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Zombie Strippers: Unrated Special Edition
R1 - America - Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Jeremiah Chin (11th November 2008). |
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The Film
 Sometimes a film is just plain blunt. It says exactly what it is, and sometimes it knows exactly what it is and executes it to perfection (see Troma film’s catalogue. These guys know what they are and what they’re doing and do it right). So when I hear about a film named “Zombie Strippers” (2008) starring Jenna Jameson and Robert Englund, I think about a film that may as well be titled “Target Male Demographic 14-40.” And that’s about what you get, however the aspirations of Jay Lee tries to purport itself to be some kind of social satire and injects some poorly written political humor that brings the whole film down. Set in the 4th term of George W. Bush’s presidency, the government develops a new reanimation virus to try and keep the dwindling troop death rates from falling further as wars in the Middle East continue. Unfortunately the virus goes out of control in the scientific facility, infecting one of the members of the cleanup team who manages to escape to a local Nebraska strip-club where he infects the star pole dancer Kat (Jenna Jameson). But after she gets infected, she maintains her personality and actually becomes the best poledancer the town has ever seen, causing the club’s owner Ian (Robert Englund) to keep her flesh eating indiscretions secret to keep the cash flowing in. But the competition to earn drives the rest of the club’s dancers to debate the choice to become a zombie with the potential for a full on outbreak just around the corner. All of the attempts at political satire that bookend the film come off as completely unnecessary, they could have easily just resolved the film with the idea of a zombie just breaking in to the strip club as with the odd political intro and scientific outbreak segments. Instead all of these jokes just fall flat. For the majority of the movie within the strip club there’s some genuinely funny moments, but most of these come from Englund’s performance who does a great job playing up the germophobic strip club owner who’s appropriately sleezy in his own right. The rest of the cast over or under shoots their performances, though Jameson does a good job in the acting in what line’s she’s given considering the writing that’s available to her. So for a horror-comedy when the comedy has already fallen flat, all you have to fall back on is the horror, which has some okay gore. Though there are some long stretches of just terrible CG, there’s some good and dirty practical effects with adequate spurting of blood that almost balance it out. There’s some bad green screening and other digitally added effects, but the practical effects that exist for the zombies are fairly good, including someone’s head getting ripped open that is left to linger for gorehounds and a good prop decapitated head. Visually though Jay Lee’s directing is really hit and miss, both technically and in terms of his style. The directing itself is incredibly plain, there’s not a lot of weight being thrown around in terms of cool shots or interesting looks, which just makes the technical side of the video show through more. I’ll get to it a little more in the video aspect of the review, but the quality is jarring on the feel of the movie as the opening scenes feel so much like cheap video and then oddly changes to a better quality when it gets inside the strip club which could be either attributed to lighting or color grading but it’s disappointing and jarring nonetheless. Overall the film is exactly what it says it is, Zombies, Strippers, Jenna Jameson, and for those who this is more than enough then you’ll get what you want but not much more. “Zombie Strippers” spends far too much time trying to be satirical or smart in all the wrong ways and just doesn’t fully hit the points it’s trying to make.
Video
The 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen presentation is very mixed, the opening scenes and the rest of the film have a large gap in terms of color grading and quality that just doesn’t feel stylistic as much jarring and a little frustrating that they didn’t bother to light or try to colorgrade the first part of the film well. The rest of the transfer is fine enough and has some grain and color issues at times that get in the way.
Audio
Presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 in either English or French. The film’s audio sounds a little flat considering the music and sound that’s supposed to be revolving around the strip club, but not completely terrible. The music cues themselves reflect the film’s problems in writing and directing as well that tend to miss the point more than the really match the mood of the film. Optional subtitles are included in both English and French.
Extras
“Zombie Strippers” is equipped with a handful of special features including an audio commentary track, deleted scenes, a pair of featurettes and some bonus trailers. First up is the audio commentary featuring cast members Jenna Jameson, Robert Englund, Joey Medina and writer/director Jay Lee. The commentary talks mostly about the actors and who’s who in the movie, with a bit of introspective commentary about the casting process and putting the film together, but not much more. Englund is entertaining at first, but over time the way he simply just announces the plot or narrates what’s on screen gets a little annoying. There are 20 deleted scenes also and include optional audio commentary with writer/director Jay Lee and actor Robert Englund: - “Meet the Z Squad” runs 2 minutes and 10 seconds. This is an extended scene of the opening scene, Lee talks about these scenes giving a better look at the original intent of the film though there are some sparse cuts that have been put back. - “Cheneyco” runs for 1 minute 22 seconds, Lee comments on this scene as a parody of corporate greed, where 2 Cheney co employees are eaten by zombies, Englund calls it Kubrick-esque. - “Meet the Strippers” runs for 4 minutes 23 seconds, this is another extended scene of the introduction of the strippers at the club, Lee says that this was supposed to set up the film’s homage to the play “Rhinocerous.” - “Sox’s Dance, Cole’s Rescue” runs 2 minutes and 10 seconds, this is an extended version of Sox’s poledancing which shows Cole stopping someone after sticking his face too far towards Sox. Lee and Englund talk about the idiocy of Englund’s character. - “Kat Feeds” runs for 45 seconds, this is an extended version of the lap dancing/zombie feeding scene that adds in maybe 2 more shots, and Lee acknowledges that. - “Gaia’s dance” runs for 48 seconds, another continuation of the zombie feeding in the lap dance room, with just a few seconds added in to Gaia’s dance. Lee talks about playing up the joke more. - “Aftermath” runs for 2 minutes 19 seconds, an extended version of Kat’s feeding aftermath where Ian and gang ponder the cleanup. Lee and Englund stay mostly silent, except for comments on the strength of the acting. - “Ian Gets Head” runs for 3 minutes 47 seconds, another extended scene of Ian forming the plan to keep the zombie strippers going, Lee and Englund talk about the slapstick and how his character knows what he knows. - “In the Old Country…” runs for 1 minute and 7 seconds, a short speech by Madame Blavatski, Lee and Englund let it run it’s course. - “Alternate Lilith’s Speech” runs for 56 seconds, an alternative speech of Lilith’s reaction not death, Lee talks about the reasoning behind a second cut. - “Lilith Feeds” runs for 1 minute and 1 second, Lilith rips the head open, Lee talks about how this scene adds more gore to the initial face rip. - “Berenge’s Nightmare” runs for 1 minute and 2 seconds, Berenge sees herself as all of the other girls, Lee talks about it as an identity dilemma. - “Jessy and Davis Stalked” runs for 1 minute and 41 seconds, featuring the Z squad following Jessy and Davis in the day, Lee talks about the oddness of the day scene in the film. - “Prepare for Battle” runs for 4 minutes and 36 seconds. Another extended cut of the rallying inside of Ian’s office and getting ready to fight off the zombie outbreak outside, Englund makes some directing comments and they talk about the danger of long scenes. - “Farewell, Paco” runs for 2 minutes and 33 seconds, Joey Medina comes in to comment on the extended version of Paco’s final speech and stand against the zombies with the commentary talking about the nobility of his character. - “Blavatski and Cole, a Zombie Tragedy Part 1” runs for 2 minutes and 1 second, featuring a character part between Blavatski and Cole, Lee and Englund talk about the romance that got cut. - “Gaia feeds” runs for 54 seconds. Cole and Gaia duke it out with an extended look at the cranial rip, Lee talks about cutting it for the R rating. - “Blavatski and Cole, a Zombie Tragedy Part 2” as Z squad descends on the strip club, Blavatski performs for the squad and gets killed, Lee and Englund talk about the jokes from the scene that got cut. - “Jessy’s Love for Life” runs 2 minutes and 14 secodns, an extended take of Jessy and Davis’s rescue by Z squad, Lee and Englund mostly just listen. - “Farewell, Berenge, Jessy and Davis” runs for 2 minutes and 9 seconds, Berenge pretends to be a zombie to conform and gets killed, Lee comments on the effects missing from the shot. “The Champagne Room: Behind the Scenes of Zombie Strippers” runs 7 minutes and 54 seconds, the cast and crew talk about how they were drawn to “Zombie Strippers” and some fun looks at how the film started as a joke on the most bottom line demographic to break out into horror films. A nice little featurette that covers the production with a bit of behind the scenes footage complimented with some cast talking heads. “The Dressing Room: How to Glam a Zombie” runs for 4 minutes and 50 seconds, a good choice to add a featurette on special effects and production design on the film mostly with Patrick Magee in terms of putting together the look of the zombie strippers and the range of different effects that they put together. A good featurette and a must have for any sort of zombie movie. Finally the huge number of bonus trailers included on the disc: - “Blu-Ray Disc is High Definition!” runs 2 minutes and 37 seconds. - “Boogeyman 3” runs 1 minute 19 seconds. - “Vacancy 2: The First Cut” runs 1 minute 41 seconds. - “Balls Out: Gary the Tennis Coach” runs for 2 minutes and 12 seconds. - “Resident Evil: Degeneration” runs for 1 minute and 3 seconds. - “Termination Point” runs 1 minute and 2 seconds. - “The Art of War II: Betrayal” runs for 1 minute and 33 seconds. - “Felon” runs for 1 minute 9 seconds. - “The Lazarus Project” runs for 1 minute and 45 seconds. - “Linewatch” runs for 1 minute and 31 seconds. - “Anaconda 3: Offspring” runs for 1 minute and 22 seconds. - “Starship Troopers 3: Marauder” runs for 2 minutes and 3 seconds. - “The Fall” runs for 2 minutes and 13 seconds. - “Tortured” runs for 1 minute 40 seconds. - “Insanitarium” runs for 1 minute 26 seconds. - “Grudge 3” runs for 1 minute 20 seconds. - “The Tattooist” runs for 1 minute 45 seconds. - “Moscow Zero” runs for 57 seconds. - “Buried Alive” runs 44 seconds. - “Fearnet.com” runs for 33 seconds. - “American Crude” runs for 1 minute 25 seconds.
Overall
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