Showgirls came out in 1995, directed by Paul Verhoeven, written by Joe Eszterhas, it destroyed the career of Elizabeth Berkley. Showgirls is a very bad film.

It is the type of bad that has made it very popular years later in the “so bad it’s good“ vein. Considering it is about Las Vegas Showgirls, features a lot of dancing and nudity, the film is very unsexy. It is the story of Nomi, played by Berkley, who hitchhikes into Vegas to be a dancer, has a lot of bad luck, becomes a stripper, impresses Kyle McLaughlin and Gina Gershon, becomes a showgirl and then a featured dancer after lots of hijinks and abuse. Then more stuff happens.

This is not a good film but Berkley gets blamed for it with her overactive performance at odds with the other performances in the show (not her fault it turns out, Verhoeven directed her that way). The dialogue is atrocious. The overall film is graphically violent, angry and unsexy but still feels kind of campy which is weird.

I understand why it is popular as a cult film but I really had a difficult time with it. Berkley deserved better.

Watch it or don’t. It’s bad but strange.

-all photos via IMDb.com.