Zombie Strippers - Review

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Rated: R

Distributor: Sony

Release Date: 2008-04-18

Starring: Robert Englund, Jenna Jameson, Roxy Saint, Joey Medina, Shamron Moore, Penny Drake

Directed by Jay Lee

Produced by Angela Lee, Larry Schapiro, Andrew Golov

Written by Jay Lee

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Reviewed by Katey Rich : 2008-04-07 17:51:14

Zombie Strippers: it’s a title that can’t really go wrong. Like Snakes on a Plane or Epic Movie, it tells you everything you need to know in a few well-chosen words. There’s the obvious—this is a movie about strippers who also happen to zombies (or, if you prefer, zombies who also happen to be strippers). And then there’s what’s implied by such a gloriously up-front title. This is a movie that aims to give you one thing, and it’s gonna do it well.

It’s foolish to go into a movie like this expecting anything beyond B-level exploitation, but oddly enough, it’s the filmmakers who make that mistake here. The movie is riddled with not-so-subtle political jabs and shout-outs to famous philosophers, and the plot, no joke, is drawn from a famous French absurdist play about the dangers of conformity. Writer-director Jay Lee thinks he’s really smart, and he wants to make sure you know it too.

Luckily, the pseudo-philosophical leanings and weird attempts at allegory don’t really get in the way of the important part—the schlock. And they come together in a great way in the movie’s set-up. It’s the near future, and somehow Bush has been elected for a fourth term as president. The war in Iraq rages on, and since the Army has run out of soldiers, they’ve resorted to reanimating the dead to fight the war. But the zombie virus, of course, gets out of hand, and the elite “Z-Squad” is called in to fight off the undead. One of the soldiers is infected though, and somehow makes his way to a strip club called Rhino’s, where the clientele is boorish, the strippers are catty, and the zombie virus can roam free.

Robert Englund, a.k.a. Freddie Krueger, plays Ian, the club’s owner, and Jenna Jameson is surprisingly not awful as the star stripper, Kat. She’s the first to get bitten, and since the other girls in the club always aim to outdo her or be just like her, the zombie disease spreads quickly. A few strippers hold out but are outshone by the zombies, who apparently are even more attractive to the clientele even though their flesh is actually rotting.BR>
Ian and a few other employees decide not to do anything about the growing zombie population, since they can lock the bitten clients into a holding cell in the basement and the strippers, for some reason, continue doing their jobs even as they eat brains. Maybe it’s perfectly logical to the boys who love gore, but who knew that zombie strippers bring in even more money than the regular kind?

The play that the movie is trying to honor, Eugene Ionesco’s Rhinoceros, is about the danger of conforming when people around you are transforming into something ridiculous—in that case, rhinos, and in this case, zombies. Lee seems to be trying to come up with some allegory about what the zombies stand for, but it’s a little unclear what he’s going for. Do the Bush references mean that zombies stand for Republicans? Does the cattiness between the strippers mean that zombies stand for unattainable beauty standards?

But the confused politics are an easily ignorable part of a movie that’s generally fun and equal-opportunity offensive. It’s not as fast-paced or silly as it ought to be, mostly because Lee doesn’t really seem to know what he’s doing behind the camera. And the extended sequences of stripping will be great for the 15-year-old boys who will flock to this movie (or, more likely, rent it on DVD), but slow down the movie so much that you kind of forget about the zombies.

There are better zombie movies out there, and better stripper movies for that matter, but the combination of the two has a weird novelty appeal. Zombie Strippers will play in theatres for only one week before it goes on to have a guaranteed long life on DVD. I can hear the college kids now, smoking pot and telling each other, “No, for real, there’s a movie called Zombie Strippers, and Jenna Jameson’s in it and there’s tons of boobs!” And, despite attempts to be something more meaningful, that’s pretty much all Zombie Strippers is.

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Barb Says:
April 9th, 2008 at 04:38
Can you say, "talking out of both sides of my mouth?" or do you even know what that means? I'm sure you won't publish this. SURE of it.

JoshT Says:
April 9th, 2008 at 04:39
Yes, we're all aware of what "talking out of both sides of my mouth" means. But why would you be talking out of both sides of your mouth, and what does that have to do with this review?

Connect the dots. If you disagree with the review, explain why. It's the least you can do.

Kevin Kenndy Says:
May 13th, 2008 at 14:22
The persons who wrote & produced this movie...I don't have words to describe it. If this film cost you over $4.00 to make, you got ripped off! I've seen some B A D films in my days but this IS THE WORST I'VE SEEN IN YEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Jenna Jameson is a beautiful woman with lots of talent, I'm surprised she lowered herself to be part of this film.

pedro Says:
June 12th, 2008 at 14:14
I'll have to disagree with you entirely. this movie is obviously meant to be a spoof. they were out to make a zombie version of "Scary Movie", with the characters that "incidentally" overhear crucial conversations (phrased in the most convoluted way possible, of course - "this chick is as cold as the rotting flesh of a zombie stripper!") and the offensive racial stereotypes (Paco, married to Maria, two daughters both named Maria, has a donkey called Pepe, wears a sombrero).

I also liked the fact that the supposedly dumb pornstar blondes are seen reading the complete works of Kant and spouting out existentialism. and englund's character's name is Ian Esco...Ionesco. get it? ;)

sure, the ending is a bummer, but the 80 minutes that preceded it are more than worth a fanboy's time.

oh, and englund is clearly having a blast.

pedro Says:
June 15th, 2008 at 14:54
also, did you notice what the name was of the guy who spread the virus? his name is byrflough. and it's pronounced "bird flu". and he spreads a pandemic virus.

this movie is so great.

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