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Oddly enough, this is the second stripper themed zombie movie that I have seen this year, and I have to say, Triple Z is easily better than the mediocre, yet still fascinating Zombie Strippers. Does it have the star power of Jenna Jameson… or even moderately attractive women unscarred by low-budget plastic surgery? No… not really. Does it have amazing special effects and tons of nudity? Nope, can’t say that it does. But it does have one of the more entertaining low-budget horror movie characters to grace the screen in recent memory. That character? A black pimp named Johnny “Backhand” Vegas who orders his stable of whores around with a fast hand and an even faster mouth.

The story is typical low-budget zombie fare. A loser steals some drugs from a scientist, drugs that have been tainted with a zombie making solution. The dude travels around town getting laid by hookers and smoking crack with them. The hookers turn into zombies and a group of strippers and Johnny “Backhand” Vegas must survive the night and figure out a way to stop the big-titted zombie menace. It’s your standard issue story, but as far as standard issue horror premises go, it’s one that traditionally works.

Jason Murphy’s film is pretty solid throughout… even though he did have me almost ready to turn the film off with the film’s first five minutes, which is pretty much a viewer targeted joke that will have you groaning about spending your money on the film. Luckily, it’s just a prank and the movie picks up after that. The direction is pretty solid and Murphy does a nice job of mixing humor and pulling serviceable performances from a cast that appears to be chosen strictly for their looks. The pacing is a little off and there is a surprising amount of character development for a film that basically explains it all in the title. Scenes of strippers lamenting their fate and arguing with hookers about how they are two different types of people seem out of place, but oddly hilarious.

The cast of the film is composed of mostly wannabes, who you will probably never hear from again… at least I hope not. I suppose it’s hard to get good actresses to play strippers in peril… but they could have done something… maybe made it a deaf/mute strip club. The best performance in the film, and the thing that kept me watching long after the titties had dried up and the kills had gotten old, was the performance of Anthony Headen as Johnny “Backhand” Vegas. Headen is hilarious in this role, and despite the fact that he plays a rather distasteful pimp, he is easily the most likable character in the cast. If there is ever a sequel to this, he’d better be in it.

The gore in the film is actually pretty disappointing. There are loads of CGI stuff here that doesn’t quite work and a lot of the kills are subpar. Add to this some sluggish kill choreography and bad editing and you’ve got a gore film that doesn’t manage to deliver.

This wouldn’t be a problem if the film was bathing in nudity, but it’s not. Some of the strippers don’t even take off their clothes when they are on stage at the strip club. I don’t know about you, but when I hear the word “stripper” I expect some damn nudity. That’s not to say that there is none in the movie, but if you’re looking for undead taco and shots of breasts that last longer than half a second, then you’re shit out of luck.

All this negativity would spell doom for most movies, but Triple Z has something going for it that most movies don’t have… a sense of humor. It’s the humor in this “horror” movie that keeps it from bottoming out in the land of “scene it all before.” It’s your typical bawdy humor, laced with the word bitch and fuck, but for those of us that appreciate some dumbass insults, it comes off rather nicely.

Final Synopsis: Check it out if you love zombies and strippers, but if you looking for stroke material, get yourself a porn. It’s not very scary, has shitty special effects, and is a little long, but it can offer a silly good time on a drunken weekend night.

Points Lost: -1 for bad special effects, -1 for subpar acting, -1 for being a little serious with the strippers vs. whore stuff, -1 for poor pacing, -1 for an excessive amount of character development

Bonus Points: +1 for Johnny “Backhand” Vegas

Lesson Learned: No one wants to hear strippers complain about their job.

Burning Question: Are strippers and whores the same thing?

Zombies! Zombies! Zombies!: Strippers vs. Zombies
6/10

Tags: 2008, anthony headen, boobs, horror, horror movie, jason murphy, johnny "backhand" vegas, latest movie reviews, nudity, recent2, zombie, zombie movie, zombie strippers, zombies