Zombie Strippers!

"Zombie Strippers" manages a preternatural combination of theater of the absurd, hot pink lingerie, and the Smith and Wesson air soft pump action shotgun.

The ability of the 20th century's major Continental philosophies to adapt to the 3rd millennium is examined through the competing Weltanschauung of a cadre of sharply divided strippers in the American Midwest.

The characters are forced to define and own their ontology when a government manufactured zombie virus is unleashed. Yes, it may be possible to continue stripping after coming back from messy death, but is there more to life?

Ultimately, both the Nietzschean Ubermensch and Satre's existential despair are shown to be inadequate responses to the human condition, as well as to the zombie condition. In fact, a greater level of alienation then has been previously imagined is shown to be possible when a being is left severed from humanity while still sentient.

The failing Gestalt of excessively broad Panglossian optimism is laid bare, along with the entire cast. Rather than presenting a justification for self-annihilating submission to a mob which demands conformity as payment for acceptance, the protagonists must embrace individualism both qua the only reasonable way to survive and qua the innate demand of humanity.

Sacrificing the enduring emotional vitality and undeniable free will of a human life span for the illusion of release to be found in reanimation leads only to unrecoverable angst for those strippers who submit to the zombie virus.

This piece is properly read as a modern re-assessment of the lessons the Enlightenment. While a cynical view of religion's ability to define the scope and meaning of life is buttressed, we all - even a zombie in her actual death throws - must account for our choices. Infinite rebirths are not an option.

Meanwhile, fresh philosophical challenges are brought to bear in the characters of an aging Russian lap dancer and her harsh pragmatism and Paco, the illegal janitor who draws on his own cultural traditions to script a deeply personal reaction to the zombification of his co- workers.

Numerous definitions of humanity are tested: rationalism, logic, empathy - but it ultimately our ability to choose life and to find beauty in the sheer act of being alive that separates the living from the merely undead. The audience is asked to reconcile being human and being alive, having first debated if there is is a foundational schism at all.

More deep is the question hinted at and left unanswered by the film: if science, in the form of a toupe wearing lab tech who unleashes a chemo- virus that reanimates dead flesh, unleashes evil; and if the humanities, in the form of remarkably fresh looking strippers who toss off gems of epistemological wisdom between turns on the stage, are left to address the terrible question of whether to choose zombification for greater tips, where is the solution?

Believers in eleatic monism may be disappointed, but anyone who has ever wrestled with Being and Becoming will find some common themes dressed up like new with nipple tassles.

OK the title says it all, but don't be fooled this movie has a lot going for it. The writing is crisp (the Mexican American jokes in particular) and the actors clearly get the idea that it's supposed to be funny and schlocky. I think most viewers and reviewers will miss the commentary on strip clubs and the objectification of women here. Yes Zombie Strippers has a message!

The FX and makeup are outstanding and of course over the top.

This is not a rip off or a copy (any more than any other zombie movie is)and I found it funnier than Shawn of The Dead and at least as funny (if not more) as Return of The Living Dead.

Kudos to Jenna for poking fun at herself and her profession.

BTW the audience at the screening LOVED IT.

I thought of giving it a higher mark because the moments that work do work extremely well. Problem is is that sometimes it's hard to tell why we are laughing. One moment it seems like the filmmaker is not in on the joke but then along come moments so blatantly outrageous with cues (such as music or the way something is framed) that make one thing the filmmaker is aware of the tone of a scene and how the acting and the comedy and the horror, etc. are working. In any case the shifts in tone were a little hard to get used to. The gore is sometimes very delicious and creative with attention paid to fans of organic gore. Sometimes it looks plain old cheesy, bad CGI style gore. The acting is overall good, even when over the top. However for my taste no matter how aware they were of their own "bad" performances I think the movie could have benefited from a lot less "Look at my bad performance wink wink" acting and more of the playing-it-straight acting (believe it or not Jenna Jameson is one of the more successful at keeping this in mind). Robert Englund strikes just the right balance between over-the-top and playing it straight, he stops shy of taking it too far. O yea and although not really partial in that hormonal way to T & A I must admit what the movie offers is sure to please. The dancing is fun to watch in the first section and bizarre and hilarious in the second (I refuse to spoil).

This movie is suppose to be bad. It was made that way. The actors knew it was bad, the director knew it was bad, the producers knew it was bad, that's why they made it... and that's what makes it so good.

If you like 'B' movies, especially zombie 'B' movies then you should have no problems appreciating the over-the-top soft-core sex and head-exploding gore in all its glory.

All you need to know about the plot is that ex-hard-core porn star Jenn Jamison and her stripper buddies get infected by a government super virus that is suppose to make soldiers continue to be able to fight... even after they're dead. In effect, making them Super Soldiers. Well this works for the girls making them into Super Strippers, except that their dead. So their Super Zombie Strippers.

Gratuitous sex and violence, exploding heads, zombies, strippers, gore, T & A. What more could you ask for? As for those who have rated this movie so poorly... they just can't appreciate the genius behind Zombie Strippers.

P.S. Look for a cameo by Jenna Jameson's long-time boyfriend and UFC icon Tito Ortiz as the bouncer/doorman.

A movie such as this is always a toss up. One is certainly given enough information from the title about what to expect, and as such the result can be utter crap, or a devilishly guilt ridden B movie indulgence. I will leave my personal classification open to interpretation based upon the rest of this critique.

B movies are a quirky little niche of the movie industry, slipping past the radar and existing as poor in many aspects of traditional film-making standards, yet somehow rising to the occasion to please grinning audiences. Sometimes a movie is intended to be a B, and sometimes it happens by accident; usually in the hands of an amateur and underfunded auteur. Regardless of how a movie like Zombie strippers came to be (even though it is fairly apparent in this case) the polished result, and I use that term loosely, can be perceived in three ways. The first, is a movie that is the bonafide gold standard of schlock, the second is one that has a burning admiration for this genre and directs an homage as a salute. The final and obnoxiously common result is a film that tries desperately to exist as a B movie, but fails on every level and unfortunately, Zombie Strippers is a direct offspring of the latter.

I have stated before that I am a sucker for zombie films, but I have no such admiration for this picture; this zombie film just sucks. 2008 as a whole has shown a weak display of this genre, the best being the disappointing Diary of the Dead by legend George A. Romero. Also more notable is the more successful B movie, the Romero remake, Day of the Dead. Perhaps the largest flaw of Zombie Strippers (I assure you, there are a number) is the decision to forfeit most elements of the classic "zombie" picture. This lack of tradition is even more clear, due to the fact that it is supposed to be traditional; a homage; a throwback. I won't disclose exactly how it fails to meet these expectations, with fear of disclosing the "plot". Other issues range from the sometimes intolerable script which only occasionally descends into something gleefully tacky, the acting, while not vital to a picture of this calibre needs to be watchable, and pacing. Forgoing all else, this garbage unfolds at a snails pace (make that a crippled snail), mostly consisting of random and supposedly politically satirical humour and extended strip scenes, which lose their appeal quickly when the go-go's start to go-bad. There is some well done gore for the budget, but it is most certainly not worth your time.

Called to a chemical lab, a group of elite soldiers are shocked to discover the result of a government re-animation program; zombies. Dispatching of the threat, the virus escapes into a nearby strip-club, run by the devilish Robert Englund of Nightmare on Elm St. fame, who I am sure was full after filming, from all the scenery he had been chewing on. Among the sultry strippers is Kat, played by Jenna Jameson, whose boyfriend Jay Lee directed. The virus affects men and women differently, leaving only women with their pre-existing mental capacity, but tacking on a degrading demeanour and hunger for flesh. The catch, it appears in death that these women can strip up a storm, and soon, despite pushing a few bodies under the rug, business is booming. All is perfect for Ian (Englund) and his group of co-workers and friends, until the gals get a tad antsy and things get out of control.

Despite the possibly good intentions, Zombie Strippers is simply dreck; an overlong and ploddingly paced humourless mess and your money would be better spent on Romero's latest venture, or renting last years Grindhouse. In Zombie Strippers, the only memorable thing stripping away is your patience and the dignity of those involved.