn't happened yet. Maybe one day we can hope for a Criterion edition and all the stops will be pulled out!

This is the quintessential bad movie. It's so bad it's great! I remember when this movie came out and I believe it was the director's intention to make a serious movie. Well I'm glad it didn't turn out that way. This has to be by far one of the most hilarious movies I've seen. The over-over-overacting by Elizabeth Berkeley is pure comedy and will keep you laughing from the first scene to the last. It's pretty hard to take any of it seriously when scene after scene after scene is just so ridiculous, I.E. the pool sex scene. If one could even call it that...watching that poor gal flop around in the water like that reminded me of a fish out of water fighting for its life. It was great. The dance sequences were great, I must say I enjoyed the dancing. A lot of people say this is a horrible movie and it is, but the key is to not take any of it seriously and just turn your brain off and watch it. You can't help but laugh, I promise. I know when I first saw it years years years ago, I thought it was the worst piece of crap I had seen...then I saw it again and again and it's the movie I watch when I need a damn good laugh. Definitely a must have.

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Every now and then, a film is so bad, so wretched, so devoid of any socially or artistically redeeming value as to take on a life of its own, and by the very denial of value, acquire a value unto itself.

So it is with "Showgirls."

This film is, of course, well and truly ridiculed in every quarter of the world of serious art critique, and even righteously lampooned in "The Simpsons", a venue that provides a surprising amount of accurate commentary on artistic merit. And the spotlight reviews here on Amazon.com are so wonderful, I almost despaired to write anything approaching their brilliance. But I felt I had to add my mite to the general acclaim for this contrarian work of art.

The story is, as has been related so many times, of a simple girl with a shady past, Nomi, who hitchhikes to Vegas. Is there, you ask, any OTHER way to get to Vegas? No, indeed. A pretty girl with a great figure and a look of jaw-dropping stupidity (Elizabeth Berkley) should never take a bus or turn tricks to fund a budget plane ticket. Only risking her life in a random encounter with what could be (but wasn't) a homicidal pervert trolling for hitchers is the way to arrive in Vegas in the proper manner. Nomi hooks up with a soul sister sewing pal in a trailer and becomes ensnared in dancer/manipulator/girl-liker (lover) Cristal's web. (Isn't this just awful writing from me? I'm indulging in a veritable Bulwer-Lytton festival of bad prose here.)

Nomi of course, climbs out of her seedy second-rate strip club, I mean, Vegas show and gets a role in the hot new extravaganza "Goddess." My favorite part of the scene is not the crummy audition. No, it's right afterwards, when she trots on up to the Human Resources department and feigns not knowing her social security number and is even rather vague on her date of birth. Her lack of next-of-kin prompts the HR lady to ask "deceased?" and Nomi does a creditable job in looking as if she knows that "deceased" means "dead" and not the opposite of "increased" This is absolutely believable acting, assisted by some very bad lipgloss over some phenomenally collagen-enhanced lips. At this point in film, also, the already dubious dialog hits pothole after pothole. "She is all about pelvic thrust...and she didn't learn that in dance lessons" or something to that effect. I didn't hear it too well, because I was gasping for air after a huge guffaw.

The dialog continues to bump along as Nomi does the same, along with grinding out some astonishing bad dancing, consisting of a lot of jerky arm-throwing, pelvic thrusting and leg humping of shoulders, hips and any convenient pole or chair. Spoilers? None. I always forget how this film works out at the end, because I am rolling on the floor and have to shut off the DVD.

Along with "Buckaroo Banzai", this is probably one of my top picks for bad films that are so bad, they are actually enjoyable. Whether you are just being a voyeur or you appreciate camp, this is one terrific blurp of entertainment.

Read Best Reviews of Showgirls (15th Anniversary Sinsational Edition) (1995) Here

One of the worst films I've ever seen. Five stars.

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Showgirls (15th Anniversary Sinsational Edition) [Blu-ray]Blu-Ray has the same content as the previously released DVD of Showgirls in the V.I.P. box set or FULLY EXPOSED edition. Same dishy drama professor queen commentary track by David Schmader of Seattle, same text in the Pop Up Trivia Track. But, the transfer is re-done in Hi Def 1080p

BluRay. The Graphics are updated for the Pop Up Trivia Track, and the disc menu is the cutest animation with important memorable lines from the timelessly awful screenplay memorialized (It's from Ver-Sayce) in the menu's animated slot machine. The transfer is state of the art, cleaned up and restored, with no trace of dirt or scratches that sometimes come with a 1994 film. From the start you can see every excruciating detail. Whether it's Nomi's earrings, details of the now gone Las Vegas hotels like the Hacienda and the Stardust. You may have to adjust your set for the over-saturated over the top color. The disc can't be faulted for great detail and clarity

in this HD transfer of the cult status film. One thing about the audio, the only full surround track is in DTS. The Dolby tracks are only in 2 channel, English, French, Spanish, or catty commentary track. So, for the full effect, make sure your surround system can decode DTS HD Master Audio. Otherwise, no discrete surround, only 2 channel mixed for Dolby Pro Logic. This is not the case in previous DVD releases which had Dolby 5.1 surround tracks.

Las Vegas has changed a lot since 1994, and you can see the lost Vegas in the exterior scenes on The Strip and outside the Stardust like you are back in the day. The transfer looks great, a must have for SHOWGIRLS fans that have a Blu-Ray and DTS Surround home theater to re-live the wonderful awfulness of this cult classic, in new found sparkling detail.

ADDENDUM On reviewing the "Extras" I notice that they include "Pole Dancing Finding your Inner Stripper" is

a tutorial by a former ballerina that now teaches Pole Dancing. Terry Jaworski of "S Factor", her dance and exercise school. Even though the end credits for this 12 minute featurette

have the 1995 release date for the main "Showgirls" feature, it appears that "Pole Dancing Finding your inner Stripper" may have been produced for the 2010 release of the Blu-Ray with a 2010 date at the end. Terry spells out the specifics on all the moves in pole dancing, which in the video she calls "swing walk", "firefly", "Corkscrew", "Snake", "the Dive", "Pole Cat", "Helicopter", "Climb", "Layout", and the "Descending Angel".