'Zombie' sends a message

By Michael Ordona, Mark Olsen, Kevin Thomas, Gary Goldstein

April 18, 2008 12 AM PT

The undead. The unclothed. George W. Bush. Eugene Ionesco. Jenna Jameson. “Zombie Strippers” throws all these and more into the meat grinder, churning out an overtly political and philosophical exploitation horror comedy.

Seriously.

To continue wars in Iraq, Iran, Syria, Canada and Alaska, the fourth-term Bush administration’s military has developed a virus that will reanimate fallen fighters, allowing them to fight on as flesh-hungry super-soldiers. It’s the ultimate stop-loss order. The virus gets out and turns Jameson and her sartorially challenged cohorts into rapidly decaying super-strippers. Writer-director Jay Lee gleefully cannibalizes, of all things, absurdist playwright Ionesco’s “Rhinoceros,” flavoring it with dismembered horror cliches and heaping helpings of nudity. The action takes place in Sartre, Neb., demonstrating that hell is, indeed, other people. And the commentary on social concepts of beauty, particularly in casting sex goddess Jameson as a monster whose appeal to the strip club’s clientele increases with her desiccation, is meaty.

“Zombie Strippers” is a B-movie whose ideas and wit set it well above the great unwashed of the genre. Early on, Jameson’s still-human character is seen reading Nietzsche. Later, post-zombification, she reads the same book and laughs hysterically: “This makes so much more sense now!”

-- Michael Ordona

“Zombie Strippers.” Rated R for strong violence and gore, sexuality/nudity and language. Running time: 1 hour, 34 minutes. At the Landmark Nuart, 11272 Santa Monica Blvd., West L.A., (310) 281-8223.

A student snaps, Streep sleepwalks

“Dark Matter” dramatizes the story of a Chinese cosmology student (Liu Ye) pursuing graduate work in the United States who eventually lashes out in a dramatic and violent way.

It is easy to see the film as two movies crammed together, neither of them being very good. One is about the difficulties of navigating the waters of academia, where politicking and gamesmanship may trump good work. The other is about the sometimes fine line between boundary-pushing genius and genuine mental illness and what makes someone snap from one side to the other.

Director Chen Shi-Zheng is a noted opera director, making his feature film debut, but he shows little affinity for the tools of filmmaking, seemingly unsure of where to place the camera and, along with screenwriter Billy Shebar, unable to build a compelling narrative structure. (Perhaps tellingly, one of his most notable achievements in opera was mounting a 19-hour production, presumably not a paragon of efficient storytelling.)

Meryl Streep sleepwalks her way through a supporting role, doing that Streep-ian thing of making every line reading sound as if she is either asking a question or just stoned.

-- Mark Olsen

“Dark Matter.” Rated R for violence, brief sexual content and language. Running time: 1 hour, 28 minutes. At Laemmle’s Sunset 5, 8000 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, (323) 848-3500; Laemmle’s Playhouse 7, 673 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, (626) 844-6500; Edwards University Cinema, 4245 Campus Drive, Irvine, (949) 854-8811.

And they’re off -- way off, actually

For those who know the legendary race mostly from Hunter S. Thompson’s landmark piece of gonzo journalism, “The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved,” a film such as “The First Saturday in May” holds the potential to portray the event from a whole new perspective. Filmmakers Brad and John Hennegan follow six horses and their trainers through the arduous 2006 race season, building up to the Derby, but they are never able to find the balance between insider wonkery and genuine human (or animal) drama. The day-in, day-out culture of horse racing -- including weird hats and the focus on trainers over jockeys -- remains at an elusive and frustrating remove. Even with a shift late in the film to focus on the horse Barbaro, who suffered a career-ending injury after the Derby, the mosaic of characters just don’t feel compelling enough, never coalescing into a greater portrait and tending to cancel each other out. Sometimes a story does need a star.

-- Mark Olsen

“The First Saturday in May.” Unrated. Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes. At Laemmle’s Sunset 5, 8000 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, (323) 848-3500.

Losing bearings in a frenzied city

Li Yu’s “Lost in Beijing” is a cautionary tale about how people in China’s fast-rising economy come to the capital city only to lose their moorings in a frenzied, materialistic society. The film benefits from solid performances by its four stars, but it is overly didactic and drawn-out as its comic tone grows darker and darker.

The set-up is clever: Ping-guo (Fan Bingbing), a masseuse at the Gold Basin Foot Massage Palace, is reprimanded by proprietor Lin Dong (Ton Leung Ka-Fai) for resisting a customer’s fondling of her breast. She comes back from lunch where she had too much to drink in her anger and frustration, leaving her vulnerable to a rape by Lin that just happens to be witnessed by Ping-guo’s window-washer husband, An-kun (Tong Da Wei). An-kun instantly has blackmail on his mind when an unexpected development further complicates matters. That the actors seem as committed to the material as is its writer-director is not enough to stave off a certain amount of tedium.

-- Kevin Thomas

“Lost In Beijing.” Unrated with strongly adult themes. In Mandarin with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour, 53 minutes. Exclusively at the Grande 4-Plex, 345 S. Figueroa St., Los Angeles. (213) 617-0268.

Traveling the globe to help

Like last year’s moving “Angels in the Dust,” which examined a well-off family’s Herculean efforts on behalf of South African orphans, “Beyond the Call” covers similar documentary territory but with a more adventurous bent. Here, three straight-shooting, aging Americans -- former Army medic Ed Artis, cardiologist Jim Laws and electrical contractor Walt Ratterman -- hop the globe on their own dime providing humanitarian aid to the Third World’s neediest citizens. Writer-director Adrian Belic tagged along with the film’s intrepid trio as they swooped in to such impoverished trouble spots as Afghanistan, the Philippines and the Thai-Myanmar border with donated or massively discounted food and medical supplies, saving lives and accruing eternal good karma.

Though it’s not the most technically or narratively proficient piece, the film’s compelling subjects can’t help but inspire, even if we’re not always privy to what truly drives them or how their family lives have been affected. That their wives demand anonymity and separation from their husbands’ worldly endeavors may be a clue.

-- Gary Goldstein

“Beyond the Call.” Unrated. Running time: 1 hour, 21 minutes. Laemmle’s Grande 4-Plex Cinemas, 345 S. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, (213) 617-0268.

Be kind to what you drink

Hoping, perhaps, to hook some of the audience that made “What the Bleep Do We Know!?” a New Agey hit, the distributors of the Russian-produced “Water” saw fit to give this torpid examination of the structural powers of H20 a theatrical release.

Despite crisp cinematography and lots of gorgeous imagery, the film belongs strictly in high school science classes. But the overly measured, English-translated narration gives the doc an Ambien-like effect. Directed by Anastasiya Popova, and supported by a veritable United Nations of scientists, professors and clergy, the film posits that water has a memory and that its properties can be altered by human emotion. In other words, if you want your water to look pretty under a microscope, don’t berate it or subject it to heavy metal music.

-- G.G.

“Water.” Unrated. Running time: 1 hour, 25 minutes. Laemmle’s Sunset 5, 8000 W. Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, (323) 848-3500.