Chopper Chicks in Zombietown (1989) (NTSC)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Menu Animation & Audio Introduction-Lloyd Kaufman (President Of Troma) With Billy Bob Thornton Audio Commentary-Dan Hoskins (Director) Additional Footage-Chopper Chicks In Japan: Japanese Cut Featurette-Troma's Edge TV: Chopper Chicks Episode Featurette-Lloyd Kaufmann Presents... Trailer-Make Your Own Damn Movie Web Links Credits-Citizens Of Zombietown Featurette-Remembering Zombietown
Rating
Year Of Production	1989
Running Time	85:26
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Dan Hoskins
Studio Distributor	Troma Team Stomp Visual	Starring	Jamie Rose Catherine Carlen Lycia Naff Vicki Frederick Kristina Loggia Gretchen Palmer Nina Sonja Peterson Whitney Reis Ed Gale Don Calfa Martha Quinn Earl Boen Billy Bob Thornton
Case	?
RPI	$19.95	Music	Daniel May

   The titular "Chopper Chicks" are a gang of female bikies comprised of a vicious lesbian leader (as vicious as one could be in the 80's, anyway) and her gay underlings as well as a mute and a former homecoming queen who find themselves on the wrong end of the law when they barge into a town hosting a funeral and cause a ruckus. The people in the town decry their insensitivity and thoughtlessness, and take to vigilantism (and really, it's hard to blame them) but unbeknownst to anyone a group of murderous zombies have just broken free of their mine-cum-secret-laboratory home nearby, and are on their way to the town to eat anyone who gets in their way. There's also a killer midget (sorry, killer dwarf) thrown into the mix, and a bus-load of blind children.

   This is a pretty decent setup for a solid B-grade gorefest, but the film falls short every way possible. If someone as Quentin Tarantino took this on it could be a fantastic exploitation flick, but writer/director Dan Hoskins is no Tarantino. This film is a strange mess that isn't as enjoyable as it wants to be; early in the film, for no reason whatsoever, a young child is eviscerated by zombies for what I assume is supposed to be comedic effect, but it's followed by scenes of the 'tough' bikies reflecting openly about how lonely they are. Despite plenty of sloppy dialogue like this that's played for humanity, there's never any real sense of pathos or depth to anyone - yet the individual characters don't feel like cartoonish stereotypes, indicating that they was a genuine attempt to have some real characterisation here; it just failed. There's a lot of scenes that seem to be about the character's relationships (including a large role taken by the only star of this piece, Billy Bob Thorton, which is milked for everything that it's worth on this "Tromillenium Edition" DVD) which feel completely out of place in a film that ends with lots of fake-looking fake blood and crap-looking decapitated heads.

   The soundtrack to this film gets a special mention - every scene with the zombies features a Neverhood-style soundtrack that makes it seem all the more ridiculous and effectively kills any tension this film's zombie plot may have had, meanwhile pivotal scenes are scored to wacky variations on Danse Macabre that boggle the mind. This is one of the worst soundtracks to any film I have ever seen ever - it unsubtly comments on every single action in the film in such a way that is thunderously, aggressively annoying.

   All the worse is that this film occasionally shows promise, with the occasional hilarious line and some realistic gunplay and explosions, and some nifty and convincing practical effects. Some of the characters are also interesting, and the premise really is great - but all is undermined by awful plotting and amateurish filmmaking. Too dull to recommend, Chopper Chicks in Zombietown is another Tromatic disaster not worth your time.

Video

   All things considered, Chopper Chicks in Zombietown looks fine on DVD here. The colours are bright despite occasional grain and the darker scenes still have lots of detail. There are minor film artefacts which don't impact upon the viewing (honestly, you should probably expect some in a film called Chopper Chicks in Zombietown) but the transfer is affected by unfortunate, unkind interlacing, such as at 23:49, a big pet-hate of mine that can really draw you out of a viewing. To be fair, though, this is such a step up from the more recent Troma releases that I've reviewed that I'm not unhappy with it.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

   Chopper Chicks in Zombietown sounds fine, with all audio effects, dialogue and music balanced and audible. A little too audible, to tell the truth - the less I have to hear of that awful soundtrack the better. There is little in the way of surround here, and no bass at any point - but that's to be expected.

   I've already made my point about the soundtrack, which was composed by Daniel May, but there's also some 80's rock across the film that also didn't meet my liking. It's all a big mess and the less said about it the better.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menus with Sound

Audio Commentary with director Dan Hoskins

Introduction with Lloyd Kaufman (3:21)

Chopper Chicks in Japan (0:33)

Troma's Edge TV: Chopper Chicks Edition (3:59)

Lloyd Kaufman Presents (0:43)

Make Your Own D*** Movie  &   Troma.com

Remembering Zombietown (6:46)

   The video and audio transfers are both okay, for a release like this, but aren't great.

   The extras are limited though interesting, but mostly for fans.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall