"Stripperland" review

Stripperland (2011)

Director: Sean Skelding
Writers: Sean Skelding

Ben Sheppard ... Idaho
Jamison Challeen ... Frisco
Maren McGuire ... Virginia
Ileana Herrin ... West
Hank Cartwright ... Guy Gibson
Daniel Baldwin ... Double D
Lloyd Kaufman ... Phillip
Linnea Quigley ... Grambo

Stripperland. It’s a magical place where strippers remove their clothes for free and everyone gets a complimentary lapdance. A land where the drinks are cheap, the music is always set to hip hop and the women bump and grind the night away. That land is locked away deep in my imagination. This film shows an alternative reality to my fantasy. Their version of Stripperland is full of zombie strippers that love to eat human flesh. My version is a lot more fun.

“Stripperland” is a B-movie take on “Zombieland”. It gladly rips-off every element of its A-movie predecessor. It also manages to mangle a few “Star Wars” quotes along the way just so you understand the level of geek knowledge the filmmakers possess. The plot is essentially the same. The only difference is that all of the zombies are strippers. Two guys hit the road to Stripperland, (Portland actually), to look for life and freedom from zombies. They pick up two sisters who also want to be free of undead strippers. There are many gory interludes along the road to freedom. It all ends in a strip club with zombie women trying to hold in their guts after being blasted by shotgun wielding grannies. Just like “Zombieland”. Well, the ending was a little different.

“Stripperland” is a competently made B-rip-off of “Zombieland”. It moves briskly along from one gory set piece to the other but doesn’t provide much excitement or humor along the way. One of the main characters has an obsession with baked goods. Instead of lusting after twinkies, he wants to taste well prepared cakes. That is as humorous as “Stripperland” gets. If that’s the only funny thing I can remember about a movie called “Stripperland”, you can probably feel OK about skipping this one.

There’s one big problem with “Stripperland”. If you’ve already seen “Zombieland”, you’ve seen a better version of this film. But I was hoping that this would be an unapologetically sleazy affair which would make up for its lack of creativity. But I was disappointed again. “Stripperland” is too nice. There should have been so many undead breasts flopping about I should have lost count. Remember this B-movie golden rule: Strippers who don’t strip are not strippers. I can’t emphasize this enough. There were plenty of zombie strippers lurching about but very few actually took the time to show their rotting bodies.

So shame on you Stipperland for making me want to visit your city. I came to Stripperland to visit your glory holes and all I got was this half-baked remake.

SCORE: 2 out of 4 crazed strippers