In the annals of hugely-belated sequels to Paul Verhoeven movies, “Showgirls 2: Penny’s From Heaven” (out on DVD and VOD today!) makes “Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction” look positively expeditious by comparison. Then again, unlike “Basic Instinct 2,” “Showgirls 2” not only serves as an unofficial sequel to the original but also a parody of the original, which is ridiculous because, hello, “Showgirls” was already a parody of “Showgirls.” Also, how can you make a “Showgirls” sequel, official or unofficial, without Elizabeth Berkley’s painfully stiff and unconvincing (but very enthusiastic) acting holding it all together? Answer: you can’t. And yet here we are.
Ok, so “Showgirls 2: Penny’s From Heaven” is here, and there’s nothing we can do about it – a fact that in no way diminishes the legacy of “Showgirls 1,” indisputably the greatest film about a tough-minded Las Vegas ingenue played by Elizabeth Berkley ever produced. To illustrate my point, below you can find 11 very good reasons why “Showgirls 2” will never be as good as “Showgirls 1.” (Warning: The majority of these reasons involve boobs, stripper fights and/or exploding stage volcanoes.)
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