showgirls 2 : penny ' s from heaven
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copyright 2011 rena riffel. official movie trailer for showgirls 2: penny' s from heaven. music score by kevin macleod and additional score by r. whitfield .
showgirls 2: penny’s from heaven is rena riffel taking showgirls and skinning it alive. the plot is a surreal amalgam of plot elements of showgirls as retold by an extremely drunk or high fanatic combined with clues of the sequel dropped by the original film .
it must be noted right from the off that showgirls 2: penny’s from heaven is less of a sequel and more or a direct parody of the verhoeven bomb. but not a parody in the modern sense of the word, and more in the classic zucker / abrams or brooks style. rena riffel (returning from the first movie) multi - tasks by writing, producing, staring, directing and even editing a movie that is as self - aware as those who embraced the original. it’s not so much an exercise in filmmaking but more a celebration of the maddening obsession people have about a movie that no one else liked. in order to get showgirls 2: penny’s from heaven, one must first get showgirls .
hi, my name is rena riffel. most people
know me
as
penny / hope
from the movie showgirls .
and all of this would lead to a great movie if it weren’t for two major problems. at an inexplicable 2 hours and 30 minutes, showgirls 2: penny’s from heaven is a slog to sit through and it outstays its welcome at around the hour mark and just about makes it to 90 minutes. but then it keeps going for another hour. there are laughs to be had but the movie is exhausting and isn’t helped by the other issue – it looks like garbage. showgirls 2: penny’s from heaven doesn’t look like a low budget movie, it someone how manages to look worse than a no - budget production. troma films wish they looked this bad. it’s also littered with editing errors that one could argue are intentional, but its a hard case to fight for when the film looks this awful. riffel claims the movie cost $ 30, 000, which is almost impossible to believe as there are hundreds of self - made youtube videos made for peanuts with better production values. it almost makes it unwatchable and while the showgirls obsessives may be able to look past it, showgirls 2: penny’s from heaven looks beyond amateur .
never have i come so close to not making it through a movie. i mean that on all levels: falling asleep, turning it off or simply just ending it all. at two and a half hours long, showgirls 2: penny' s from heaven is unrelenting in its quest to destroy your sanity and soul with painful boredom .
and in that sense, showgirls 2: penny’s from heaven works. it’s not brilliant, but it works. it directly parodies scenes from showgirls but you have to know the movie well enough in order to get the joke, which further plays to the audience it was intended for. it’s as dumb as its protagonist and it knows it. going over the plot would pointless because it almost doesn’t matter. but you can expect pool sex, brown rice and veg, beads on stage and several cameos from the original movie’s cast. everything a showgirls obsessive would want is on show and written with a kind of self - awareness that most modern day parody writers wish they had .
this is the kind of movie which can serve as an example of why star ratings in reviews don’t work. at its base value, showgirls 2: penny’s from heaven might just be one of the worst movies ever released to a wide public. the acting is horrendous, the editing is sloppy and the film looks worse than a low - rent high school theatre production. but it’s a movie that is made for a certain audience and they are going to lap up every minute of it like doggy chow. so, in that sense, showgirls 2: penny’s from heaven is a kind of a work of genius. if the film had been shorter and shot to look like an actual movie, it would have been one of the better parodies of recent memory .
it’s not uncommon for movie studios to produce cheap straight - to - video “sequels” to well - known movies based solely on name recognition, often with virtually no connection to the originals. at first glance, you might expect showgirls 2: penny’s from heaven to be one of those movies, trading on the notoriety of paul verhoeven’s infamous 1995 flop, which has developed into a cult classic. but showgirls 2 isn’t a cheap studio cash - in; it’s a bona fide labor of love for writer / director / producer / editor / star rena riffel, who played the small role of stripper penny slot in the original movie, and here brings penny center stage as the main character in her own story .
it’s the movie virtually no one was asking for, a sequel to paul verhoeven’s much maligned showgirls – a film that was nominated for so many razzies that verhoeven himself showed up to accept the awards. but after the film bombed at the box office, it found new life on the home video market and midnight screenings. just like troll 2, many film fans embraced the camp factor of showgirls and have now hailed it as a modern masterpiece with even award winning filmmakers like quentin tarantino putting their stamp of approval on it. this rise in popularity has led us to this point – showgirls 2: penny’s from heaven .
penny, a minor character from the first showgirls, is still working as a stripper but has big dreams to be a star on a low - budget tv dancing show .
in short, if you are among the many who have embraced showgirls, enjoy quoting it with your friends and play the drinking game, you will get a real kick out of showgirls 2: penny’s from heaven. it looks like garbage, but grab some friends together and prepare to relive some of your favourite campy moments in a brilliant self - aware capacity. but if you’re a regular film watcher who dismissed showgirls as nothing more than expensive and exploitative trash, this is one to avoid .
showgirls 2 is sort of a funhouse - mirror version of the original, with numerous lines repurposed and uttered by different characters, famous scenes re - created in new contexts, cameos from other showgirls bit players, and a surreal, dreamlike quality that’s either an intentional artistic choice or an illustration of riffel’s sheer ineptitude as a filmmaker. most likely it’s a little bit of both, as showgirls 2 is clearly a grand artistic statement with bargain - basement production values and a remarkable lack of talent onscreen. while the original showgirls was bad in a big, overblown hollywood way, a boondoggle of a would - be blockbuster, showgirls 2 is bad in a much more personal, idiosyncratic way, more similar to movies like the room or birdemic than it is to verhoeven’s bombastic failure .
godhardt :
what' s your name ?
penny :
um, i can' t remember. olga. helga .
funny, stupid and aware that it' s both, showgirls 2 is the cinematic equivalent of playing dumb. at its most basic, this is a movie about how much fun it is to obsess and quote and remember showgirls, or any enormously ridiculous movie, for that matter. it' s commentary under the guise of babble .
rena riffel’s penny is the black heart of the movie, and is the literalized version of all the criticisms aimed at elizabeth berkeley’s nomi malone. penny is still married to james, the black security / valet / dancer / choreographer from the original movie who gets penny pregnant. james is now a t - shirt maker with terrible sayings on them (“life sucks. shit happens. where do you get these, off t - shirts? ”), but doesn’t make enough money from his job to give penny the life she wants. penny leaves james, and starts hitchhiking to hollywood (nomi’s destination in the final frames), where she catches a ride in a porsche from jeffrey, played by dewey weber who gave nomi her ride to vegas. jeffrey steals her luggage, leaving her destitute in the middle of the woods, as one does .
as punishing and bizarre as showgirls 2 is, it’s also not entirely fair to dismiss it as a waste of time. riffel has at least some level of self - awareness, and some of the movie’s self - consciously nonsensical lines are hilarious. she’s cited john waters, david lynch (in whose mulholland drive she had another bit part, also referenced here), andy warhol, and of course verhoeven himself as influences, and there’s a certain trash - auteur quality to her work. not that it makes showgirls 2 any easier to watch, but it does at times turn it from a painful disaster into a fascinating one .
aw jeez, i was so much happier 2 minutes ago, before i knew this existed .
katya to penny during a dance instruction :
don' t be afraid of using your pussy. come on, it' s right there .
the film features numerous cast members from the first film who reprise their original roles. these include
the funny thing about showgirls 2, is that it was produced, written, directed and stars rene riffel, who played penny in the original showgirls. riffel is clearly a huge fan of her previous work, because she rips it off wholesale. lines, themes and characters - types are all fair game for the poaching goes on here .
showgirls had raised in infamy, yet rena riffel’s career would not recover. this was probably not aided by david schmader making a special note of rena riffel’s participation in the commentary track, wondering where rena riffel had gone. eventually, rena riffel would finally become secure with her place in hollywood infamy. she even showed up at peaches christ’s 15th annual showgirls screening .
choose 1 of 2 free * posters with ticket purchase (* shipping & handling not included). buy tickets
if that wasn’t enough, rena riffel plays penny like a severely dumb blonde who periodically has emotional flashes of anger and petulance. she fills the movie with quotables, including recalling some of the best lines from the original. in a lesbionic hot dog scene that mirrors the spago scene, penny muses, “in vegas, everybody’s a vegetarian. they only eat brown rice and vegetables. ” penny constantly repeats that she needs to take ballet classes at alvin ailey or julliard. at one point, somebody comments, “i don’t know what’s worse: your dancing or your camel toe. ”
for riffel, it' s been a twisted emotional journey, perhaps not unlike that of nomi malone herself. the ridicule showgirls faced upon theatrical release
was kind of devastating ,
she told me. she' s in regular contact with its director, paul verhoeven, whom she initially asked to direct showgirls 2. he declined but, along with the first movie' s executive producers, gave her his blessing to pursue this passion project .
he said it was the most painful, hurtful, negative experience and he would never step foot back in the showgirls world again .
showgirl
is a new film by actress / filmmaker rena riffel (showgirls, striptease, mulholland dr .) a story of being a showgirl after
showgirls
.
let the show begin... again! it' s
showgirls
meets
sunset boulevard
meets
whatever happened to baby jane ?
meets
mommy dearest
in a g - string! showgirls' actress rena riffel is back with
showgirls 2: penny' s from heaven
, an erotic suspense thriller / dark satire. las vegas stripper, penny slot (rena riffel), sets out on an adventure to become the star dancer on a dance television show. with stars in her eyes, she tries to find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow but instead finds danger in a town more wicked than sin city. romance then leads her down a path towards her dream of stardom, fame, and fortune. but danger lurks at every twist and turn while penny slot becomes lured by a dangerous love triangle full of temptation and seduction. penny' s longtime fiance / boyfriend, james
jimmy
smith (glenn plummer) warns her that she needs formal technique training if she wants to be taken seriously as a real dancer, so penny slot heeds his advice and sets out to take ballet classes and practices her pique turns. but, she must pay the price. and there is a price to pay for success, sacrifices to be made at every imaginable level, and it all comes down to... how bad do you want it? !? (c) official site
clocking in at 2: 20 (the same running time as the original), showgirls 2 almost tries your patience. but, the ludicrous and surreal plotting, the references to rena riffel’s career (she also directly references / pisses on david lynch and mulholland drive), the gratuitous dialogue, the terrible sets, and the intentional awfulness of the whole venture creates an ethereal bitterly hilarious air of audaciousness that makes showgirls 2 eminently watchable. unfortunately, in order to get the humor, you must either be well versed in showgirls and its lore, or have watched it as part of a double feature. riffel walks the fine line of shitty low budget filmmaking and winking satire, but only if you know what she’s referencing does one turn into the other .
showgirls 2 was inspired by the adoration the first movie has earned, which riffel has seen on a firsthand basis while attending screenings. as of now, showgirls is the last great hollywood camp classic, where opulence informs its ridiculousness as much as clunkiness. for the past few months, she' s been screening her own film in los angeles. she says the showings have been well attended and met with appreciation. (it' s also available on amazon
riffel reprises the role she played in paul verhoeven' s masterpiece of trash, the hopelessly dim penny. having been anointed the protagonist for this go round, penny is en route from vegas to hollywood in hopes of appearing on a dance show called star dancer that seems to consist of a single, piss poor solid gold dance and is maybe not even a show at all because all of its action takes place in a black - box theater .
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riffel told me that her initial cut was four hours long, full of
very long, pregnant pauses of emotions
from her actors that she then says she went through and cut out (on second reference, she lamented the loss of those
beautiful pauses
). but there are plenty of at least inseminated pauses that remain in, and some of the sheer amazement at showgirls 2 comes from scenes that last so long, it feels like time has stopped. the pacing may test patience, but it' s also a trip: watching penny and katya watch bubbles float in the air as they stand topless in a pool is surreal imagery whose duration only enhances its weirdness .
it' s kind of difficult to dance with a hard - on .
penny, motioning to diamond pendant around her neck :
this is my sister' s remains. her ashes, the carbon, turns into a diamond. it was an option at the morgue. it was: burial, cremation or ashes into a diamond. it' s very expensive .
showgirls 2 is aimed at showgirls obsessives, and it sometimes plays like a spoof (in a very zucker, abrahams and zucker turn, instead of being told to put ice on her nipples at an audition, penny is told to put vaseline on her teeth :
you have such a beautiful smile. you need to keep it lubed up. we wouldn' t want cotton mouth to get the best of you on a special day like today .
). but if it were only parody, its dream haze wouldn' t be worth sitting through. instead, showgirls 2 is intent on adding to the conversation with an arsenal of its own cheesy lines. it is shockingly quotable. feast your eyes :
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this movie from looking at the trailer, sorta reminds me of wargames 2. yes they made a wargames 2 but before you run out and look for it. i' ll warn you its got nothing to do with the original wargames movie. you know your in for a special treat when the lead actress amanda walsh a much music video dj / host is the lead star. our canadian version of mtv / vh1 /. they tried to market this movie in the same way using the name showgirls. do we even see las wages in this movie ?
describing the entire plot of showgirls 2 would take far more room than is available on the internet. it drifts in and out of baffling subplots and heads in new directions regularly (within the movie’s last 15 minutes or so, penny is arrested for a crime she didn’t commit, spends six months in jail and is exonerated thanks to the work of her former maid, who solves the case as part of her college thesis). although the movie has plenty of nudity, it’s all deeply unsexy, and riffel shoots some of the most awkward sex scenes in movie history. as an actress, she makes elizabeth berkley look like meryl streep, and she’s clearly the most accomplished performer in the movie .
a thank you email from rena and an original showgirl screensaver jpeg attached .
you are not just a dancer, you are the star dancer !
join our fan page on facebook, rena riffel' s showgirl. website: urltoken blog: urltoken
penny stumbles onto a drug deal or murder and into a lot of cash, which she brazenly spends on a variety of overly expensive items, including a french maid who cleans up after her. she hooks up with godhardt, who takes her to a party where she is pimped out for the weekend to a rich guy. after protesting and saying she’s not a prostitute, she’s a dancer, godhardt kinda takes her under his wing, which his client / fiancee katya is none too happy about. katya is already a star dancer, and is everything that penny wants to be. meanwhile, penny still wants to make it to hollywood to become famous .
unfolding over a patience - trying 145 minutes (14 minutes longer than the original), showgirls 2 follows penny as she hitchhikes her way out of las vegas to l. a. , to pursue her dream of appearing as the star of a dance show called, appropriately enough, star dancer, which looks like it was shot in a dingy basement tricked out with a stripper pole. the whole movie looks like it was shot in the home of someone’s eccentric relative, despite allegedly taking place in the entertainment capital of the world. penny leaves vegas at the urging of a hollywood movie producer (which is exactly how he’s described on his business card), but somehow she ends up in a “gated community” called seven sisters, which is more like some sort of weird cult compound .
if pure camp requires unawareness, then showgirls 2' s script alone ensured it wouldn' t hit the gold standard – it' s more reminiscent of john waters or troma in its self - consciousness. but that awareness is actually exponential because riffel has also embraced the human - error aesthetic that plays a major role the appeal of neo - camp like the room and birdemic: shock and terror. in the case of those films, sloppiness seems accidental; in showgirls 2, it' s included for effect (
a lot of times i didn' t have other takes ,
riffel adds). the mishmash of a consistently sharp script and incompetence, the by - any - means - necessary approach to entertainment, reminds me the most of beyond the valley of the dolls, which was in turn a hilarious satire (penned by roger ebert) and a terrific mess (check the way dolly read' s british accent dips in and out for tea) .
the budget for showgirls 2 is miniscule. riffel had a kickstarter for the movie, budgeted at $ 5, 000 (it made $ 5, 200). riffel knew she wasn’t going to have the $ 45, 000, 000 that the original showgirls was budgeted at. instead of making a movie which tried to emulated the film, she just ripped it to shreds. the fancy scenes at the cheetah are replaced by a tiki bar. the spago scene is hot dogs over stove in a kitchen in a house. several of the outdoor scenes look like they were done on a forest turnout on route 101 in northern california. all of the cheapness really help sell the satire. where showgirls was rich and lush trying to mask its trash qualities, showgirls 2 is cheap and garish pointing out the awfulness of the original .
this looks like some weird shit. i might have to check it out (as i do love me some showgirls) .
showgirls 2 is where old camp meets new, where the opulent hollywood bomb gets an amateur' s translation. i talked to riffel by phone and she told me that the film' s budget was around $ 30, 000 (in a penny - like admission, she explained ,
i' m not even sure anymore, ‘cause we just kinda lost track .
). it was shot in different places (mostly in los angeles) in 30 days over a four - month period in the middle of 2010. the film is riddled with technical glitches in its continuity, sound editing and its actors' readings. weird intonations and flubbed lines occur regularly .
jimmy: you' re not dumb, you just play dumb. penny: like a possum? jimmy: no. a possum plays dead, not dumb .
you' re not old. i' m old. i' m like thirty - s…something .
showgirls was a flop of epic proportions. it failed at the box office, became joke fodder for late night talk shows, was even a punchline in scream 2, and killed the careers of all the bit players, as well as star elizabeth berkeley. it was such a big flop, it also killed the box office of the next stripper movie to follow in its wake, 1996’s striptease, in which rena riffel also had a bit part .
simultaneously, david schmader had been touring with the dvd of showgirls, giving annotated screenings with the fast forward and rewind button handy. he started here in seattle, but eventually took the screenings on tour and became infamous enough to secure his role on the commentary track of the vip edition (and subsequent blu - rays) of showgirls. his screenings highlight the quotability of showgirls, as well as the ridiculousness and the cinematic trashiness .
okay so i watched this shit show this weekend, mainly because it' s on prime video, and boy is it godawful. my friends and i found that the best way to watch this, that actually kinda worked, was to watch 4 - 5 minutes of the movie depending on bad it was and then skip about 10 minutes and repeat. doing this actually made it quite an enjoyable experience, but that' s like comparing getting shot in the foot to getting shot in the head. another issue i had with this movie was that i couldn' t remember the main character from the first film since there were literally dozens of showgirls on the screen at any one time, and she wasn' t one of the main 5 - 6 showgirls to the best of my memory. i don' t even think you can call this a parody, but rather a shitty copy of an already shitty movie from the opening hitchhiking scene with the guy in his
uncle' s million dollar porsche
to the fact that it includes glen plummer reprising his role from the first movie for a needless cameo, or that it includes basically no showgirling but rather appearances by a guy who looks like the devil and a snuff film ring, this would be an amazing live show episode .
special thanks credit in the film! ! that' s right, your name will appear in the credits in a beautiful montage. it' s pretty amazing to see your name in a movie, and you will be part of showgirl history! ! !
that only touches on the main
plot
elements of showgirls 2, but be advised that there' s an unending supply of pointless scenes and subplots, from random outdoor bathroom breaks to spats between gay lovers to the reoccurring maidall for no reason. the same goes for the headscratching script, though at least the dialogue is entertainingly bad. you can see most of them in the best lines section below, but there are plenty of winners: -
there' s an art to a good wiener .
-
women are like bananas: they' re sweetest when they' re ripe, right before they shrivel. but you, you' re a banana split, with a cherry on top and nuts .
-
i don' t know what' s worse your dancing or your cameltoe .
-
i' m like a burger drive - thru and instead of a burger it' s a whore with fries and a soda .
- and james' amazing shakespearean soliloquy where he waxes poetic about dancing, aids and swine flu, arthritis and following your dreams .
an amazing talented cast has come together to make a musical movie, showgirl. cast members i have worked with before on showgirls and mulholland drive will appear in the film, and peter stickles from
short bus
/
the lair
, and many more that i will announce! ! i have written the script and am directing the movie. (i played
penny / hope
, the naive blonde stripper who ends up pregnant by glenn plummer' s character ,
james
, in the 1995 cult classic showgirls. i then starred with demi moore in striptease, again playing the ditzy blonde stripper role, and david lynch cast me in his masterpiece, mulholland drive... playing, well, kind of the same character, lol) so, that is who i am, maybe you remember seeing me in my past films .
even your faithful reader was holding screenings back in the midwest of showgirls complete with drinking games. i started holding these screenings in 2001, after i had witnessed the glory of showgirls on widescreen vhs (omg). these screenings had a regular cast of my favorite outcasts in the audience, and they were joyous fun .
so it' s pretty much the first film, except the title character is a terrible dancer who has no skills despite having aspirations to be famous. (over an hour in, she finally gets her first dance lesson .) penny is now in a relationship with james, who since the first movie has gone from dancing to selling t - shirts that say
life sucks .
( elizabeth berkley' s nomi is never mentioned .) she finally gets fed up that he won' t teach her to dance due to her lack of skills, so she packs up and sets out for hollywood where she thinks she can be a dancer on tv. along the way, penny stumbles upon random characters and situationsgets her stuff stolen while hitchhiking, witnesses some celebrity impersonators get murdered, and meets a guy who immediately recognizes her because she gave him a lapdance in 1995 .
while rena riffel struggled to find fame in hollywood, showgirls rose in infamy. all the way back to 1997, peaches christ, a san francisco drag queen, started showing showgirls as an annual part of her midnight mass series. eventually, the midnight mass screenings would include staged recreations of the film highlights, and also a lap dance free for all from a bunch of volunteers in a variety of costumes (you have to buy a large popcorn). they now occur at the castro theater, one of the classic movie houses .
on the surface, this film seemed like it had potential to reach the room - levels of badness, with its amateur acting, gibberish script, random characters and a complete lack of a plot or story structure. it even has a similar writer - director - star that has no clue how to act like a real emoting human being, let alone make a movie. but somehow along the way, showgirls 2 just loses that intangible
happy trainwreck
vibe of tommy wiseau' s movie and instead becomes a full - on pileup of suck. maybe if it was cut down to an hour and 20 minutes, it might be trashy, campy fun. but as it is, it' s intolerably boringjust killing time when it' s already so long that time is killing you .
showgirl is my personal autobiographical
follow up
to my past films and my
type - cast character
.... i go beyond showgirls. if i was on saturday night live, i would like to call it a
sleazquel
or a
satire
. it' s a story of overcoming obstacles and accomplishing your dream. it' s an inspirational story, but also reveals the dark seedy side of trying to become a famous dancer, doing what you have to do to become a star. the film is a drama, but the script has some classic lines and oscar worthy monologues by the cast members... think, sunset boulevard meets showgirls meets rocky horror picture show... but, it' s not a comedy, it' s a drama, a tragedy, like a shakespeare plot but set in the dance world .
on some level i have to believe that multi - hyphenate rena riffel is aware of what she' s created. it really feels like she' s trying to make a david lynch movie (an odd direction to go, though riffel did work with him on mulholland drive .), but has no idea what she' s doing. at first i thought i was in for some brilliant post - modern counterattack to the culture of criticism lodged at the first showgirls, but it soon became apparent that the sequel can' t decide if it wants to be a goofy parody of its predecessor or campy trash like its predecessor. instead riffel just ends up making an even worse version of the 1995 film. it follows the same basic structure, hits the same plot points and even recreates a lot of the more famous scenes. you get the same hitchhiker to bookend the movie, the same understudy betrayal plot and the same ridiculous pool sex scene. riffel even brings a lot of the same actors from the first movie to reprise their roles, though aside from glenn plummer' s dancing mentor james, they' re all minor characters you probably won' t remember .
eventually penny makes it to l. a. , where she meets a young violinist named godhardt who wants to open his own cabaret and make her a star. he takes her to a strange club full of swastikas and singing demons but she doesn' t mind. she does sort of mind when she discovers godhardt is actually engaged and that he only wanted to pimp out penny as a prostitute. but she gets over it and falls in love with her first john and celebrates by having a pillow fight with her maid. (oh yeah, she' s broke but lives in a mansion and has a full - time maid .) at first godhardt' s wife is penny' s evil dance rival, but as soon as it' s necessary to the plot, the pair become bffs. they dance together, talk about their dreamsand then share a hot dog lady and the tramp - style. at this point, i took a break to evaluate my life and cry out ,
this movie has to be doing this on purpose, right ?
then penny and the middle aged woman engage in crazy pool sex just like elizabeth berkley and kyle maclachlan and i sort of gave up. the rest of the movie just descends in to further and further stupidity that may or may not involve a snuff film and a secret cult, a four - way sex scene with movie studio execs, and a murder trial .
luke owen is one of flickering myth’s co - editors and the host of the flickering myth podcast. you can follow him on twitter @ lukewritesstuff .
paul verhoeven, joe eszterhas and elizabeth [ berkley ], they were right ,
she says, relating her epiphany .
what they did with showgirls was right .
las vegas stripper, penny slot (rena riffel), sets out on an adventure to become the star dancer on a dance television show. with stars in her eyes, she tries to find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow but instead finds danger in a town more wicked than sin city. romance then leads her down a path towards her dream of stardom, fame, and fortune. but danger lurks at every twist and turn while penny slot becomes lured by a dangerous love triangle full of temptation and seduction. penny' s longtime fiancé / boyfriend, james
jimmy
smith (' glenn plummer') warns her that she needs formal technique training if she wants to be taken seriously as a real dancer, so penny heeds his advice and sets out to take ballet classes and practices her pique turns. but, she must pay the price. and there is a price to pay for success, sacrifices to be made at every imaginable level, and it all comes down to... how bad do you want it ?
i came here to recommend this movie to the hdtgm crew, but my assumption is that they' ve passed it over because: a) it' s a low - budget indie film and therefore an unfair target for criticism. the movie is so excruciatingly long and so mind - breakingly bad that they have simply declared it unwatchable. c) they are daunted by how much work it would take to fully address all the problems with this epic - length shitshow. it would require pages and pages of notes, and they' d probably have to make two full episodes about it. this fucking movie is lotr length plus birdemic quality, so you really have to be a masochistic weirdo to voluntarily expose yourself to it. but hey, they did birdemic, so maybe they' ll consider doing showgirls 2. final note: showgirls 2 is the worst movie i' ve ever seen. it' s like a fever dream. watching it is a hallucinatory, out - of - body experience that can only be approached by birdemic or the neighbors on peyote. it will leave you reeling, questioning the nature of reality, filmmaking, and the very purpose of life .
i can' t stress how bad this film was, when i say it was bad, believe me it was bad. i' ve seen bad b - films that were better than this. cinemax and showtime have better skin flicks on cable that look like a - list films compared to this. the only saving grace is the film' s star, writer and director... rena riffel. i call her the saving grace of the film for one reason and one reason only and that' s because she' s friggin hot... well let me change that and say her body is hot, because riffel definitely has a butterface. there' s plenty of riffel' s killer body throughout this film, but as far as her acting, writing and directing skills, she seriously lacks in all three departments. i can' t believe they actually considered this as a sequel to the 1995 t & a cult classic' showgirls'? ! glenn plummer (who reprises his original role) is also in this film, but he obviously has loss much of his acting skills... or... he' s probably on very friendly terms with riffel, if you know what i mean? !, because there' s no other reason he would choose to do this film, unless he' s doing riffel also. i' m going to apologize in advance because i' m a fan of both actors, but come on? ! anyway, watch this film if you' re only out to see some riffel bootay, other than that i have to advice people to stay away from this film... . far away .
that' s what i was thinking when i started watching, but as the wheels slowly started to come off, i was hooked. a laugh riot .
las vegas stripper, penny slot (rena riffel), sets out on an adventure to become the star dancer on a dance television show. with stars in her eyes, she tries to find the pot of gold at the ...
movies and tv shows are certified fresh with a steady tomatometer of 75% or higher after a set amount of reviews (80 for wide - release movies, 40 for limited - release movies, 20 for tv shows), including 5 reviews from top critics .
las vegas stripper, penny slot (rena riffel), sets out on an adventure to become the star dancer on a dance television show. with stars in her eyes, she tries to find the pot of gold at the... see full summary »
riffel had started, as many actresses do, with uncredited bit parts. when she was finally offered a part in a multi - million dollar movie helmed by one of the hottest directors in hollywood, i imagine she thought it was her big break. that director was paul verhoeven, who was fresh off the triple streak of robocop, total recall, and 1992’s basic instinct. better yet, the film was scripted by joe eszterhas, who co - wrote basic instinct as well as flashdance and jagged edge. the best part was probably that her character wasn’t just named, but she even had a small scene centered around her name. the movie? showgirls. the character: penny (aka hope) .
synopsis: las vegas stripper, penny slot, sets out on an adventure to become the star dancer on a dance television show. with stars in her eyes, she tries to find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow but instead finds danger in a town more wicked than sin city .
this movie is the ultimate how did this get made! no really, how can this movie call itself a sequel and use the same characters? how can this movie use porn actors, actually look like a porno film, but not be porn? how can this movie steal scenes and plot lines from the original? how! how! how! believe it or not, this
homemade
movie is hilarious. if you don' t watch it for the hot women (and not - so hot trannys), watch it for the dancing! oh the dancing! the only thing worse than a low - budget film, is low - budget dancing. say what you want about the original 1995 classic, but the dancing looked like dancing; it looked like a high budget vegas show. the tv dance show in showgirls 2 looks like it was filmed on a high school stage. and the dancing? a hot mess— it was posing while walking .
short synopsis :
penny slot / helga
is on the road to fame. she wants to be a dancer, not only a dancer but the star dancer. against all odds, she must become a star. she will pay any price as long as it gets her fame and the role of the star dancer in the show .
a lot of the casting directors would call me in for a big movie after showgirls was out just to sit there and get mad at me and say, ‘how could you do that, rena? you should be ashamed of yourself.' they didn' t even care if i read my scene for them. hollywood, it made them mad ,
riffel says of the humiliation. she told me that it wasn' t until showgirls hit video and started building its cult that then filled midnight screenings that she understood its worth and hilarity .
it sounds like something crazy that someone that just won the lottery that has no interest in hanging on to the money would do, like the guy that started up a women' s wrestling fed a few years back ...
i guess i would be too. you spend 5 years climbing the hollywood ladder to land a pair of prominent bit parts in a pair of high profile movies. then, those movies flop and so does your career. it’s enough to kill somebody .
this movie can only be defined as a parody of the first— so, it begs the question of how did this get made! how did riffel marshal the resources to pull off this labor of love? please, please get riffel to be a guest on the show to talk about the original showgirls and to explain her opus .
after striptease, rena riffel struggled to land a part that wasn’t a stripper or a prostitute, with her only other major showing being in david lynch’s mulholland drive as laney the prostitute. otherwise, she was in movies with titles like the pornographer, dark confessions, and national lampoon’s gold digger. finally, she had enough and made her own production company. she directed her own movie, starring herself, trasharella, a low budget b - movie musical horror comedy. this gave her the basis to finally kick the teeth in on the movie that killed her career .
it sounds like something crazy that someone that just won the lottery that has no interest in hanging on to the money would do, like the guy that started up a women' s wrestling fed a few years back... http: / / en. wikipedia... . ki / wrestlicious
a star dancer on hiring an understudy :
we need someone with class and style who has formal technique training but with some dark secret so we can blackmail her with. so when i' m ready for my comeback, she can be fired out of her contract at a moment' s notice .
well for the most part, at least they got the director alex cox. mind you he' s not making all that many great movies anymore. just a lot of digital camera level junk. i love sid and nancy, repo man but after those two films he sorta dropped out of the norm .
kickstarter is such a great platform. i am now able to open up the production to all the amazing fans out there, and to you! be involved in this amazing movie we are about to make! ! your generous pledge will be used for make - up products, swarovski crystals, costumes, set decorating, props, rentals, movie hard drives, etc. showgirl is a green project as well, recycling and re - using what already exists. i am purchasing all costumes and props from the second hand stores, goodwill and out of the closet, both organizations help people in need, feeding people living with aids or other illnesses .
the film will be released in 2012, or possibly sooner. if all goes according to plan, it will play in the cult film cinemas and movie theaters across the country as a midnight movie or a matinee. i hope all the fans will come out to the screenings and dress in your favorite 90' s clothes with shoulder pads, metallic pleather jackets, and spandex dance pants, and enjoy the fantastic ride of showgirl .
2018 dlm challenge: 219 movies (189 new) https: / / letterboxd. c... vies - challenge / 2016 dlm challenge: 618 movies (478 new )
i' m gonna fuck the' mind of mencia' out of you !
- paul scheer
fuck you, i watched this fucking movie bro !
june diane raphael
everyone is a fucking idiot in this movie !
- zouks
how' s yo dick ?
- nicole byer
i' ve managed to make an honest living in a g - string .
women are like bananas. they' re sweetest when they' re ripe. right before they shrivel. but you, you are a banana split. with a cherry on top. and nuts .
you have to pick up my purple for me because…i want you to pick it up .
everybody got aids and shit. h1n1, all kindsa shit. swine flu !
i plan to film this summer. i have already filmed the opening of the movie and edited the first 10 minutes, shot on real 35mm film and the arriflex camera. . just like the big studio movies do. and i plan to film the rest of the movie with the same great production value. (check out the
teaser
here in the video window. )
i am offering involvement in the film, so practice your pique turns or just polish up your lap dancing talents ...
cast: rena riffel, peter stickles (short bus, the lair / here! tv), paula labaredas, michael anderson, charlene harding, christina carte, warren malone, shelley michelle, smokey miles, jade paris, greg travis, and many more to be announced on the website .
all of the above, plus an autographed screener dvd copy of my first feature length film i made, the cult favorite, trasharella. an official selection at the paranoia film festival 2010 .
an autographed 8x10 glossy photo of rena riffel. autographed to you with a big thank you xo for your showgirl support. and the trasharella autographed screener dvd movie! ! !
showgirl crew! ! assistants to art dept. , props dept. , wardrobe dept. , set design. get a credit in the movie! !! help with props, art, rhinestone costumes, etc... . (preferably you are in the southern california area to participate )
a walk on role in the movie! ! your name in the credits! !! meet the stars of the new showgirl movie while on the set! !! (no lines) (filming takes place mostly in hollywood, california, so you will have to be here at the location in order to participate. and you must get yourself to the set. )
showgirls 2 : penny 's from heaven is the 2011 parody sequel to the film showgirls . it stars and is written , produced and directed by rena riffel , who reprises her role from the first film . an early script and kickstarter fundraising campaign for the project was titled showgirl , and the script was originally titled stardancer . the film was released in theatres at midnight film showings , art house theatres , film festivals , and charity non-profit organizations , and also received worldwide distribution on dvd and vod . the film features numerous cast members from the first film who reprise their original roles . these include dewey weber , greg travis , glenn plummer , and rena riffel . a sequel to showgirls 2 : penny 's from heaven is in development . 
showgirls 2: penny's from heaven is the 2011 parody sequel to the film showgirls. it stars and is written, produced and directed by rena riffel, who reprises her role from the first film. an early script and kickstarter fundraising campaign for the project was titled showgirl, and the script was originally titled stardancer. the film was released in theatres at midnight film showings, art house theatres, film festivals, and charity non-profit organizations, and also received worldwide distribution on dvd and vod. the film features numerous cast members from the first film who reprise their original roles. these include dewey weber, greg travis, glenn plummer, and rena riffel. a sequel to showgirls 2: penny's from heaven is in development.
showgirls 2: penny's from heaven is the 2011 parody sequel to the film showgirls. it stars and is written, produced and directed by rena riffel, who reprises her role from the first film. an early script and kickstarter fundraising campaign for the project was titled showgirl, and the script was originally titled stardancer. the film was released in theatres at midnight film showings, art house theatres, film festivals, and charity non-profit organizations, and also received worldwide distribution on dvd and vod. the film features numerous cast members from the first film who reprise their original roles. these include dewey weber, greg travis, glenn plummer, and rena riffel. a sequel to showgirls 2: penny's from heaven is in development.