Showgirls (1995) - Verhoeven's outrageous, ridiculous, hilarious Hollywood anomaly

♥♥♥♥

 

A nubile, long-legged blond figure adorns this dark poster for Paul Verhoeven's Showgirls

Nomi arrives in Las Vegas without her suitcase but with her head full of dreams. And luckily she soon befriends Molly, a seamstress who introduces her to the town's adult dance scene.

 

Showgirls is written by Joe Eszterhas (Flashdance (1983)) and directed by Dutch master filmmaker Paul Verhoeven (Wat Zien Ik (1971)), whose 11th feature it is. 

It is an anomaly in Hollywood history: The first and only wide release NC-17 rated movie, Showgirls is likely the big studio pic with most bare breasts, a giant budget and no major stars. It is a lustful, young-boyishly-enthused, strange work that could only come from Verhoeven.

Elizabeth Berkley (Meet Market (2004)) is wild and electric as Nomi, (and writhes almost convulsively in her sex scenes), but in the context of the fever dream-like film her ridiculed performance actually could hardly have been better. Gina Gershon (P.S. I Love You (2007)) camps it up as the show's star Cristal. Robert Davi (The Hot Chick (2002)) is ideal as a creep, and Kyle MacLachlan (Free Jimmy (2006)) is funny (and shows off his great ass) as a rich playboy.

The melodrama gets another gear here. The photography (by Jost Vacano (Supermarket (1974))) and execution is highly competent and vivid, and the result is an outrageous, ridiculous, hilarious bucket of juicy, rich entertainment, a good/bad reflection on the American performance culture. The dance acts are phenomenal, and once the news sensation of the nudity evaporates, Showgirls still has more and more laughable developments to offer. It may be exploitation, (as Quentin Tarantino has called it), but in any case Showgirls is delivered with a major twinkle in the eye. 

Related posts:

Paul Verhoeven: Hollow Man (2000) - Superb effects in Verhoeven's miss 

Top 10: Best cop movies reviewed by Film Excess to date  
Basic Instinct (1992) or, Irresistable Desire!  

Top 10: Best erotic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

The Fourth Man/De Vierde Man (1983) - Verhoeven's amazing Dutch sex thriller nightmare

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 45 mil. $

Box office: 37.7 mil. $

= Huge flop (returned 0.83 times its cost)

[Showgirls premiered 21 September (California) and runs 131 minutes. Eszterhas became the highest-paid screenwriter in movie history for Showgirls: He was reportedly given a 2 mil. $ advance based on an idea scribbled on a napkin at a meeting with Verhoeven, and then another 1.7 mil. $ once the film began production. Verhoeven was paid 2 mil. $ for directing; and Berkley was paid 100k $ for her performance in the film. Shooting took place from August - December 1994 in Los Angeles, California and in Nevada, including in Las Vegas. Distributor United Artists reportedly dispatched hundreds of employees to cinemas in the US to make sure no patrons snuck into showings and that the 17 age requirement was upheld. The film opened #2, behind fellow new release Seven, to an 8.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another weekend in the top 5 (#5) and grossed 20.3 mil. $ (53.8 % of the total gross). The film was banned in Ireland for blasphemy. Berkley was dropped by her agent following the film's release and was ignored by other agents. Although theatrically a huge flop, the film since became a cult favorite, accruing a reported 100 mil. $ through its video release. Roger Ebert gave it a 2/4 star review, translating to 2 notches under this one. Verhoeven returned with Starship Troopers (1997). Berkley returned in White Wolves II: Legend of the Wild (1996). Showgirls is rotten at 23 % with a 3.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Showgirls?

Face/Off (1997) - Travolta and Cage butt heads in Woo's wild, silly action machine

♥♥♥

Major stars Nicholas Cage and John Travolta seem to melt together on this sparse poster for John Woo's Face/Off

The mad terrorist Castor Troy assassinated FBI agent Sean Archer's son some years in the past. As Archer finally brings the lunatic in, he is a vegetable. - In order to prevent Troy's also mad brother Pollux from bombing Los Angeles, Archer undergoes surgery in order to 'attain' Castor's face and body. - But complications arise, when Castor escapes his coma!

Face/Off is written by Mike Werb (The Mask (1994)) and Michael Colleary (Firehouse Dog (2007)) and directed by great Chinese filmmaker John Woo (Mission: Impossible II (2000)). As is obvious from the story summary above, it runs on a very silly plot with incredibly unlikely elements, to put it mildly.
First of all, Face/Off is a major star vehicle action movie, and John Travolta (White Man's Burden (1995)) and Nicolas Cage (Ghost Rider (2007)) both overplay their wild-mannered, identity-swapping characters eminently, which suits the ludicrousness of the film perfectly. 
Woo wrangles his biggest production yet here, and he makes his loud but elegant brand of action work as high-end mainstream Hollywood fare. It is a crazy jaw buster of a movie, but in my book his next major Hollywood actioner, Mission: Impossible II is a more thrilling and satisfying film.

Watch a trailer for the film from a VHS here

Cost: 80 mil. $
Box office: 245.6 mil. $
= Box office success (3.07 times the cost)
[Face/Off premiered 19 June (Westwood, Los Angeles) and runs 138 minutes. Werb and Colleary were trying to sell their spec script in 1990. The first package included Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone in the two leads. Shooting took place in California, including Los Angeles and San Diego. The film opened #1 to a 23.3 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 3 weeks in the top 5 (#2-#3-#5) and grossed 112.2 mil. $ (45.7 % of the total gross). It was the 11th highest-grossing film of the year in North America, and the 14th highest-grossing globally. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to a notch better than this review. The film was nominated for an Oscar for Sound Editing, which it lost to masterpiece Titanic (1997). Woo returned with Dolph Lundgren-starring TV movie Blackjack (1998) and theatrically with great actioner Mission: Impossible II (2000). Travolta returned in Mad City (1997), Cage in City of Angels (1998). Face/Off is certified fresh at 92 % with a 7.9 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Face/Off?

Killer Joe (2011) - Friedkin's dark, intense maybe last cinematic package

♥♥♥♥♥

3 Time Film Excess Nominee:


Best Screenplay: Tracy Letts (lost to Rory Stewart Kinnear, Lynne Ramsay for We Need to Talk About Kevin)
Best Director: William Friedkin (lost to Agnieszka Holland for In Darkness)
Best Actor: Matthew McConaughey (lost to Jack Black for Bernie)

+ Best Poster of the Year 

Blood-spattered deep-fried chicken never looked as good as on the poster for William Friedkin's Killer Joe

QUICK REVIEW:

An underclass thug accuses his mother of cocaine theft and plans her death for the insurance sum along with his father and his family and with the help of a mysterious hitman. But the untraditional retainer for the payment (his younger sister) gets him to change his mind...

The Joe character, played with diabolic mastery by Matthew McConaughey (Mud (2012)), is symbolic, it seems to me, as he is the incarnated consequence that this inconsequential family had not calculated on. Emile Hirsch (Into the Wild (2007)), Thomas Haden Church (Heaven Is for Real (2014)), Gina Gershon (Bound (1996)) and Juno Temple (Maleficent (2014)) are all rough diamonds under the solid direction of master filmmaker William Friedkin (The Exorcist (1973)).
Tracy Letts (Bug (2006)) has adapted his own play, (just as he did for Friedkin's much inferior Bug), and his script is really good. The film seems a little bit like Friedkin's answer to the challenge that is Drive (2011), - though Killer Joe is less stylized, - but since the two came out around the same time, that interpretation wouldn't hold up in court.
The violence of Joe is gruesome, once it explodes in the film's finale. The film has plenty of dark humor and could be termed misanthropic. - It certainly shows a deeply callous, stupid, unhelpful underbelly of society without pity. The film's smart ending may make you feel a (very politically incorrect) cry howl out inside of you, objecting to the fact that these abominable people actually procreate.
Killer Joe is Friedkin's last film to date, and perhaps it will be the last of his career. If so, it is a strong end, a cool, hard, ideal for late-night adult pleasure (strictly for those with strong stomachs) a' la Bound.

Related review:

William Friedkin: 2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
The Boys in the Band (1970) - Friedkin and Crowley's groundbreaking gay birthday party movie

Watch the trailer for the movie here

Cost: 10 mil. $
Box office: 3.7 mil. $
= Huge flop
[Friedkin was a box office champion once, namely with The French Connection (1971) and The Exorcist, but his career seems to come to an end with two smaller films that have flopped commercially. Killer Joe made a disappointing 1.9 mil. $ (51 % of the total gross) in the US, where it was only shown on 75 screens, its release hindered by its NC-17 rating. But also abroad, Joe, despite good reviews, suffered from poor distribution and audience reception.]

What do you think of Killer Joe?

Cocktail (1988) - Cruise an iconic stand-out in Donaldson's masterful drama

♥♥♥♥♥♥

Young, clean-shaven Tom Cruise, ready to serve your drink of choice, for Roger Donaldson's Cocktail

Brian Flanagan has returned home from the military full of ambition to pursue his dreams, which lead him to bartending in New York City. But he must face complications in life as well as realizing that despite his tremendous drive, the millionaire life he dreams of doesn't come as he'd hoped.

Tom Cruise (Born on the Fourth of July (1989)) is Oscar-worthy in his best part yet here; Flanagan reflects dreams of greatness and the frustration of making mistakes and meeting obstacles that most will be able to relate to. Cocktail tells a universal story of dreams, believing in them and keeping them alive, and of finding something greater on the way to achieving them: Love. There is more than meets the eye to Cocktail, which is in fact an example of hugely focused storytelling at its best and most charming. The film features a young Gina Gershon (Bound (1996)), Bryan Brown (Gods of Egypt (2016)) is terrific as Flanagan's condescending business partner-friend, and Elisabeth Shue (Leaving Las Vegas (1995)) plays Flanagan's love interest with grace, charm and intellect. The two have real chemistry, and the film also benefits from a wealth of great songs and elegant photography by Dean Semler (Appaloosa (2008)).
Cocktail is written by Heywood Gould (Fort Apache the Brown (1981)) and directed by Australian master filmmaker Roger Donaldson (Thirteen Days (2000)). It is funny, romantic, dramatic and uplifting, with great lines and no rough patches; a film that can be seen again and again, first-class storytelling.

Related review:

Roger Donaldson: Thirteen Days (2000) - Electrifying Cuban Missile Crisis thriller

The Cocktail trailer simply gives away nearly the whole movie, so here, instead, is a great scene from the film, for your viewing pleasure

Cost: 11 mil. $
Box office: 171.1 mil. $
= Huge hit
[Cruise was a lifestyle phenomenon and a teenage idol by the late 80's, (especially catapulted by the success of Top Gun (1986)), and Cocktail is a vehicle that exploits this status to great effect. It was a huge hit in the US, where it made 78.2 mil. $ (46% of the total gross), as well as internationally. It was Globe-nominated for Best Song and (in a ridiculous stunt of simply trashing what's popular) Raspberry-nominated for Worst Actor (Cruise) and Worst Director (Donaldson), winning for Worst Picture (producers Ted Field and Robert W. Cort) and Worst Screenplay (Gould).]

What do you think of Cocktail? 
Do you think it deserved any of the Razzie statuettes and nominations it received?

Bound (1996) - Lesbian femme fatales in dark as espresso mob thriller

♥♥♥♥♥

+ Best Big Flop Movie of the Year + Erotic Movie of the Year + Best Rainbow Movie of the Year + Best Thriller of the Year 

Gina Gershon and Jennifer Tilly hang dollars to dry on the poster for the Wachowski Brothers' Bound

QUICK REVIEW:

Violet & Corky decide to steal about 2 million $ that're going through Violet's guy Cesar's apartment. That ends up complicated and bloody.
Bound is a really cool film full of leather, white paint, lesbians and guns.
It's made minimalistic in scope, as it almost entirely plays out in only two apartments, but maximalistic in style and violence, SPOILER for example in paranoid-psychotic Cesar's (Joe Pantoliano (The Sopranos (2001-04)) death scene which is operatic and shows some of the coming Matrix-magic that the director-pair, brothers, now brother and sister, Andy and Lana Wachowski were to present next in 1999 to an astounded world. Bound was the debut of the two and was made to convince studio heads that they could pull of a Matrix-class film.
The hard-boiled women couple are played by Jennifer Tilly (Liar Liar (1997)) and Gina Gershon (Face/Off (1997)), and they are sort of updated urban versions of Thelma & Louise (1991), with smaller hairdos, who also have sex with each other.
Bound is a super-cool, erotic mob-thriller; high-paced, full of fast, smart lines and cool photography by Bill Pope (The Matrix (1999)). It shows the directors' inspiration from Billy Wilder, but is still very much its own film.
The Wachowskis unfortunately continue their sci-fi-oddity obsession after Cloud Atlas (2012) with the coming head-scratcher Jupiter Ascending (2014), which looks at least as weird and bad as the Tom Hanks turkey from last year. Then they are set to work on the TV-series Sense8 (2014).

 

Related post:

 

1996 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

Another poster for Bound

Watch the trailer here, which isn't as good as the film

Budget: 6 mil. $
Box office: 3.8 mil. $
= Flop

What do you think of Bound?
Other cool mob-related films with female protagonists?