TS: SHOWGIRLS vs. ROAD HOUSE

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http://www.kilroywashere.org/09-Images/Eric/Mein_Kampf.jpg

― cancer prone fat guy (dubplatestyle), Thursday, 12 January 2006 20:18 (twenty years ago)

dr morbius, how do you feel about buckaroo banzai?

― mookieproof (mookieproof), Thursday, 12 January 2006 20:20 (twenty years ago)

Um, the Medved brothers pretty much hated all those movies for real (the fire and brimstone was there even then; re-read the anti-gay snipes in their coverage of Ivan the Terrible -- or, better yet, don't read it at all as it's vile writing generally)... back then and now. I don't hate-love Showgirls. I love-love it.

Anyway, I was only pointing out that we don't have as similar taste as it would otherwise seem. Taste(lessness) =/= depth of perception, thankfully.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 12 January 2006 20:22 (twenty years ago)

i don't understand the turn this thread has taken.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 12 January 2006 20:23 (twenty years ago)

Because you laugh at things, you are full of hate.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 12 January 2006 20:25 (twenty years ago)

(x-post x-post)

Oh, and:

Humorless filmgoers in the 1960s/70s: "This retroactive love for Sirk... must be a generational thing."

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 12 January 2006 20:26 (twenty years ago)

eric i like your blog.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 12 January 2006 20:27 (twenty years ago)

i don't understand the turn this thread has taken.

(but seriously, thanks.)

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 12 January 2006 20:34 (twenty years ago)

No, Ned. To love TRULY bad movies is a waste of time. I need the MST3K robots to amplify and redirect the entertainment... or rather, needed, since I haven't rewatched the show since it ended.

I remember seeing Buckaroo Banzai when it first came out, loving Lithgow (Dr Lizardo?) and being otherwise indifferent.

Eric, I sometimes wish I had your taste; I've never encountered someone younger who likes Jerry Lewis more than I do.

I don't hate-love Showgirls. I love-love it.

That's very clear; it's the oozing ubiquity of hate-love I am railing against in my pre-dotage. And I haven't seen that Medved book in forever, so I'll take your advice. (btw, so you find Showgirls to be a triumph of Verhoeven spinning Eszterhas into gold? cuz I think most pervy college kids could barf up that dialogue, they just wouldn't have the balls to film it.)

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 12 January 2006 21:11 (twenty years ago)

In praise of bad movies

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 12 January 2006 21:15 (twenty years ago)

I've seen an average of something like two movies a year in the theater since about 1990 or so, when my previously fierce and strong love for moviegoing mostly died a miserable death

Well OK, we're just coming from entirely different places, then. That just makes me sad you lost the habit. (And I can't abide bad music and bad books either. I finished The Hotel New Hampshire 20 years ago and vowed Never Again. As for bad as in Danielle Steel, the temptation never arose.)

I have pitched my tent a long ways from the land of Camp, which explains why so many heteros here are gayer than me. (And actually lots of that abominable contemporary dance pop.)

ET, the Extra Testicle

Dude, I saw that on a Manhattan porn marquee 20+ years ago!

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 12 January 2006 21:38 (twenty years ago)

actually lots of that abominable contemporary dance pop.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 12 January 2006 21:41 (twenty years ago)

That just makes me sad you lost the habit.

I do not regret losing a habit which over the last few years in particular, in terms of the costs of theater tickets etc. these days, rapidly became unaffordable given my budget. That said, I've been to a few more films in the theater this last year but the sheer horribleness of most of the movie experience outside of the actual movie itself makes me want to kill people. Fuck you, 'The Twenty.'

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 12 January 2006 21:43 (twenty years ago)

ned in 15 years 'the twenty' will be seen as an essential part of the movie going experience. children will not be able to remember a time without it. get on board now.

― cancer prone fat guy (dubplatestyle), Thursday, 12 January 2006 21:44 (twenty years ago)

I think children will be the first to confine their viewings to their Home Theayter Dolbyized Bedrooms.

The absence of 'The Twenty' and its ilk before Kazakh films at Lincoln Center have squeezed the multiplex even further outta my life.

(last try: actually LIKE lots of that abominable...)

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 12 January 2006 22:03 (twenty years ago)

OMG you're talking about the twenty!

― adamrl (nordicskilla), Thursday, 12 January 2006 22:06 (twenty years ago)

The premise lifts Roadhouse well above Showgirls. I mean, any one of us could have pitched Showgirls, but whoever came up with the idea of Roadhouse is truly loopy.

― zaxxon25 (zaxxon25), Thursday, 12 January 2006 22:12 (twenty years ago)

There were tons of philo majors like the Swayz when I was at NYU.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 12 January 2006 22:13 (twenty years ago)

(And actually LIKE lots of that abominable contemporary dance pop.)

Uh-oh. Better skip Slant's next major list project.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Friday, 13 January 2006 00:56 (twenty years ago)

There were tons of philo majors like the Swayz when I was at NYU.

-- Dr Morbius (wjwe...), January 12th, 2006.

yeah, but were they TOTAL BADASSES?

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Friday, 13 January 2006 13:23 (twenty years ago)

(with a heart of gold, of course)

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Friday, 13 January 2006 13:23 (twenty years ago)

three months pass...

There were tons of philo majors like the Swayz when I was at NYU.

You know, I am so not surprised. About anything.

Anyway, Dan has now seen both and believed. His most common line all evening -- "Wow."

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 20 April 2006 03:52 (twenty years ago)

but which does he choose???

― lil' merzbow wow (haitch), Thursday, 20 April 2006 09:28 (twenty years ago)

Showgirls was deemed to hold together better on a technical end. But I'll let the man speak for himself.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 20 April 2006 11:12 (twenty years ago)

Both of these movies are cinematic time capsules. The most striking thing about "Roadhouse" is how completely, utterly straight-faced it is given the completely batshit insane nonsense that accumulates throughout the movie ("We're a wacky bar movie! Now we're a showcase for Jeff Healy! Now we are focusing on incredibly fucked-up hair! Now we're about ripping out people's throats! Wait, what?"). "Showgirls" revels in its irony from the beginning and also through the magic of Elizabeth Berkeley's inappropriate makeup manages to predict the emergence of Jessica Alba. Also it's no-so-secretly porn.

Every time I think I have to decide it's "Showgirls", I remember that the climactic scene in "Roadhouse" involves the unnecessary revelation that the bad guy is a big game hunter whose only missing trophy is taut male dancer/bouncer ass and the resultant giggling leaves me undecided.

― Dan (But Probably "Showgirls") Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 20 April 2006 13:31 (twenty years ago)

(Ally is very OTM with the "transcendant botch" comment. Also overall I didn't expect to see quite as much man ass as I did last night but that's modern cinema for you.)

― Dan (Also "Roadhouse" Had Yin And Yang Fat Guys) Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 20 April 2006 13:34 (twenty years ago)

Road House also has one of the best villain deaths, where Ben Gazzara gets shot about 47 times in the chest with a shotgun just so all the people he's wronged can get their licks in. He just keeps standing there and getting shot over and over! It's hilarious. Plus of course, when the protection isn't paid up on the car dealership he's got under his thumb, does he steal the cars? No! He mashes them with a monster truck! World's least thrifty bad-guy.

― Austin Still (Austin, Still), Thursday, 20 April 2006 13:37 (twenty years ago)

He smashes them with the monster truck his lackeys JUST HAPPEN to have been driving around town for half the movie in front of a bazillion witnesses! Because, you see, that makes sense.

I am DYING to see the stage version of this now.

― Dan (Sh-Boom, Sh-Boom) Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 20 April 2006 13:40 (twenty years ago)

Bonus treat (before I finally get out of here and do some wandering around town) -- Jabootu's Roadhouse review. Fairly accurate, I'd say.

This movie was made and released between Dirty Dancing and Ghost and yet is somehow more true to that which is Swayze in the end. As it were.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 20 April 2006 13:50 (twenty years ago)

two weeks pass...

I finally got around to seeing the trivia track with Showgirls the other day, having had my interest revived via the Dan screening, and was amused to note that apparently Tarantino claims an inspiration for Kill Bill in Nomi kicking the shit out of the evil rape rocker at the end of the film.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 5 May 2006 19:08 (twenty years ago)

Can I be forgiven for never actually having seen either of these films? (haha I said "films")

― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Friday, 5 May 2006 19:15 (twenty years ago)

Oh sure. Even though you said I won at the thread's outset. ;-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 5 May 2006 19:17 (twenty years ago)

MATOS YOU MUST SEE BOTH OF THESE MOVIES IMMEDIATELY

― Dan ("Showgirls" And "Roadhouse" Will Change Your Life) Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 5 May 2006 19:21 (twenty years ago)

Oh, and to answer the mystery way up thread about the guy on the plane watching Showgirls while Elizabeth B. sat next to him -- apparently it was on his laptop as opposed to being the official offering for viewing. A pity, since I prefer the original interpretation of course.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 5 May 2006 19:24 (twenty years ago)

hmmm I've never seen Roadhouse....

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 5 May 2006 19:25 (twenty years ago)

you have yet to live

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Friday, 5 May 2006 22:25 (twenty years ago)

point break!

― Tracey Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 5 May 2006 22:26 (twenty years ago)

I kind of have to say that "Demolition Man" is nowhere in the league of either of these movies, mostly because it just isn't ludicrous enough.

― Dan (Although It Too Features Man-Ass) Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 5 May 2006 22:33 (twenty years ago)

Dan, I kind of knew that already; I just haven't had the opportunity to wallow properly.

― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Friday, 5 May 2006 23:00 (twenty years ago)

But you should, of course. Looking upthread I realized I never visited the Showgirls blog orgy Eric H. linked to/participated in, and while it's all great, his own take on twenty best quotes from the film is wondrous.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 6 May 2006 15:14 (twenty years ago)

two months pass...

So inevitable -- a deluxe DVD edition of Roadhouse due next week (more details here. With a trivia track and commentary from the auteur himself, Rowdy Herrington! And another commentary track with...SCOTT MOSIER AND KEVIN FUCKING SMITH!

http://accordionguy.blogware.com/Photos/2005/05/noooooooo.jpg

There is no way THAT commentary track will top David Schmader's celebration/vivisection on the fancy schmantz Showgirls DVD.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 12 July 2006 05:25 (nineteen years ago)

(Seriously, what the hell is Smith going to say that won't make me want to punch him in the face?)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 12 July 2006 05:26 (nineteen years ago)

ffs, could there really be 145 answers, and not one mention of the goddess that is gina gershon?

― nicky lo-fi (nicky lo-fi), Wednesday, 12 July 2006 06:23 (nineteen years ago)

We can be slack. (You are quite correct to bring her up.)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 12 July 2006 11:23 (nineteen years ago)

Roadhouse wins for SWAYZE and REFORMERS VS HOOTIN HOLLERIN CRONIES and BEN GAZZARA and FIRES AND EXPLOSIONS and stuff

Showgirls is a different kinda trainwreck

― Raymond Cummings (Raymond Cummings), Wednesday, 12 July 2006 14:39 (nineteen years ago)

Repeating a post over at the MST3K thread here:

---

...the debut of RIFF TRAX!

Welcome to RiffTrax.com, an innovative new site featuring the hilarious DVD commentaries of Michael J. Nelson, head writer and star of the legendary Mystery Science Theater 3000!

Do you feel that some of the movies coming out of Hollywood are just, well, missing something? At RiffTrax, you can download Mike's running commentaries and listen to them along with your favorite, and not so favorite DVDs. It's like watching a movie with your funniest friend. And it's easy to do. Just check out our FAQ; more than likely, you have the tools to do it already.

Don't just sit back and take whatever Hollywood throws at you. Transform the DVD experience with RiffTrax. It's
the most fun you'll ever have at the movies.

And what is the first movie he's doing?

ROADHOUSE

I am so happy.

-- Ned Raggett (ne...), July 21st, 2006. (later)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 21 July 2006 14:04 (nineteen years ago)

ten months pass...

ROADHOUSE IS ON RIGHT NOW

― scott seward, Tuesday, 22 May 2007 02:01 (nineteen years ago)

Did you watch it all?

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 22 May 2007 04:43 (nineteen years ago)

'showgirls'. A MUST.

― haitch, Tuesday, 22 May 2007 06:29 (nineteen years ago)

four months pass...

"Roadhouse" vs "Dirty Dancing"

― HI DERE, Tuesday, 9 October 2007 17:21 (eighteen years ago)

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