Anyone who goes to this movie and comes out offended has little excuse. There has been so much publicity describing the plot, acting and sexual content that if you don’t know what to expect before you walk in the door, well, shame on you obviously you will watch anything and movie reviews are useless to you anyway.

The plot is fragmented, but the basic theme involves an aspiring young dancer (Elizabeth Berkley) climbing the ladder of success in Las Vegas, from stripper and lap dancer, to backup dancer in a hotel show, to headliner at the same hotel. From rung to rung we see her wrestle with the sexual harassment, cheating and dirty politics that go on in the highly competitive sex industry.

There is some dancing in this film, although not as much as movies like Flashdance and Saturday Night Fever, which actually examine the personalities of the people whose bodies are their art on-stage. The point here is not the dancing most of it involves quick cuts of scantily-clad hardbodies turning, kicking and convulsing in synch. It has a hip-hop video feel, where how good the dancers look is more important than exactly what their great bodies are doing.

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There are a few reasons to go see Showgirls, however. If you go to see lots of skin (the NC-17 rating isn’t for violence,) you probably won’t be disappointed. If you like Melrose Place style interpretations of how and why the rich and powerful act like spoiled children, this film will make such lifestyles easy to understand and relate to. There are a few good laughs as well, especially when the plot pushes the boundaries of tastelessness.

But if you are attracted to Showgirls by the veil of a story the producers have wrapped this skin-flick in, save your money. This is not a movie about dancing. None of the dancers in the film even seems to enjoy what they do sex, drugs, money, power and fame are what these people are really after. In fact, in almost all the dancing sequences the dancers, especially Berkley, seem to be snarling with rage as they violently twist their bodies to the bland soundtrack.

I’d give Showgirls a three on a ten-point scale, mainly because it really is kind of sensational in an Entertainment Tonight sort of way. Don’t see it if you find G-strings offensive. Do see it if you drooled over Berkley in Saved by the Bell. Enjoy, and don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Showgirls, rated NC-17, is playing at the Varsity Theater.