The Age of Commercialism

good back-story, and good acting

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

In the old days, movies about strippers were harrowing tales involving serial killers and they were little more than blood & guts slasher movies which totally defeated their reason d'entre. Fortunately we have evolved past Roger Corman. It is noticed that there remains a murder plot in DANCING AT THE BLUE IGUANA with the Russian hit man, but it is at least not directed at the girls. I am one of the few people in the world who isn't negative about SHOWGIRLS, perhaps in part because it was such an improvement on the usual inane fare when it came to dealing with the subject matter, but in this one, there is a minimum of violence. So this is refreshing in that way. More real. It is filled with flaws, but the positives far, far outweigh the negatives.I thought I was still watching, then realized as those two guys walked off this is gonna be the end of the movie. Shucks, no, man! You can't do this to us! It's like a first-part with no second-part! There's no resolution to the story!Had I been a director, I'd never have gone for improv, I'd have insisted on a script. I'd have allowed improv if they came up with gems. In loads of places in this movie, like the bit about the rats, about Angel 'not being that big in real life' and not have inhaled, Jo's "of course I'm not keeping it, it's disgusting!", Jo's abortion clinic scene, and several others, were gems, but then again, loads of other stretches needed to be weeded out. But please note that I'm not knocking this movie. I am simply saying that the finished product needed some sprucing up. Okay, lots of sprucing up. And damn it, more resolution in the ending.I am of course just raring to have a say about the actresses:First off, Daryl Hannah. I've noticed criticism by some of the first-page reviewers thrown her way. Stuff like one of them wished she had a script. Hell. With her long legs, and her cat-like abilities, and her soft-spoken ways, Daryl is an absolute treat as Angel. She was made for the part. Can anyone be so agile sixteen years after having first wowed audiences? Daryl Hannah in high heels, bare-legged and mostly undressed, all tearful, in the parking area scenes are just heartbreakingly beautiful! Hey, reviewers, please note that Daryl played the part of this charmingly naive Angel and gave a charmingly naive portrayal. She was so utterly vulnerable in the scene with the policeman. There are people who aren't really equipped to deal with the realities of the mean old world out there, and Daryl played it to perfection.Second, Charlotte Ayanna. The newcomer. Does a wonderfully charming (and intoxicatingly alluring) Jessie. Pretty little body. Brings out all the protective urges. Dreamgirl. How anybody could slap her around...! But of course there are people like that in the world. Charlotte, good work. You should just have been in loads of great movies besides this one. Instead of that full- of-himself Ricky Martin music video.Third, Sheila Kelly as Stormy. She has a presence! Wow, does she ever have a presence! Grabs your attention the moment the camera comes her way. Stormy deserves a movie of her own. I'd have bought the DVD.And then there is Jennifer Tilly. Hard to believe this is the same girl as the sad character in THE FABULOUS BAKER BOYS, equally hard to believe that she was that young woman in BOUND. This is a versatile actress, people!I did not find Sandra Oh to be as great as the scores of other reviewers who think the world of her. I do not nearly think that she 'is a truckload of Kleenex all by herself'. The character, yes, the situation, yes, but for the most part, her portrayal fell flat. I would have said that Daryl's Angel was the true truckload of Kleenex.By the way, IMDb, really, 'an unglamorous look at strippers'? Not how I'd have put it. Makes it sound all wrong. Plenty of glamor in this movie, with the girls themselves. It is their doomed lifestyles that present the negative side, but the movie itself is filled with eye candy. Since you won't lure people into the cinema or towards buying the DVD by saying 'an unglamorous look at strippers' let me just point out that there is an a-b-u-n-d-a-n-c-e of fine flesh + lovely, lovely girls + celebrity skin (and a whole lot of sad stuff that makes it really deep!) But there's a lot of Showgirls in this one too! Yay to that!Review brought to you by RavenGlamDVDCollector who thinks its cool that the picture is sensitive enough to be mistaken for a chick flick. But let's do celebrate the beauty of the female of the species. That's why I bought DANCING AT THE BLUE IGUANA. After downloading the trailer on VuClip, because the plot on Wikipedia sounded fraught with totally depressing stuff.I've kept quiet about one thing. Most of the breasts in the movie are surgically enhanced. Not so Daryl Hannah's. Hell, to that Board Post entry about 'wearing out a VHS tape watching Kristin Bauer's scene'... How foolish to salivate over that! How totally off-putting! But, if I could've woken up alongside an Angel lookalike tomorrow morning... Sigh.

What a complete and utter mess. Yes, there are interesting characters. Yes, there are good performances. Yes, there are scenes which are compelling in and of themselves. To make the movie equally good and interesting and compelling requires some type of thematic element, a storyline, that will tie everything together. There is none here.There are scenes with characters behaving in precisely the opposite manner of their previous scene. There are moments and concepts that have nothing to do with anything yet keep popping up and going nowhere. There are ancillary characters who come and go without doing anything or adding to the scenes they show up in. Lousy storytelling.If the trivia is accurate, and there are enough alternate takes to create ten vastly different movies out of all the footage...how awful must the alternative possibilities be if this is the best one they could come up with? Congratulations, though, on having so many well-known actresses naked in the same movie. That's quite an achievement.

The main selling point of this movie is sex. There aren't any hardcore sex scenes but there's enough nudity (hardly anything below the waist, though) to boost your interest every 10 minutes as the show loses its momentum from one strip scene to another. The girls come off as quite sweet but their lives are a mess. The story is quite difficult to follow with many loose ends but you realize after a while that it doesn't really matter what exactly is going on as this movie tries to depict things as close to reality as possible. There is no real plot to any of it. Charlotte Ayanna, to me, is the prettiest stripper with the most perfect tits while the others seem to have different 'assets' they capitalize on. Overall, if you like girls, you'd be willing to make an exception for this one. Otherwise, your time is better spent watching an exciting B-grade monster movie.

This was a movie about the lives of 5 different strippers (Jennifer Tilly, Charlotte Ayanna, Sandra Oh, Daryl Hannah & Sheila Kelley). Supposedly, the original script was intended to be built around Kelley's character "Stormy", but as the actresses got to know their own characters and grow into them, the script was adapted to feature all 5. In fact, I think the Stormy character had the least amount of screen time. It was probably the worst story of the five. None of the five stories stuck out as being great. All were average, thus, the movie was average.The five co-stars here are all good actresses in my opinion, and that saved the movie from the horrible movie it could have been. One thing I did like about the movie is that the actresses that played strippers were not afraid to play strippers. I mean that in a couple of different ways. First, and in many ways most importantly, they were not afraid to be nude on camera. Usually, even in B-movies, there is one actress who wants to play the character but does not want to do what is necessary to play the character. Lets face it, we watch this movie because it is about strippers, and therefore, we expect to see them strip! The second point I want to make here is that the actresses did their homework as far as how the stripper routines work. They obviously took a class or studied on their own the art of "working the pole" and lap-dances, etc. This gives the movie credibility. Not one of the girls looked out of place dancing in the nude. If I was grading this purely on the striptease portion of this movie, it would get a 10. Pretty good stuff.Unfortunately, this movie is being graded as a whole, and as far as the plots go, they are not quite up to par. The actresses went as far as they could with the given material and more often than not, the movie dragged on, despite the acting, itself, being quite good. I've just recently noticed Sandra Oh and I have to say, she is a pretty versatile and darn good actress.Jennifer Tilly also stepped up a bit as the rough, biker chick stripper/dominatrix on the side. She played the most troubled girl at the club, Jo, who had to deal with the fact that she was pregnant, on drugs, etc. Everything that could be wrong with her was wrong with her.Robert Wisdom also did a great job as the sleazy strip club owner, Eddie. His character was strong and was the guy who kept the girls in line at work.Overall, this was a pretty average story, despite how well the girls and rest of the cast did. I have a feeling a different cast would have made a complete mockery of the movie. As it is, I give it a 6 of 10.