Friday, December 19, 2008

"That chick's as cold as the dead flesh of a stripping zombie"

How much can a person expect from a movie called zombie strippers? My worst fear was that the film, if one can call it that, would be simply intended to arouse 13 year old boys who manage to get access to R movies. That it would be one scene after another of women taking their clothes off and being dismembered against an endless soundtrack of bad metal bands. But in the end it would all be worth it. Because there would also be some hilarious, unforgettable, cult-film-like moments. Well, all of the above is true, but there is also something even sadder going on. Watching this movie, one gets the sense that Jenna Jameson is trying to break out of the porn industry on the back of social satire. Yet this attempt to take the moral high ground comes across as shrill, desperate, and unconvincing. The evil military-industrial corporations that make the zombie serum are oh so subtly named "W" and "Cheneyco." The lab-coated doctor speeds incomprehensibly through a totally unprompted confession that his company masterminded the whole stripper club endemic. Any mention of a moral and the actors drop the whole ruse of sexiness and address the camera, blankly informing us that we're blind to the world's ills. On the upside, the sleep induced by this high handedness did up the shock factor at moments like Jameson's shooting of high velocity pool balls (that's right, pool balls) out of her vagina. Imagine getting hit with a lame moral and then getting hit with that! Usually, I can watch a stupid movie and laugh and then just forget about it later. This movie, while hilariously bad, also left a bad taste in my mouth - having nothing to do with the the club's "famous face dance." Basically, I am left deeply disturbed by the fact that the porn stars in the film look worse (i.e. dumber) for their attempt to say something smart. I honestly want to be glad for these zombie ladies getting long-awaited revenge on their depraved clientele, but ended up feeling sorry for them instead.

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