Release Date: February 22, 2011
Studio: Cheezy Flicks / IMD Films
Genre: Horror / Comedy
Rated: R    1 hr 43 mins

Stripperland!

August 23, 2011

Reviewer: Rottenbucher

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CAST:

Ben Sheppard:  Idaho
Jamison Challeen:  Frisco
Maren McGuire:  Virgina
Ileana Herrin:  West
Lloyd Kaufman::  Grambo
Boyd Banks:  Maestro
Daniel Baldwin:  Double D

DIRECTOR:

Sean Skelding

“First they dance, then they kill!”  Welcome to Stripperland!.  No, you are correct; it’s a spoof of Zombieland, but with an exclamation point in the title and a whole lot of strippers shuffling, dancing and drooling.

In a world where women have turned into strippers, rag-tag survivors must make their way to Portland: The so-called “Stripper Capital of the World” to stop the slutty take-over. Non-friends Idaho (Ben Sheppard) and Frisco (Jamison Chaleen) eventually stumble upon West (Ileana Herrin) and Virginia (Maren McGuire) in their quest to find fresh-baked goods.  Except West and Virginia are headed to meet up with their rugged Grambo (Linnea Quigley, Return of the Living Dead, Night of the Demons).  Along their path to Portland, the group stumbles upon few baked-goods, several misfits (cameos from Lloyd Kaufman, Daniel Baldwan and Boyd Banks included) and countless strippers (real, wannabes, Suicide Girl-rejects and roller derby babes). 

From the creative mind that grinds the spoofing-yet-sex-crazed I Am Virgin into our lap comes Stripperland!  Director Sean Skelding knows two things: 1.) How to be unoriginal and 2.) How to make the most out of a shoe-string budget. If you check all of your brain at the door, you might not notice that just about every aspect of Stripperland! mirrors Zombieland. Which is ultimately unfortunate as there are horrible zombie-stripper films (Zombie Strippers, Zombies Zombies Zombies - Strippers vs. Zombies) that beg to be spoofed far more than a successful Hollywood zom-comedy. But that’s an entirely different argument.

Even with little budget, stilted acting, and poor effects, Stripperland! does have a bit to offer. First, this is not a complete T and A fest.  Instead of salacious, we get reserved.  The vast majority of strippers are in provocative attire, not their tatted- up birthday suits.  Even the actress portraying strippers that you can clearly tell are professional strippers!  This total fake-out actually works in the film’s benefit as somehow your main brain and little brain stick out the film in hopes of pure nudity.  It might be a bit disappointing when few tops drop off, but it makes for a weird, perverted hook.  Also, the main characters make the most of the flat-chest script. Maren McGuire (West) is the surprise actress of the bunch and actually passes off as a professional stripper in the most comical sequence of the film. 

However, the film offends with weak rules (“Strippers are only in it for the tips” Seriously!?) and super-cheap, CGI gore. Also annoying are the cameos. Lloyd Kaufman, Boyd Banks and Linnea Quigley actually try, but their characters are nothing more than stunt cameos.  Daniel Baldwin’s rapping is terrifying and not funny. Thankfully there are enough bouncing bosoms and buttocks in the sequence that gloss over the awfulness.

Stripperland! could have been an ultra-cheap Scary Movie if it simply expanded its reach beyond Zombieland.  There seems to be enough chops in the director’s department to at least point towards something more if a few more bucks would have been tossed into the budget. But the film was really pigeon-holed by being too faithful to the film it spoofed. Wait, how can a spoof of a spoof be faithful to a spoof? Maybe Stripperland! is a film theorist’s Ph.D dissertation in the making.  But it all honestly, the film is pretty crummy.  But if your party is drunk enough and likes scoping scantily clad women covered in blood, Stripperland! might be a Rocky Horror Picture Show for a collective of nerdy dudes.  Stripperland! is more 25-cent peep show than a private dance.