Showgirls 2

Obviously this was not written to win any awards - and makes the not so good version of the original movie seem like award winning material.

Missing Gina Gershon and Elizabeth Berkley and Kyle McLaughlin, this still features a cast from the first one and a cast of unknowns.

Horribly written, dreadfully performed, atrociously edited, directed by somebody who is going blind and given a musical score by an equally near deaf person, this little disaster is a laugh to sit through - be sure to watch for the cleverly crafted editing, choreographed dance and fight scenes, effects and of course the stylized lighting and cinematic camera work.

This is an ideal movie to show to film students on how NOT to do a movie.

With the performances who are classically trained by a cement block and the dialogue and action scenes written for a tree stump, this movie kept me entertained due to it's sheer silliness and totally devoid story.

So bad - it's bad, so it's good...if that makes any sense.

The amazing Rena Riffel has concocted something so awful that it becomes something so funny, because nobody would seriously consider this to be anything but a joke...and it got her another writer/director/producer/performer credit - and in a town of celebrities, this gives her slightly a leading edge - though her next few en-devours may want to be of significantly better quality and structure in all capacity.

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.

Compared to this, Showgirls is a Oscar winning masterpiece. Nothing, absolutely nothing, in this movie is even decent. The plot, the acting, the camera work is all horribly wrong. The only reason to watch this is you want to take tips of how not to make a bad movie.

Showgirls 2: Penny's from Heaven: 1 out of 10: Rena Riffel one of the actresses from Showgirls cobbled together an unofficial sequel/remake fan film with some of the original cast. It is technically a film.

The Good: Under the right circumstances (I am thinking psilocybin mushrooms.) this movie can be entertaining. It starts off on the right foot and seems to be almost entertaining with interesting cameos and a Daliesque surreal touch but one quickly realizes it is just meandering from one setpiece to the other with no real rhyme or reason.

To her credit, Rena Riffel is in surprisingly good shape and does her best to work with her um assets. I would actually hold her blameless based on her performance was she not also the writer and director of the film.

The Bad: Amazon currently has a version of this film streaming called Showgirls 2: The Cut which is the original film cut down to 100 minutes from the original 145 minutes. Well, it is a start. The problem is not just length (though that certainly does not help matters) it is that the scenes simply never go anywhere in ways that defy description.

I almost think Showgirls 2 should be shown in Film School as a lesson of how not to shoot a scene, frame a shot, or transition from one scene to another. The entire film is like the first seven minutes of Manos the Hands of Fate with occasional middle-aged topless nudity. The level of filmmaking and storytelling incompetence is simply of the charts.

The Ugly: Rena Riffel is from the Cheri Caffaro school of filmmaking. No matter how old I get nothing more nubile is allowed to appear in the scene. So we have the primary rival/love interest Shelley Michelle playing the Gina Gershon role but looking like Rue Mccallahan in a Golden Girls rerun. People complained that Showgirls 2 was like watching a porn film with all the sex scenes taken out but in all honesty would it have been better if they were left in?

In Conclusion: You can do this kind of movie correctly. Misty Mundae and Seduction Cinema put together a string of these in the early aughts. (The Lord of the G-Strings: The Femaleship of the String, Spiderbabe etc). Rena Riffel does have a surrealistic touch to her story but she simply should not be allowed to edit or direct film and she needs a strong co-writer to focus her craft. She clearly has talent. Unfortunately, her surreal trip was lost in a deluge of craft errors and poor follow through.

Yes, I watched all 2 1/2 hours of this film with my wife.

TLDR; Is it enjoyable? Yes. In a bad movie way.

The film starts slow... But soon turns into one of the most disjointed, bizarre, over the top attempts to make a movie, and I still have no idea if Rena Riffel intended to make a comedy or drama.

There's a running plot about "Penny" now Helga wanting to be in some sort of softcore TV revue? And she need to take ballet lessons at Juliard "or something" to make this work? Helga is monumentally dumb, but it's hard to tell if this is being played for laughs or not.

She meets the crazily busty older stripper who plays the Gina Gershon role here. Man, this lady butchers some screen time before she chews it up. After 2 hours, I was enamored with her completely hyperbolic performance. She managed to top Elizabeth Berkely for delivering all of her lines dialed up to 11. The scene where she freaks out with the cold cream... There are scenes in this movie that will live in your brain.

Yes, there's nudity. The tone veers like a drunken teenager driving. Scenes go from two girls getting sensual over giant hot dogs to Penny talking about losing custody of her daughter and back again in under a minute. No one behaves rationally. The camerawork is film noir one second, Dutch angles the next, and stationary home movie at random. Random living rooms and restaurants are played off as swanky strip clubs. The music is just AWFUL.

I have to give a individual paragraph to the outfits. Some of the most gloriously trashy clothing known to man. Even when there isn't nudity, the skimpy outfits provide plenty of titillation.

But there a certain charm that comes from the effort here. From long weirdly philosophical monologues, the (at times) hallucinogenic sets and backgrounds, and general poorly performed weirdness.

This is not a good movie. It's not a competent attempt at filmmaking. It has no point, no through plot, no sense of style. But it was enjoyable. It was campy, bizarre, maybe even a little sexy at times. I'd sit and watch it again.