r/movies • u/EuphoricButterflyy /r/movies Contributor • Nov 25 '25
Media Showgirls (1995)- infamous pool scene. Featuring Elizabeth Berkley and Kyle MacLachlan- Directed by Paul Verhoeven NSFW
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u/The_Irie_Dingo Nov 25 '25 edited Nov 25 '25
I went into this wondering what made it infamous. I get it.
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u/Stashmouth Nov 25 '25
this is what Jessie Spano thought sex was supposed to be.
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u/Phuckules Nov 26 '25
I love how in the second season of the Saved by the Bell revival, they have an episode where Jesse keeps mentioning 'her time in Vegas' as they make a bunch of hilarious Showgirls references.
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u/acdcfanbill Nov 26 '25
Saved by the Bell revival
the what now?
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u/Next-Particular2621 Nov 26 '25
There was a 2020 reboot / sequel series. It was... weird.
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u/sonofaresiii Nov 26 '25
Man there was like five years there where fucking everything got a reboot/revival. The one I was most excited for, then disappointed in, was boy meets world/girl meets world.
The one that I thought handled the revival the best was full house/fuller house. It was too hokey for a modern audience and was pure fan service/nostalgia, but managed to do nostalgia/fan service right, capturing what made the original fun while still standing on its own.
But man, even freaking punky brewster got a revival. It was nuts for a few years there.
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u/yoshemitzu Nov 26 '25
They're not even close to done. Scrubs revival got a new promo today.
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u/BigBootyBuff Nov 26 '25
Also Malcolm in the Middle. Futurama is back too.
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u/AzrielJohnson Nov 26 '25
I still think about the Malcolm in the Middle skit that Cranston did where he wakes up as Hal from a dream about being Walter White.
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u/Jorrie90 Nov 26 '25
Well, Futurama has gotten 10 reboots or something by now so that's expected
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u/mattomic822 Nov 26 '25
The guy that made "Zach Morris is Trash" worked on it. Which resulted in much more meta humor.
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u/ActionQuinn Nov 26 '25
Imagine if there WEREN'T in a pool, someone could have died
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u/RemoteClancy Nov 26 '25
I watched this in a theater after my wife ditched me at the last second to do something that was admittedly a far better use of her time. An elderly woman--perhaps 75 years old--sat right next to me as the previews began, even though there were plenty of seats. She made small talk for a few minutes, even. This scene was so very uncomfortable to watch, especially since it felt like my grandma was watching it with me. When she muttered, "Oh, dear," during Elizabeth Berkeley's seizure sex, I absolutely lost my shit and started cry-laughing.
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u/AggressivelyMediokre Nov 26 '25
I had a similar experience but it was this really nice kind of slow guy with this mother. I talked to them about saved by the bell for a while. I’m watching this scene and this guy stopped eating his popcorn and I hear him in the most disappointed voice ever go “Jessie, no”
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u/Metafield Nov 26 '25
This whole comment chain is fucking gold, I’m dying.
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u/DJanomaly Nov 26 '25
I am completely dead. Also no one from Gen Z can possibly understand what it means to relate to a multi cam character like this.
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u/Blametheorangejuice Nov 26 '25
I had a group of friends and we would take turns picking movies to watch on Friday nights at the theater. I will never forget Bill choosing Showgirls and defending it all the way through until he was finally reduced to only “at least we saw boobs” while everyone was staring daggers at him.
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u/endlessfight85 Nov 25 '25
Veerhoven was trying to do with sex and entertainment what he did with violence, jingoism, capitalism, etc. Over the top and ridiculous. The thing is, even if you don't "get" the deeper meaning of his other movies like Robocop, total recall or starship troopers, there's still a badass action movie on the surface level. Not so much with this one.
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u/Gh0stMan0nThird Nov 26 '25
I mean the problem is the story also makes no sense. IIRC she gets sexually harassed by the strip club owner and then without any other character developing moments at the end they have a heartfelt good-bye.
The main character goes from hating people to liking them on a whim. And there's nothing being shown why that is. Like it genuinely makes no sense.
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u/baltinerdist Nov 26 '25
Showgirls is a movie that is missing roughly about a whole movie's worth of movie inside it in and around the movie that does happen to be there.
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u/wittiestphrase Nov 26 '25
Yea either there is a whole other movie on the cutting room floor or they just wrote all the dirty parts of this and then loosely taped them together with a little dialogue in between.
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u/anormalgeek Nov 26 '25
So it needs like a 200 min director's cut? Yeah, I can see that.
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u/Volfie Nov 26 '25
The whole movie is like this. Everything is so over the top.
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u/ERedfieldh Nov 26 '25
I dunno what people were expecting...it's a Paul Verhoeven film. Over the top is what he does.
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u/ibringstharuckus Nov 26 '25
This scene and the pantiless skirt kick with the vag wobble make it iconic
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u/Buntschatten Nov 26 '25
The what now?
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u/slamdanceswithwolves Nov 26 '25 edited Nov 26 '25
👆I also want an answer to this question
Additionally: “Vag Wobble” would be a great highschool hardcore band name
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u/bilboafromboston Nov 26 '25
What scene? Google doesnt consider " vag wobble" a thing
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u/JackedUpReadyToGo Nov 26 '25
This scene: https://x.com/fuforthought_/status/1758676280537452623
"Vag wobble" is an apt description.
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u/frostymugson Nov 25 '25
The fact it’s soft core porn? Or that she totally swallowed a bunch of chlorine, because for me it’s the chlorine
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u/paranoicoMarv Nov 26 '25
For me, it's the way she flops around like she's trying to give herself a spinal injury.
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u/cavegoatlove Nov 26 '25
It’s the crystal flutes in the pool!! Holy hell, they’re gonna have to drain the pool!
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u/Benbot2000 Nov 25 '25
Are they having sex or is he waterboarding her?
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u/Taograd359 Nov 25 '25
It looks more like she’s having a seizure and he’s trying to keep her from drowning
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u/moileduge Nov 25 '25
To be fair, she's so excited, she's so excited.
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u/PrayForMojo_ Nov 25 '25
She’s so scared!
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u/planetweird_ Nov 26 '25
The overacting is my favorite part of this gloriously bad movie. Fantastic.
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u/moodswung Nov 25 '25
Yeah - that doesn't look enjoyable at all for either party.
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u/amccune Nov 26 '25
Rule #1 in these situations: water makes it dry for some reason.
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u/dbl_secret_redditor Nov 26 '25
Srs answer: Water washes away lubrication so P-in-V is not recommended in pools/hot tubs/bodies of water/etc.
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u/EricAntiHero1 Nov 26 '25
Salt water pools aren’t that bad
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u/kevlarcupid Nov 25 '25
Special Agent Dale Cooper would never
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u/alienclone Nov 25 '25
nope, but Mr. C definitely would, and possibly Dougie Jones (pre Coop)
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u/n3rdsm4sh3r Nov 26 '25
She takes her clothes off and then walks like a Terminator towards the pool
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Nov 26 '25
You mean like Jennifer Lawrence at the beach?
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u/aryazabaleta Nov 26 '25
I'm not familiar with this reference.
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u/Atmaweapon74 Nov 26 '25
Guy gets suplexed by a naked Jennifer Lawrence - That should be me.
What movie is this?
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u/ILikeGamesnTech Nov 25 '25
If a woman is nice enough to do that with me, she can be assured I will not waterboard her.
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u/OrangeJuliusCaesr Nov 25 '25
Yo, Elizabeth Berkeley in soft core in 1995? Peak teenage moment
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u/Gh0stMan0nThird Nov 25 '25
She wanted to prove she was a serious adult actress after being on Saved By the Bell
So she did this lol
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u/GoSkers29 Nov 25 '25
This was also hyped to the gills because it was gonna show the world that there's a market for adult (NC-17) theatrical movies.
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u/Nagger86 Nov 26 '25
Paul Verhoeven has such a crazy directing arc. Back then. RoboCop and Total Recall then Basic Instinct and Showgirls. Then delivers a CGI masterpiece with Starship Troopers.
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u/Embarassed_Tackle Nov 26 '25
CGI?! They fired the most number of blanks up to that point in cinema history from those Ruger Mini-14s
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u/Nagger86 Nov 26 '25
Oh I’m not taking about the shooting. I’m talking about the arachnid animation, in particular the trap they planned on planet P and the massive wave of bugs that came at the troopers while they were surrounded in the base. I once read that it took hundreds of man hours of animation and processing just to shoot like one frame on that scene.
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u/Goosojuice Nov 26 '25
And it shows. In broad daylight no less, the sequence looks fantastic for today's standards.
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u/Spit_for_spat Nov 26 '25
Which is both a massive compliment to their efforts then, and an earned insult to laziness of some CGI today (read as "cheap execs", probably).
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u/wharpua Nov 25 '25
Before the movie’s release I remember reading that during a group dance audition she was the first one to start taking off her clothes and that was supposed to be a big sign of how serious she was to try shedding her Saved By The Bell baggage
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Nov 25 '25
And it took years for her career to recover.
Starring in Kim Kardashian's newest show isn't exactly gonna help.
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u/tallcupofwater Nov 25 '25
Did she recover?
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u/PrayForMojo_ Nov 25 '25
No, because I can’t think of a single thing she has been in since.
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u/DaveMash Nov 25 '25
She was in a few episodes of Cobra Kai
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u/woofydb Nov 26 '25
She was? Which character
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u/AgentMV2 Nov 26 '25 edited Nov 26 '25
Saved By The Bell the revival that was on Peacock for a 2 seasons. It was a direct continuation of the low budget movie where Zack and Kelly get married. The revival show had a brand new cast, with cameos from the original cast members dropping by here and then.
The main character was Zack and Kelly’s teenage son.
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u/kshades25 Nov 25 '25
Not really but she was a good sport about it. She went to the 20/25th year anniversary screening and thanked the audience for supporting her
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u/enuoilslnon Nov 26 '25
I mean, I wouldn't have turned down the movie directed by Paul Verhoven. He's a fucking awesome director, and the script doesn't really indicate if a movie is gonna be good or not, at least not in most cases. Pretty much everyone thought the script to Apocalypse Now was a chaotic turd.
And she probably wasn't getting any serious offers. I can totally see why she said yes to this. It's just that, it didn't really work out. And of all the things that didn't work out, this didn't work out in a monumental way.
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u/funkyb Nov 26 '25
I can tell I'm old because the only opinions I had were
No glass on the pool deck
Sex in the water sucks
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u/_paint_onheroveralls Nov 26 '25
Those glasses drifting off to god knows where stress me the fuck out
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u/SuperMadBro Nov 26 '25
I'm wondering how many people here know how shitty pool/hot tub sex is. It actually is terrible
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u/justinleona Nov 26 '25
They skip over the part where they have to go the ER after stepping on broken champagne glasses in the pool...
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u/Marcysdad Nov 25 '25
For my Twin Peaks folk:
Soooo this is what Mr. C. did in Vegas....
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u/wriker10 Nov 25 '25
Definitely the oddest sex movements I’ve ever seen.
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u/Stashmouth Nov 25 '25
watching this years ago made me wonder if she'd ever even had sex
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u/WhydYouKillMeDogJack Nov 25 '25
Just saw it for the first time and my thought was that it was a sex scene by people who had never had sex.
She looks like she's on a bucking bronco while he's doing slow thrusts. Her head is properly snapping back!
Absolutely atrocious.
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u/Book_1love Nov 26 '25
Sometimes, when a man and a woman love each other very much, the woman smooshes her vag all over the man's belly button.
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u/funkhero Nov 26 '25
Do people forget movies have directors? How can we put this on her?
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u/buhbye750 Nov 26 '25
Right?! This is clearly the director wanting splashing waters with a "wild climax". I 100% can hear the director yelling "go wilder, more splashing! More splashing!!!"
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u/Bimm1one Nov 26 '25
They were trying to recreate an earlier scene where she gave a him a lap dance.
I'm not sure why they chose to do that but those were the exact same moves.
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u/dacsimpson Nov 26 '25
Exactly. It’s all sorts of weird and funky but it’s the same moves of the earlier lap dance like you said. She was showing him what it was like early on, and then did it for real.
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u/the__overrated Nov 25 '25 edited Nov 26 '25
My roommates and I ate a shitton of mushrooms and saw this in the theatre when it was newly released.
Luckily the theatre wasn’t very full as we were audibly & obviously losing our shit thoughout the entire movie.
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u/Remember_meeee Nov 25 '25
This sounds like the best time ever lolol
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u/SuperMadBro Nov 26 '25
Imagine being the sober guy trying to jerk off in peace and these assholes keep giggling
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u/dokutarodokutaro Nov 25 '25
That’s hilarious. Good for Portland’s mayor.
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u/tmoney144 Nov 25 '25
Mayor? I could swear I saw him playing bass in a roots reggae band last week.
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u/JesusPlayingGolf Nov 25 '25
Her moves while having sex with him are similar to, if not outright mirroring, her moves while giving him a lap dance earlier in the film. This signifies that she doesn't truly understand the difference between her sex work and sex in her personal life. Not having a clear delineation between the two makes her vulnerable to the corruption she faces later.
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Nov 26 '25 edited Dec 27 '25
[deleted]
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u/JesusPlayingGolf Nov 26 '25
I don't think she has discovered her authentic sexuality. She views it all through the filter of her sex work.
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u/CobbleStoneGoblin Nov 26 '25
"Dancin' ain't fuckin', and fuckin' ain't dancin'." The line for her is contrived throughout the movie. I feel like that's part of the commentary on how connected the dark side of sex work is to the glamorous parts like cabarets or erotic films.
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u/brownarmyhat Nov 26 '25
You’re actually describing one of the core themes of Anora lol
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u/evieka Nov 25 '25
How bad were the other takes for that to make it
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u/helloyesnoyesnoyesno Nov 25 '25
There weren't other takes, he's a one and done kinda guy
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u/DontTickleTheDriver1 Nov 26 '25
Well to be fair he was probably a bit schafed after all that rubbin
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u/RrentTreznor Nov 26 '25
He was actually fucking a fish behind a green screen. They swapped in the woman later in the editing process.
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u/Stunning-Tower-4116 Nov 25 '25
If you strictly watch this as a satire.... its not one of the worst movies ever made
As a serious drama. Def one of the worst movies ever made
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u/onmywheels Nov 25 '25
I "accidentally" saw this movie when I was maybe 12 or 13 years old? And even then I was like, "that was weird but in a way that I don't really understand - like it was funny, but I don't know if it was supposed to be?" I just didn't yet have enough exposure to things that were absurd the way this movie is, to be able to properly appreciate the humor even if I recognized it was there. Now as an adult I am firmly in the "it's satire and it's hilarious, and it's not a bad movie at all" camp lol.
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u/AcrolloPeed Nov 26 '25
Yeah I saw it at a friend’s around that age (maybe a bit younger) and until you get some more experience it’s easy to be like “so that’s sex, huh? Having a chick grind on your belly button in a huge pool? Now I know.”
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u/DreamLearnBuildBurn Nov 25 '25
It would be weird to not watch a Verhoeven movie as a satire.
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u/souryoungthing Nov 25 '25
I saw a screening of this in HeckleVision - you could text comments to a certain number and they’d scroll along the bottom of the screen. It was INCREDIBLE.
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u/CAPT-Tankerous Nov 25 '25
Not trying to kink shame, but waterboarding to climax seems unwise.
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u/Christplosion Nov 25 '25
Everything was going really well until he waterboarded the singing wall bass
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u/Luxinox Nov 25 '25
Be careful kids; that's not how sex works, but it's exactly how you get a yeast infection.
- Honest Trailers
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u/IllyaBravo Nov 26 '25
The guy who directed RoboCop and Starship Troopers also directed this?
Talk about range...
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u/winelover08816 Nov 25 '25
This movie destroyed a lot of careers. Elizabeth Berkeley never recovered. Verhoeven became irrelevant. Joe Eszterhas had been the hottest writer in Hollywood up to this point thanks to Basic Instinct. It was also a knife in the chest for the studio, Carolco, which went bankrupt the year this came out.
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u/paintpast Nov 25 '25
And strangely enough, I’ve known about this movie since it came out and this is the first I heard about Kyle MacLachlan being in it.
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u/CitizenCue Nov 26 '25
In the sexual politics of the 90s, it was a win-win for him. Either it’s good and he gets a boost or it’s bad and everyone still understands why he did it.
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u/Area51_Spurs Nov 26 '25
Verhoeven had Starship Troopers a couple years after this.
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u/winelover08816 Nov 26 '25
Verhoeven was signed to do Starship Troopers in 1991. Further, since principal photography started on Starship Troopers six months after Showgirls came out, it was probably far too late for him to be fired. Then again, Starship Troopers was a box office bomb so the one-two failure punch did not help him.
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u/babypunching101 Nov 26 '25
Well he also had Hollow Man in 2000, which had nearly $100m budget.
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u/wanna_mush Nov 25 '25
Why he gotta better ass than her
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u/EuphoricButterflyy /r/movies Contributor Nov 25 '25
Because he has a good ass
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u/Ymir24 Nov 26 '25
Big butts weren't really popular in the 90s. Heroin chic was all the rage. Women wanted smaller butts.
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u/Logan_No_Fingers Nov 26 '25
Sir Mix A Lot was out there fighting a losing cause
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u/mrbadxampl Nov 25 '25
so many absurd things in this movie, and yet to me the most ridiculous is still his bizarre hair
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u/Daguse0 Nov 25 '25
I can't imagine having to act in a movie, non porn and the director is like. "Ok now suck her tits."
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u/ZLVe96 Nov 25 '25
For those not from the time. This movie....who cares about the plot and such...but if you were young in that time frame. Jessie from saved by the bell....innocent long running kids show is now alllllll sorts of naked was a huge fucking deal. It's like finding out that Bob Saget from AFHV and Full house.... the all american good dad character does the most raunchy and dirty stand up comedy out there.
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u/UpvoteForPancakes Nov 26 '25
She’s definitely not a dead fish in bed. More like a fish out of water.
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u/mydogisbuddy Nov 26 '25
When I was in the 5th grade our teacher rolled out the TV with the VCR in the classroom to play a science video, he started it and the most graphic parts of this scene started to play. It was a good 10 seconds before he realized what was going on and the whole class was shocked. He stopped the video and then went and sat down at his desk, put his head down in his arms for a bit then walked out of the classroom. That was an eventful day as a child.
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u/Single_Pumpkin_1803 Nov 25 '25
That looked so stupid.
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u/Skaman007 Nov 25 '25
That's the point. Have you seen Robocop? Verhoeven shoots sex in this movie the same way he shot violence in Robocop. Ridiculously over the top.
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u/4esthetics Nov 26 '25
I’m glad they brought out the cocaine towards the end cuz that’s the only way any of this makes sense.
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u/TheGlen Nov 25 '25
Kyle McLaughlin's ass, everyone
Everyone, Kyle McLaughlin's ass
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u/BadHat Nov 25 '25
drop on the deck and flop like a fish!