[walking on eggshells]This has been incendiary in the past, well out of proportion to what one would ordinarily expect when discussing a film. The phrasing of your question made me wonder whether this was a genuine question, or just trying to open old wounds. From your expressed consternation at my comment I come to the conclusion that your question was real. lissener’s response to my comment also took your OP as genuine. Deepest apologies if I have offended, and to the mods after going on a forbidden tangent in an attempt to explain my remark. [/walking on eggshells]
And now, returning to the audio/visual part of our programming:
Oops. Forgot about this one. If someone can come to its defense, then I’ll give another couple of hours to this as well.
Also, for whatever it’s woth, this newspaper’s own Jonathan Rosenbaum, one of the most respected critics in the world today.
I didn’t see Ishtar till years later, until I heard that Rosenbaum was a defender. This made me curious. So I rented it, and frankly it was a hoot. If it hadn’t been set up by the press, I think it would have been received more openly. It would still have its detractors–it’s not a masterpiece by any means–but it might have been received for what it was: a reasonably entertaining comedy, with some fall-down-funny moments.
One of the problems, of course, was that May spent so much money making it. This was a huge mistake, primarily because Elaine May is a member of the John Cassavetes school of filmmaking: she’s a minimalist. And when you’re making one of the most expensive movies ever made, your audience is NOT gonna expect a bunch of minimalism up on the screen. She could have made very much the same movie for a tenth of what she spent, and if she had she’d still have a career.
I think you’re more likely to appreciate May’s approach to the film, also, if you’re familiar with her previous works. She makes small, quiet “buddy” movies mostly. Wry little character studies about personal relationships. Again, not what you expect from a big budget, globe trotting flick.
In any case, I think Ishtar is a hoot, and if you haven’t seen it you should judge for yourself.
Lissener, we have a lot in common! We both like crappy movies. Just different crappy movies. Or sometimes the same crappy movies, for different reasons.
FWIW, I have no doubt you’re sincere when you see all this meaning in the movie. All I mean by “emperor’s clothes” is that I think you’re seeing something that isn’t actually there.
Now why you didn’t fly off the handle at the person who originally brought up the emperor is beyond me.
It’s not that people simply didn’t enjoy the movie, it’s that people hated the movie.
Which is about spot on. Verhoeven doesn’t want you to like the movie. He hates you. He’s making fun of you. And you paid to see it. That is part of the joke.
I didn’t see showgirls until many years after it came out at a midnight movie. What amazed me was how unrelenting it is. It’s epic. It doesn’t stop. It doesn’t hold a single thing back. I’ve never seen anything like it.
I watched it last night. Nomi is an unsympathetic character to me. Other than when she was nice to James after his show was booed off the stage she was a bitch. She is a character that I don’t care if she lived or died.
The rest of the story was pretty typical backstabbing catty behavior that I’ve seen dozens of times involving behind the stage stories. This one just had lots and lots of naked girls.
Over all it was great or awful. Kind of meh? I don’t think it deserves the piles of shit that have been thrown at it, but I don’t know if I’ll bother to watch it again either.
I would be shocked if anyone who liked Showgirls – for whatever reason – considered Nomi to be a sympathetic character. She’s deliberately awful and unsympathetic. Other potential viewers beware: you will not care for the main character. Nor for many of the supporting characters. It’s not an up-with-people kind of story.
It’s not that I didn’t like her, I didn’t give a shit at all. At least with a good villian you can get emotionally involved. Nomi was hollow and flat as a character. I blame that on the writing more than the preformance.