Paul Verhoeven was at the top of Hollywood after ‘Basic Instinct’, whose success sparked a flurry of erotic films, most of them in the form of thrillers. Instead, he opted for a more dramatic approach in ‘Showgirls’, his next and controversial feature film that you have available on Amazon Prime Video Spain from this Friday, September 16.
A one-of-a-kind movie
‘Showgirls’ was a huge flop at the time of its release, since it barely raised 37 million dollars when it had cost more than 40. In addition, the critics were cruel to it, with several comments placing it as one of the worst movies of all. the times, being the actress Elizabeth Berkley (‘Saved by the bell’) the main victim, as her promising career sank to never recover.
The funny thing is that this kind of modern and erotic version of ‘Nude Eva’ then it swept the domestic market and its image improved over the years, with many experts emphasizing its satirical component when it came to showing Nomi Malone’s rise to fame charged with sex and violence.
like more or less ‘Showgirls’ is a one-of-a-kind movie, being very easy to understand for those who hate it and see in it a show as excessive as it is insane. Everything in it can seem out of place, with some dialogues being especially crazy, but the whole achieves a peculiar unity that makes it a proposal that deserves to be given a second chance.
Although they share both Verhoeven and a script by Joe Eszterhas, I think ‘Basic Instinct’ is far superior to ‘Showgirls’, but also that the latter is a film without fear of ridicule and that it enjoys greater creative freedom, something that more than one of us may not have appreciated at the time. In return, it was also a bit the beginning of the end for Verhoeven in Hollywood, because with ‘Starship Troopers’ he was also quite misunderstood and after the vindictive ‘The man without a shadow’ he ended up deciding to return to his native Europe.
In Espinof:
Source: www.espinof.com
