2010 marks the 15th anniversary of the movie Showgirls - a fact that MGM Home Entertainment took advantage of with a new Blu-ray + DVD Combo release on the June 15th.
Showgirls is somewhat of an infamous movie about strippers and topless dancers in Las Vegas.
On aspect that was daring was the choice to release the movie as an NC-17 rated film, generally considered commercial suicide, and a rating that the Blu-ray release retains.
Showgirls certainly earns this rating with gratuitous amounts of nudity, simulated sex, drug use and bad language, so keep in mind that it is not for everyone.
The film presents the experiences of Nomi Malone, a dancer aiming to make it in Las Vegas.
While the story chronicles her successes and setbacks, more so it presents the seedy side of Vegas life from the strip joints through to the clubs and casinos, in this high budget sexploitation movie.
The main problem I found with it was that the main character comes across completely annoying an unlikeable from the get go, however the other characters seems to go out of their way to help her in the face of her abuse.
In general the the human interaction and emotional through line in the film come across as very false, and the women in the film are far from realistic.
The film has become somewhat of a cult success in the home video market in a ’so bad it is great’ way, and also holds the box office record for an NC-17 movie.
The cast includes Elizabeth Berkley in the lead role, along with Gina Gershon, Kyle MacLachlan, Glenn Plummer, Robert Davi, Alan Rachins and Gina Ravera.
Showgirls was directed by Paul Verhoeven, who at the time was hot off his success with Basic Instinct and also directed Total Recall, Starship Troopers and RoboCop.
The critic response to the movie was pretty harsh - it earned a Rotten Tomatoes score of 14% and IMDb score of 4/10.
Showgirls was also had a fairly limited success at the cinema, reaching $20.4M at the US box office.
The video on the disc is an AVC 1080p encode at 34.5 Mbps, and is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1.
This high bitrate encode does a good job of maintaining the film look with grain intact.
Find full resolution PNG screen captures taken directly from the disc at the details page for Showgirls.
The main audio is lossless DTS-HD Master Audio with 5.1 channels - 24 bits resolution at 48 kHz.
The disc is a dual layer BD50, with 45.0 GB used and is coded for Region A.
The cult status of the movie as ’so bad it is good’ is taken advantage of with The Greatest Movie Ever Made Audio Commentary from David Schmader, an aficionado of the film.
It is actually a pretty entertaining commentary that definitely highlights many of the horrible choices made by the screen writers and film makers.
There is also a Java based Fact-Up Trivia feature that pops up trivia facts as the movie runs.
The Pole Dancing: Finding Your Inner Stripper feature runs roughly 12 minutes and introduces the S-Factor teacher and demonstrates a number of pole moves, and also discusses why people do it just for fun.
The women of Scores teach you how to please and tease your partner in the 5 minute Lap Dance Tutorial feature.
Behind the scenes footage and storyboards are presented for a number of scenes in A Showgirls Diary.
The disc also includes the original theatrical trailer and a DVD copy of the film that has a few additional extras.
Showgirls is certainly a movie that is not for everyone, but will no doubt appeal to some.
The MGM Home Entertainment Blu-ray release is a faithful representation of the movie with a selection of suitably themed extras and behind the scenes supplements to boot.
The retail price is $29.99, or order it right now at Amazon for $22.99, saving 23%!
Extras:
- Pole Dancing: Finding Your Inner Stripper
- Lap Dance Tutorial
- The Greatest Movie Ever Made Audio Commentary
- Fact-Up Trivia
- A Showgirls Diary
- Theatrical Trailer
Synopsis:
Shocking. Titillating. “Glittery (and) gleefully vulgar” (Dayton Daily News)! It’s the ultimate in infamy… a deluxe Fully Exposed Edition bulging with more features than a lap dancer’s bustier. From the creators of Basic Instinct comes Showgirls, an “instant camp classic” (The New York Times) and a spectacularly lusty film experience no one should miss! Vegas, baby. Where the dreams and desires to make it big are as sharp as a stiletto heel. Enter Nomi (Elizabeth Berkley), a girl with the looks and drive to devour the glitz and glamour whole. When she catches the eye of Cristal (Gina Gershon), the main attraction at the Stardust stage show, Nomi is on the brink of realizing her dreams. But as she quickly bumps and grinds her way to the top, Nomi realizes that there is only room for one starlet on the marquee… and that either she or Cristal will have to take a fall!
Hot Amazon sale titles this week include a set of spaghetti westerns featuring Clint Eastwood and directed by the legendary Sergio Leone.
Amazon has added some new promotions featuring recent Fox and MGM Blu-ray releases.
The Blu-ray market share was 12% - back in double figures after a week under 10% for the week ending July 25th according to 
Warner was on top for the week with 
The top DVD sellers were also strong Blu-ray sellers. with Cop Out taking 38% market share and The Losers outselling the DVD with 51% of sales on Blu-ray Disc in its first week.
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The Blu-ray market share was down at 9% for the week ending July 18th according to 
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Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief and Hot Tub Time Machine did considerably better in the 22% -23% range.
The Blu-ray market share was only 10% last week, and the revenue of $12.77M for the week ending July 11th was down 20% compared to last year, according to 
Top sale titles at Amazon this week include 
If $10 is your price threshold, you can choose from 
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