Show: Carmen Electra's Aerobic Striptease: Vegas Strip 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 in Southern LA (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; one of the best in all of Las Vegas even if I can't afford to stay there) 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 completely blows up the warming up and stretching portion of the workout; making the disclaimer at the beginning of the DVD even more important for such a flawed approach. The body of the work out this time is a heavily choreographed dance routine by Carmen Electra, Allie Cohen and Milan Dillard that involves a lot of arm movements and hip shaking in sweat pants. This time, the show was half as long as the Bedroom volume of the series, using a stage instead of the bedroom that admittedly helped with the lighting and visual appeal even if the concept was poorer than ever.

As I've pointed out previously, 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. There was no time when this idea was catered too; none of the three ladies appearing to so much as break a sweat. 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 still going to rate this one as a Skip It.

Picture: Carmen Electra's Aerobic Striptease: Vegas Strip was presented in the usual 1.33:1 ratio full frame color as shot at the awesome MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas. The fleshtones were accurate and the picture had a sharper focus this time (but still too much aliasing); the lighting more optimal here to enhance the look of the show. The choice in Carmen's outfit sure didn't help either since the setting of the shoot, a hotel stage used to better 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 but usually in the 7 Mbps area), it looked modest all the way around, 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 a few interviews, including Allie Cohen (the cute brunette white gal in the screen caps), Jennifer Galardi (the fitness consultant and choreographer), and writer Lesley Wolff mentioned above. The total of the interviews was far short of what one might expect from a DVD program lasting all of ~31 minutes but at least there were extras this time.

Final Thoughts: Carmen Electra's Aerobic Striptease: Vegas Strip 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: Vegas Strip was nothing like the advertisements showed and I'm incredibly forgiving of any project starring Carmen Electra so buyer beware!