Where do you even begin with this? Porn-quality acting, basically no plot, shoddy camera-work, etc. However, there is a sly sense of humor running through it, particularly in Rena Riffel's character Penny. She has some of the funniest dialogue in the movie, although the movie is rather painful to sit through. Some scenes just go on for too long, and the conversations are pretty ridiculous and go nowhere. And the sex scenes/nudity are even less erotic/sexy than they were in the original Showgirls (which is referenced several times). Ultimately, it is worth at least one viewing, but preferably with other people so you can collectively laugh at how bad it is.
Showgirls 2: Penny's from Heaven
2011
Action / Comedy / Drama / Thriller
Showgirls 2: Penny's from Heaven
2011
Action / Comedy / Drama / Thriller
Keywords: woman director
Plot summary
Las Vegas stripper, Penny Slot (Rena Riffel),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. Romance then leads her down a path towards her dream of stardom, fame, and fortune. But danger lurks at every twist and turn while Penny Slot becomes lured by a dangerous love triangle full of temptation and seduction. Penny's longtime fiancé/boyfriend, James "Jimmy" Smith ('Glenn Plummer') warns her that she needs formal technique training if she wants to be taken seriously as a real dancer, so Penny heeds his advice and sets out to take ballet classes and practices her pique turns. But, she must pay the price. And there is a price to pay for success, sacrifices to be made at every imaginable level, and it all comes down to... How bad do you want it?
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
Director
Top cast
Tech specs
720p.BLU 1080p.BLUMovie Reviews
Fails as a sequel, and mostly awkward as a parody of a satire
what a piece of garbage
If there ever was a movie that should have never been thought of, written, shared, cast, rehearsed, shot, edited nor released, this is it.
It is technically a film.
Showgirls 2: Penny's from Heaven: 1 out of 10: Rena Riffel one of the actresses from Showgirls cobbled together an unofficial sequel/remake fan film with some of the original cast. It is technically a film.
The Good: Under the right circumstances (I am thinking psilocybin mushrooms.) this movie can be entertaining. It starts off on the right foot and seems to be almost entertaining with interesting cameos and a Daliesque surreal touch but one quickly realizes it is just meandering from one setpiece to the other with no real rhyme or reason.
To her credit, Rena Riffel is in surprisingly good shape and does her best to work with her um assets. I would actually hold her blameless based on her performance was she not also the writer and director of the film.
The Bad: Amazon currently has a version of this film streaming called Showgirls 2: The Cut which is the original film cut down to 100 minutes from the original 145 minutes. Well, it is a start. The problem is not just length (though that certainly does not help matters) it is that the scenes simply never go anywhere in ways that defy description.
I almost think Showgirls 2 should be shown in Film School as a lesson of how not to shoot a scene, frame a shot, or transition from one scene to another. The entire film is like the first seven minutes of Manos the Hands of Fate with occasional middle-aged topless nudity. The level of filmmaking and storytelling incompetence is simply of the charts.
The Ugly: Rena Riffel is from the Cheri Caffaro school of filmmaking. No matter how old I get nothing more nubile is allowed to appear in the scene. So we have the primary rival/love interest Shelley Michelle playing the Gina Gershon role but looking like Rue Mccallahan in a Golden Girls rerun. People complained that Showgirls 2 was like watching a porn film with all the sex scenes taken out but in all honesty would it have been better if they were left in?
In Conclusion: You can do this kind of movie correctly. Misty Mundae and Seduction Cinema put together a string of these in the early aughts. (The Lord of the G-Strings: The Femaleship of the String, Spiderbabe etc). Rena Riffel does have a surrealistic touch to her story but she simply should not be allowed to edit or direct film and she needs a strong co-writer to focus her craft. She clearly has talent. Unfortunately, her surreal trip was lost in a deluge of craft errors and poor follow through.