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Showgirls 2: Penny's from Heaven
USA 2011
produced by Ford Austin, Josh Eisenstadt, Rena Riffel for Rena Riffel Films
directed by Rena Riffel
starring Rena Riffel, Glenn Plummer, Greg Travis, Dewey Weber, Peter Stickles, Shelley Michelle, Ford Austin, Paula Labaredas, Hoyt Richards, Blanca Blanco, Ryan Grassmeyer, Marc Wasserman, Brian Nolan, Elissa Dowling, Dylan Vox, Lenora Claire, MYC Agnew, Jade Paris, Steve Williams, Clinton H. Wallace, Maria Marini, Count Smokala, Bradley Laise, Benjamin Ramirez, Lotti Pharriss Knowles, John V. Knowles, Brooke Mason, Chris Saranchock, Katie Snuff, DeeDee Bigelow, Erin Affourtit, Sherill Turner, Karen Agnes, Christa Bormann, Brad Kilmer, Amber Dawn Lee, Wendi Mirabella, Mike Justice, Richard Haralace, Tim Taylor, Holly Fraser, Jonathan Harrison, Josh Eisenstadt, Robert Fraser, Tamas Birinyi, Harley Gilmore, Dan V. Weiss, Eddie Riffel, Vana Kocheryan, Scott Keith, Nomi Madness, Chae Amando, Ayesha Orange, Kristen Campbell-Taylor, Christy Cody, Male Crystal Ball, Julia Sandberg Hansson, Ted Alderman, Kelly Cubilios, Yvonne Glen, Melissa Schade
written by Rena Riffel, music by John Collins, Kevin MacLeod, Rick Whitfield
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
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Penny Slot (Rena Riffel) is a stripper in Vegas and is well-loved ...
but she wants to be more, wants to be a danceer on a popular TV show and a
ballerina. Problem is, she lacks the proper training - and yet, she leaves
her boyfriend (Glenn Plummer) to make it to Hollywood. Of course, the very
first person she hitches a ride with robs her luggage after coercing her
into having sex with him, and the next person to give her a ride turns out
to be a homicidal psycho bitch. Fortunately, she runs into her own knife,
and ironically, that leaves Penny with a suitcase full of (possibly
stolen) money ... but also with a cop on her trail. Once in Hollywood,
Penny moves into a huge mansion and buys herself a lot of really expensive
things as she has never had much money before ... and before she knows it,
her money has run out. But she has made a great friend, Gotthardt (Peter
Stickles), a man who introduces her to all the best people in town and
inducts her into the freemansons' lodge - and Penny thinks she's madly in
love, but then he turns out to be engaged to be married to Russian
ballerina Katya (Shelley Michelle), but he somehow coerces Penny into
becoming his prostitute as he moonlights as a upper class pimp. Penny
doesn't like it, but she's too naive to come to the conclusion he's
exploiting her - and hey, a girl has to work ... Penny admires Katya,
but Katya is difficult to say the least, sometimes she treats Penny as if
she was dirt, then again she offers to give her dancing lessons, if only
Penny teaches her how to be a whore (which she doesn't mean in a negative
way), and eventually they even have lesbian sex with one another. But of
course, Katya also snatches the spot on the dance show Penny so
desperately wanted to be on. When in her function as a prostitute, Penny
has sex with the show's producer, his wife and their executive though,
luck changes in Penny's favour ... or does it? And how come Penny and
Katya eventually end up in San Francisco, how come Penny goes back to
being a stripper, a fate she desperately tried to escape, whatever
happened to the cop on her trail and to her fiancé who never gave up on
her, and how does Penny's lingerie-maid (Paula LaBaredas) figure into all
of this? Despite the (massive) involvement of Rena Riffels from
Showgirls (who even has the same character name in this film as in
the older movie), this is a sequel to Paul Verhoeven's film mainly in
name. Now I give you that, both films are about the ugly underbelly of
showbusiness and about strippers, but Showgirls 2: Penny's from Heaven
has a much lighter tone to it, is much more light-footed in both narrative
and pacing, and plays out quite a few scenes tongue severely in cheek.
Basically, the whole film is a self-consciously camp pseudo-drama full of
over-dramatic situations and performances, contrived situations, and of
course random dance interludes ... and all of this works totally for the
movie with Showgirls 2: Penny's from Heaven, it just hasn't set out
to be something deep or meaningful, but something fun and sexy, and this
it has totally achieved. And it should also be noted that Rena Riffel
really owns her role in this one. Recommended, actually!
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review © by Mike Haberfelner
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Robots and rats,
demons and potholes, cuddly toys and shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill Your Bones to is all of that.
Tales to Chill Your Bones to -
a collection of short stories and mini-plays ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle,
all thought up by the twisted mind of screenwriter and film reviewer Michael Haberfelner.
Tales to Chill Your Bones to
the new anthology by Michael Haberfelner
Out now from Amazon!!! |
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