Flickering Myth

Geek Culture | Movies, TV, Comic Books & Video Games

Movie Review – Showgirls 2: Penny’s From Heaven (2011)

by

Showgirls 2: Penny’s From Heaven, 2011

Written and Directed by Rena Riffel
Starring Rena Riffel, Glenn Plummer, Greg Travis, Dewey Weber, Peter Stickles, and Shelley Michelle

SYNOPSIS:

Las Vegas stripper, Penny Slot, sets out on an adventure to become the star dancer on a dance television show. With stars in her eyes, she tries to find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow but instead finds danger in a town more wicked than Sin City.

It’s the movie virtually no one was asking for, a sequel to Paul Verhoeven’s much maligned Showgirls – a film that was nominated for so many Razzies that Verhoeven himself showed up to accept the awards. But after the film bombed at the box office, it found new life on the home video market and midnight screenings. Just like Troll 2, many film fans embraced the camp factor of Showgirls and have now hailed it as a modern masterpiece with even award winning filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino putting their stamp of approval on it. This rise in popularity has led us to this point – Showgirls 2: Penny’s From Heaven.

It must be noted right from the off that Showgirls 2: Penny’s From Heaven is less of a sequel and more or a direct parody of the Verhoeven bomb. But not a parody in the modern sense of the word, and more in the classic Zucker/Abrams or Brooks style. Rena Riffel (returning from the first movie) multi-tasks by writing, producing, staring, directing and even editing a movie that is as self-aware as those who embraced the original. It’s not so much an exercise in filmmaking but more a celebration of the maddening obsession people have about a movie that no one else liked. In order to get Showgirls 2: Penny’s From Heaven, one must first get Showgirls.
And in that sense, Showgirls 2: Penny’s From Heaven works. It’s not brilliant, but it works. It directly parodies scenes from Showgirls but you have to know the movie well enough in order to get the joke, which further plays to the audience it was intended for. It’s as dumb as its protagonist and it knows it. Going over the plot would pointless because it almost doesn’t matter. But you can expect pool sex, brown rice and veg, beads on stage and several cameos from the original movie’s cast. Everything a Showgirls obsessive would want is on show and written with a kind of self-awareness that most modern day parody writers wish they had.
And all of this would lead to a great movie if it weren’t for two major problems. At an inexplicable 2 hours and 30 minutes, Showgirls 2: Penny’s From Heaven is a slog to sit through and it outstays its welcome at around the hour mark and just about makes it to 90 minutes. But then it keeps going for another hour. There are laughs to be had but the movie is exhausting and isn’t helped by the other issue – it looks like garbage. Showgirls 2: Penny’s From Heaven doesn’t look like a low budget movie, it someone how manages to look worse than a no-budget production. Troma films wish they looked this bad. It’s also littered with editing errors that one could argue are intentional, but its a hard case to fight for when the film looks this awful. Riffel claims the movie cost $30,000, which is almost impossible to believe as there are hundreds of self-made Youtube videos made for peanuts with better production values. It almost makes it unwatchable and while the Showgirls obsessives may be able to look past it, Showgirls 2: Penny’s From Heaven looks beyond amateur. 
This is the kind of movie which can serve as an example of why star ratings in reviews don’t work. At its base value, Showgirls 2: Penny’s From Heaven might just be one of the worst movies ever released to a wide public. The acting is horrendous, the editing is sloppy and the film looks worse than a low-rent high school theatre production. But it’s a movie that is made for a certain audience and they are going to lap up every minute of it like Doggy Chow. So, in that sense, Showgirls 2: Penny’s From Heaven is a kind of a work of genius. If the film had been shorter and shot to look like an actual movie, it would have been one of the better parodies of recent memory.
In short, if you are among the many who have embraced Showgirls, enjoy quoting it with your friends and play the drinking game, you will get a real kick out of Showgirls 2: Penny’s From Heaven. It looks like garbage, but grab some friends together and prepare to relive some of your favourite campy moments in a brilliant self-aware capacity. But if you’re a regular film watcher who dismissed Showgirls as nothing more than expensive and exploitative trash, this is one to avoid.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★  / Movie: ★ ★

Luke Owen is one of Flickering Myth’s co-editors and the host of the Flickering Myth Podcast. You can follow him on Twitter @LukeWritesStuff.

FMTV – Watch Our Latest Video Here

WATCH OUR MOVIE NOW FOR FREE ON PRIME VIDEO!

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: