Style: Erotic Drama
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Starring: Elizabeth Berkley, Kyle MacLachlan, Gina Gershon, Robert Davi
Operating Time: 131 minutes
Synopsis: Formidable Nomi Malone (Elizabeth Berkley) hitchhikes into Las Vegas in search of a dancing profession. She befriends seamstress Molly (Gina Ravera) and bouncer/dancer James (Glenn Plummer), however solely lands a job on the strip membership operated by the exploitive Al (Robert Davi). Nomi’s fortunes change when she meets Cristal Connors (Gina Gershon), the star of the glitzy topless present on the Stardust on line casino. Nomi entrances Cristal’s boyfriend Zack (Kyle MacLachlen) with a frenzied lap dance, and after touchdown a spot as a refrain woman on the present, units her sights greater.
What Works Effectively: This hypnotic train-wreck view of backstage shenanigans matches Vegas itself for extremes of crass in-your-face scuzziness. The Joe Eszterhas script is soaked within the sewage stink of sex-obsessed characters carrying the worst mixture of ambition and desperation. Breathless pacing energizes the neon, glamour, and swank, whereas the city’s back-alleys host a net-zero recreation of winners stepping on losers to realize a pathetic phantasm of success.
What Does Not Work As Effectively: Elizabeth Berkley stumbles in making an attempt an enormous step from tv’s Saved By The Bell to carrying a significant film manufacturing. She receives little assist from Eszterhas’ cringey dialogue and director Paul Verhoeven, who’s on the prowl for the following lurid shot. The extreme nudity is thoughts numbing, the intercourse scenes resemble animalistic coupling, and the choreography replaces dancing with aggressive variations of angular foreplay.
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