Show: Carmen Electra's Aerobic Striptease: In The Bedroom is the latest in her series of exercise videos designed to cash in on the ongoing fitness craze that has been as long lived as our collective desire to eat poorly, do as little exercise as possible, and still look like the glamorous images Hollywood shoves down our throats as the "ideal". Carmen is best known for a variety of small roles in shows like Scary Movie BR, Tripping The Rift, Cheaper By The Dozen 2, and various Playboy shows but as lovely as the gal is, her willingness to step into the limelight is the biggest reason she is well known. Carmen is so popular that a veritable porn star took Carmen's "real name" as her own stage name, later changing it ever so slightly when under contract to Digital Playground. Okay, enough background about Carmen you say, asking me about her fitness credentials to "teach" an exercise video.

Well, the DVD does not provide any idea what Carmen's credentials are to teach fitness classes but as hot as the enhanced lady is, she must know something about fitness, right? Sadly, Carmen's previous releases in the genre explain that she has her own trainer and an extensive search for any certifications yielded no results; the field replete with organizations that certify applicants based a variety of criteria (some of them include the American Fitness Council, the Aerobics and Fitness Personal Trainer Group, the ISSA, the AFTA, and many more). Carmen does not have a college degree in the field either but according to the IMDB, she did go to high school for awhile. Seriously though, Carmen is the draw to get people interested in the show which was written by tech writer Lesley Wolff (who knew nothing about exercise) as guided by Fitness Trainer Jennifer Galardi; a moderately popular fitness guru (whose website shows no formal credentials or certifications either) and fringe entertainment industry type with a long list of small projects under her belt.

So if you're looking for a reason to believe this show has been based on scientific principles or a sound program backed by research, you've come to the wrong place. The title alone suggests that Carmen is going to get naked (she doesn't) and the sub heading on the front cover "Strip Your Way To Fitness" is likely designed to appeal to the pervert faction that don't really intend to exercise quite in the manner that Carmen is showing on the screen so much as build up their grip and forearms. If you're one of the suckers that pick the DVD up for that, you should know ahead of time that Carmen doesn't take a single piece of clothing off her curvy body, doesn't reveal more than a little cleavage, and the best shots of the day were included in my limited screen caps. The reference to the Las Vegas Strip (the series being shot in the MGM Grand Hotel) is the closest you get to the terminology of "strip" and the tease was limited as a result.

Yes, the DVD is suitable primarily for those looking for a light weight workout folks, so light weight that anyone who can work up a sweat to the show probably has troubles walking to the kitchen to get their daily allowance of pork rinds, soda, and other wonderful culinary delights. After a brief introduction, Carmen gives a lengthy warm up stretch session in the bedroom (in an incredibly modest leotard that would be deemed acceptable in the most conservative of households). Of note is that Carmen, a dancer and all around hotty, can stretch better than most people and if you attempt to do some of these stretches as instructed, expect a lot of pain. Further, the pattern of the stretching, which was nothing close to "sensual" as the cover proclaims, did not appear to follow any rhyme or reason; Carmen never filling us in as to what to expect or provide alternatives for those unable to complete a task.

This was followed by the "Sexy Toning and Stability Methods" that were not aerobic in nature, nor were they particularly effective at getting someone in shape as a means of "body sculpting" as the cover also suggests. The DVD itself called this "Warm Up/Stretch" but it struck me as haphazard all the way for neophytes to exercise and too limited to those of us with a background in working out. Perhaps the only sculpting going on is the way the DVD whittles down the contents of your wallet to make you feel "lighter", albeit not the kind of lighter you go in expecting from a fitness DVD. The end credits mention Allie Cohen and Milan Dillard as the background dancers but they were never shown in the movie, the generic credits much like my review of both volumes in this series (the other being submitted momentarily; based largely on the same template since little changed except the lack of a warm up and far shorter running time).

The final section was labeled as "Temperature Rising Routine" on the cover and "In the Bedroom" on the credits; neither truly appearing accurate since a few limited stretches and bouncing around do not make for an effective aerobic workout. To get the calories burning aerobically, you need to get your heart rate up to a decent level (not too high) of around 65-80% for a minimum of 20 minutes, working the major muscle groups in a rhythmic fashion. The whole aerobic exercise craze started 40 years ago and it seems that every gym in the country follows whatever "craze" variation sweeps the nation at any given time (typically whatever Oprah shows on her show, the gal being a bastion of fitness knowledge). In recent years, stripping and sexually based aerobics have been in favor as a means to get fit while fooling around so I suspect that this is just another attempt to cash in on the genre. I like Carmen's MILFish looks these days, agreeing with Howard Stern that she looks better now than when she became a minor pseudo-celebrity as the girlfriend/protégé of pop musician Prince in the early 1990's, but you can do far better in terms of aerobic exercise than any title in this series; preferably relying on experts that use sound programs to bring you up to speed so I'm going to rate this one as a Skip It.

Picture: Carmen Electra's Aerobic Striptease: In The Bedroom was presented in the usual 1.33:1 ratio full frame color as shot at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas. The fleshtones were accurate but the picture had a lot of soft focus and aliasing; the lighting not optimal by any stretch of the imagination (pun intended). The choice of colors in Carmen's outfit sure didn't help either since the setting of the shoot, a hotel bedroom with lots of dark spots to contend with, certainly did not display the talents of director Chris Gibbin; best known for limited works of his own. There were compression artifacts (though the video bitrate was often very high for a production like this, hitting the mid to upper 8 Mbps range a fair amount), it looked low end all the way, and the cameras did not capture the exercising all that well for either the expected voyeur audience or the folks sincerely wanting to work out.

Sound: The audio was presented in a 2.0 Dolby Digital English encoded in the usual 192 Kbps bitrate but the vocals were dubbed during any form of exercise and the music as generic as that found on most pornographic titles. That the vocals were hollow surprised me too but there was some separation on the music if that makes the DVD appeal to you any more than if it were a silent flick. In fairness, the vocals could be heard plainly enough and the lack of substantial range in the dynamic scale of things really shouldn't be a big factor considering the entire project was fluff.

Extras: There were no extras at all.

Final Thoughts: Carmen Electra's Aerobic Striptease: In The Bedroom was merely one of an untold number of exercise titles that will neither appeal to the true exercise aficionado nor the pervert wanting to see hotty Carmen Electra stripping off her clothing. The questionable exercises and stretches aside, you will likely find a better workout walking up and down your street, the marketing of the title playing on Carmen's wanton image as a Playboy model, all around hotty, and likely candidate for a sex tape video. If anyone out there finds this workout to be challenging or even aerobic in nature, by all means take the advice of the warning in the front of the show to seek professional help. In short, Carmen Electra's Aerobic Striptease: In The Bedroom was nothing like the advertisements showed and I'm incredibly forgiving of any project starring Carmen Electra so buyer beware!