Showgirls: 15th Anniversary Sinsational Edition – Blu-ray Review

The Film:

Do you, dear reader, really need an introduction to Showgirls (1995)? It’s the only mainstream studio film to receive the now (and perhaps then) dreaded NC-17 rating, to only bomb at the box office amidst the poor revenue, got a horrendous critical response, and earned itself like a million Razzies (okay, it was actually 13 nominations, with only 7 wins), all to survive in a healthy lifestyle on the rental market, which was aided by loving midnight showings on TV and in theaters, and finally, was dubbed a cult classic. Got it? Whew! Often compared to the 1950′s classic, All About Eve…ahh, well, it’s best to stop there. Life sucks. Sh*t Happens. I’m a student of t-shirts says one character, only to after the film’s release to have star Gina Gershon state: “I should have a shirt that says ‘I survived Showgirls’.“

It’s interesting that Paul Verhoeven (Robocop, Total Recall, Basic Instinct) directed this film and wanted too, because he really is all wrong for it. He directs and paces each scene as if it’s building up towards an action sequence, or is a climax a better analogy? But the film feels like an odd glam version of Scarface; a rags-to-riches tale of sex and power as compared to Tony Montana’s money and power quest. It’s a coked-up trip, a completely schizophrenic film about excess and the beautiful amounts of excess. Verhoeven claims it is a morality tale, but if it was, then Nomi (Elizabeth Berkley)-along with other characters-would have faced some sort of consequences for the step-on-you-on-the-way-up and step-on-you-on-the-way-down attitude they possess. Tony Montana believed in the American Dream and died for it, even if he was flawed in his actions, Nomi dizzily plays within this faux-reality of the American Dream is only one hip-thrust away.

Nobody learns any lessons; it’s a Greek Tragedy without the tragedy. But so? It’s worthy of a book on how bad it is in traditional movie-making terms, yet that’s why it has enjoyed the cult status its received. It’s immensely watchable, paced like it’s at the Indy 500 racing, and is filled with enough oddities in the dialogue and character actions to make it bad movie bliss. Showgirls was meant to be good, but wasn’t. But it lives as being fun and entertaining. The film is about characters as deep and as shallow as a raindrop, so what does that say about us? We like our entertainment cheap.

The Blu-ray:

Audio/Video: MGM offers a solid looking HD transfer, full of clarity, texture, and bold, eye-popping colors. The TV (obviously) and DVDs always made they film look a bit murky, but thankfully, we get to see it here in a rather gorgeous transfer for a 15 year old film. The DTS track, to me, was really surprising. It’s loud, aggressive, and offers deep bass. Clear clarity in the dialogue and really active in the rear speakers, making the audio track a rambunctious listen.

Commentary: David Schmader is a rapid fan of the film, so this is much like a fan commentary for pure fun, nothing more. He does offer up some interesting tidbits, but is rather tongue-in-cheek most of the time. Sadly, he’s a soft talker and gives us plenty of gaps. I would recommend this with the disc’s Pop Up Trivia track, making it a better two-for-one experience, as it offers plenty of good information, amongst plenty of Saved by the Bell history.

Pole Dancing: Finder Your Inner Stripper: This HD featurette isn’t much. Teri Jaworski, director of S Factor showcases a few moves non-nude. In Lap Dance Tutorial Featuring The World Famous Girls of Scores we’re treated to more lessons in stripping (since I’ve always wanted to learn) for about 10 minutes in SD, and A Showgirl’s Diary offers us some actual film-related info with Verhoeven’s storyboard sketches and on-set footage in SD. An HD Trailer concludes the extras, which really are just ported over from the 2004′s V.I.P. DVD Edition release.

Disc 2 is the DVD and that actually offers a Behind-the-Scenes featurette not on the Blu-ray disc.

Conclusion: Move aside Plan 9 from Outer Space. Bad, campy, fun, whatever you name it, it really is the one-and-only Showgirls. It’s first ever Blu-ray looks and sounds really good, despite having no new extras.

The Film (in normal terms, but would score a 3.5 for fun): Rating:

The Blu-ray: Rating: