Showgirls

Friday, May 9, 2008

I have trouble reconciling the fact that this movie was directed by Paul Verhoeven. I mean, how did the guy who made some of the smartest, funniest genre films of the 80's and 90's direct what is often referred to as one of the worst films ever made. I don't get it. The nicest thing anyone ever said about Showgirls is that it might be a really funny camp classic. How do you go from making movies like Turkish Delight, The Fourth Man, Robocop and Total Recall to this? Even when he made total trash like Basic Instinct, he made pretty good trash.

I'd like to believe that he knew what he was doing, and he had some sort of satirical slant on the material a la Robocop, otherwise how do you explain moments like the sex scene in the swimming pool where Elizabeth Berkeley flops around on her back like a fish. Or when she expresses an emotional outburst by angrily squeezing ketchup on her fries, then knocks the fries all over the table. Or when the two female leads bond by discussing how they enjoyed eating the same brand of dog food? That has to be, like, ironically misogynist and not actually misogynist, right?

After this it was a string of Verhoeven disappointments. Starship Troopers has a very amusing satirical edge to it, but the movie itself isn't much fun to watch. And then Hollow Man just sucked. Finally, he seems like he got his bearings back with the excellent Black Book, so I'm hoping this ushers in a new era of Verhoeven. Someone call up the studios, we could use another subversive sci-fi action picture right about now.