Las Vegas stripper Penny Slot (Rena Riffel, STRIPTEASE) thinks she's on the road to fame when she meets a Hollywood producer - his business card literally says "Hollywood Producer" under his name - who wants to cast her in SHOWGIRLS 2. She has long dreamed to being on a TV dance variety show called "Stardancer" and soon ditches her boyfriend (Glenn Plummer, STRANGE DAYS) for the road. She hitches a ride with Jeff (Dewey Weber, THE DOOM GENERATION) who ditches her and steals her suitcase. She narrowly avoids being a victim of "The MILF Murderer" and makes off with a car and a purse full of cash, but is forced to hide out when she is seen at the crime scene by a detective (Hoyt Richards, SEVEN DAYS SEVEN NIGHTS) who - after finding the producer's business card - bides his time since he figures sooner or later she'll be on her way to Hollywood. Hiding out in style while trying to hone her craft, she catches the attention - she's not exactly discreet - of seemingly down-on-his-luck young violinist Godhardt Brandt (Peter Stickles, CEMETERY GATES) who has a thing for older women ("Women are like bananas. They're sweetest when they're ripe, before they shrivel. But you.... you're a banana split with a cherry on top... and nuts!") He however quickly shows his true colors when he is revealed to be a major figure in a occultist society (associated with theosophist Helena Blavatsky) with influence on the creative and business types in the area. Penny is put off when she discovers that Godhardt is engaged to ballerina Katya (Shelley Michelle, RISING SUN), but Godhardt introduces her to a foreign count who showers her with gifts. She is head over heels in love with her meal ticket until Godhardt shows up with her cut of his fee and she realizes that he has pimped her out and means to make it a regular arrangement; but she soon discovers that she still has a long way to sink when she tries to use Godhardt and his connections to get her the lead role on "Stardancer".

Let's start off by saying that SHOWGIRLS 2: PENNY'S FROM HEAVEN (the main character's name is Penny, ya see) is neither good nor so-bad-it's-good, but to dismiss it completely would be depriving one of "bad movie" viewers of such exchanges as:

     "Bitch, you stole my customer!"
     "Well, you stole my g-string!"

and

     "Girl, you're not dumb. You just play dumb."
     "Like a possum?"

Riffel says she was more inspired by VALLEY OF THE DOLLS than SHOWGIRLS (although there's certainly some MULHOLLAND DRIVE, in which she also appeared, there too). Riffel - who doesn't seem to have aged much at all in the interim - appears to be playing a different character while Plummer and Weber seem to be reprising their roles (albeit having all come down on hard times along with fellow returning cast member Greg Travis as a pawn shop proprietor who has Penny's number). Riffel does not appear to be anywhere near as delusional as her onscreen protagonist (other characters - some equally delusional - mention that she's too old to be just now learning how to dance professionally with hopes of becoming a star), but her performance - or at least her "Dorothy out of Kansas" take (which worked well for her in the Verhoeven film) - is not quite up to the level of camp to which she aspires (Stickles and Plummer fare better). Although the script reportedly went through twenty drafts (including a big budget one sent to Paul Verhoeven for consideration, as well as drafts that heavily reference THE WIZARD OF OZ in a manner suggesting more of a Lynchian influence), the structure feels rather haphazard and semi-improvised with the several plot developments popping up as other scenes (including some homage to scenes from the original film like the bookending appearances by Weber) run out of steam. There are far less demanding examples (it's difficult to tell if the two and a half hour running time is the product of a beginning filmmaker or an attempt to ape the original film's epic length) of T&A readily available, so this film is recommended solely to with a tolerance (or rather an appreciation, perverse or not) for would-be bad movies.