In a time not too far in the future, George W. Bush has been elected for his fourth consecutive term as president of the United States with his vice president, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Jenna Bush is on the Supreme Court, and George has dissolved Congress, claiming it was "cramping his style." We are at war with numerous other countries, including not only Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon, but also Venezuela, France, and Alaska. This state of affairs has created a dire need for more soldiers, so the government, partnering with the military industrial giant Cheneyco, is experimenting with a "chemo-virus" that they hope to use to reanimate dead soldiers, creating a new breed of fearless warrior. As one might expect, the experiment has gone terribly wrong. Soldiers are called in to clean up the mess, but the virus still escapes and infects an underground strip club.
Robert Englund channels Charles Nelson Reilly as the strip club's owner, Ian Essko. He leads a flock of pneumatic strippers who read Nietzsche and debate the merits of various philosophies when they're not onstage. There's a new girl, a wide-eyed, corn-fed Christian youngster who intends to go into stripping to help her Nana with medical expenses. Once the strippers become infected, the already,er, limber women become super strong and super acrobatic, not to mention super hungry. With apologies to Mr. Nietzsche, apparently sometimes that which does kill us also makes us stronger!
Joey Medina plays Paco, the Mexican janitor whose character has some of the funniest bits in the movie, if Hubby's reaction is any indication. He manages to get off not one, but two riffs on the old "we don't need no stinking badges" line, and by the film's end has probably embodied every Mexican or illegal alien stereotype there is. He was just a fun character.
Several of the characters are named for philosophers or artists, and the action is set in Sartre, Nebraska (pronounced "sar-tree"). The comedy is mostly broad but sometimes more subtle. You could watch this movie a number of times (assuming that you could bring yourself to do so) and continue to find new subtle literary, philosophical, and artistic references that you might not have noticed in previous viewings.
In the "making of" featurette, they said their goal was to make this movie gratuitous in every way. Gratuitous violence, gratuitous comedy, gratuitous political commentary. I believe they accomplished their goal in every possible way. As should be obvious from the title, there is plenty of gratuitous near-nudity throughout, and the violence, while cartoonish, is still plenty gory. Personally, I can't look at that stuff, but I found the humor to be so laugh-out-loud funny that I persevered through the whole movie.
If you are a fan of cheesy horror/comedy films, then you'll love Zombie Strippers.
Title: Zombie Strippers
Director: Jay Lee
Starring: Robert Englund, Jenna Jameson
Released: 2008
Genre: Horror/Sci-Fi/Comedy
MPAA Rating: Rated R for strong violence and gore, sexuality/nudity and language.
Runtime: 94 minutes
My Rating: 8 out of 10 stars (I know, it's really an awful movie, but it was so much fun I couldn't help it!)
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