Electra Luxx
Year: 2011
Directors: Sebastian Gutierrez
Stars: Carla Gugino, Marly Shelton, Joseph Gordon-Levitt
MPAA Rating: R
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Running Time: 100 Mins

Film Synopsis:

“Electra Luxx is a spinoff film, from the very entertaining film “Women in Trouble” that was released last year. The film is about an pregnant ex-porn star, who is teaching sexology at a community college and looking to forward to bringing her baby into the world. Before that, she has to wrestle and deal with a bride to be (Marly Shelton) who wants her to seduce the man that she’s going to marry, a obsessed web adult journalist (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) , a private eye (Timothy Olyphant) that’s wants her ex-boyfriend’s missing lyrics and the Virgin Mary herself. “Electra Luxx” also co-stars Malin Akerman, Emmanuelle Chrioui, Adrianne Palicki, and Kathleen Quinlan.


Film Review:

Going into this film, I was expecting this to be more like “Women in Trouble”. In that film, I enjoyed the fact that you had various characters intersecting with each other’s plotline. It made the film very entertaining and fun to watch. I thought, I would be in for more of the same here. But sadly, it wasn’t the case with “Electra Luxx“. Don’t get me wrong this is a good film, but this was also disappointing.

Writer/director Sebastian Gutierrez does a good job saving his mediocre script, from being the film’s downfall. I liked how, he incorporates a lot of different styles in the way the film is presented. Guirierrez could have easily painted himself into a corner with his screenplay, but I like the fact that he uses different filming methods for a couple of scenes. His use of a webcam, for the scenes in Bert Rodriquez’s basement and super 8 film for Luxx’s flashback sequences did a good job giving the effects that were needed for those scenes and make it also madw it look different.

Also, I liked how the acting was good enough to keep my interest. Gutierrez does a good job getting the performances that were needed to cover up the flaws. I thought, Carla Cugino was very good again, as the title character, as she was funny and entertaining. But the person that stole this film for me was Joseph Gordon Levitt, as the eccentric and obsessed web streamer Bert Rodriguez. It was those performances that helped saved this film for me. If it wasn’t for that, then this could’ve been a different film.

The screenplay was a different story. It felt disjoined at times, as it felt I was watching three different short films. The main reason for that, the characters don’t cross each other’s path. What made “Women in Trouble” very good, you had interesting characters that intersected with other subplots. It doesn’t happen here, because each of the subplots felt like a separate short film. Don’t get me wrong, they were entertaining and would work as a series of short films. But when your reviewing a film, you look for the film’s subplots to make sense with the story. I was hoping that there would be more intersection with these characters to make things interesting. Sadly, there isn’t and that’s probably why I’m being so harsh about it.

Even though, the execution of the screenplay fell flat. I enjoyed the humor here. There were some funny scenes, like in Rodriguez’s basement and especially when Luxx is trapped in an elevator with a naked man. It helped ease some of my complaints, as I was enjoying watching this film. But at the end of the movie, I was still left with the feeling that this could’ve been a better film.

DVD Extras:

Not many features on this DVD. In fact, there were only two features here. Three deleted scenes that total Nineteen minutes and trailers for upcoming Sony Pictures Home Entertainment releases.

Final Summary

Even though this film was solid, it could’ve been better considering that I enjoyed “Women in Trouble” a lot. “Electra Luxx has enough funny moments to save this from becoming a total disaster.

Review Rating: 3 Stars

DVD Extras: 1 Star

Women In Trouble
Year: 2009
Directors: Sebastian Gutierrez
Stars: Carla Gugino, Connie Britton, Adrianne Palicki
MPAA Rating: R
Studio: Screen Media Films
Running Time: 92 Mins

Sebastian Gutierrez first caught my attention with his screenplay for the 2003 remake “Gothika”, a surprising very good horror film. Lately he has been making the transition to focusing everything towards writing and directing his own projects. “Women In Trouble” is his fourth film.

The film follows seven women thought a day of trouble in the city of Los Angeles. A therapist (Sarah Clarke) discovers that her husband (Simon Baker) is cheating on her with the mother of her thirteen year old patient (Isabella Gutierrez). A porn star (Carla Gugino) who finds out that she’s pregnant and to make matter worse, she is trapped in an elevator with a woman (Connie Britton) who has been hiding a secret from her niece. An adult film actress (Adrianne Palicki), who has feeling for her best friend (Emmanuelle Chriqui), gets into some deep trouble with a couple of hitmen. An airline attendant (Marley Shelton) who get into an affair with a rock star (Josh Brolin). This leads to a crazy day for everyone involved.

“Woman in Trouble” is surprisingly entertaining little film considering that I had low expectations. The reason that this is surprising, Gutierrez keeps everything moving at a good pace, considering that there are three stories going on at the same time. By keeping everything moving and setting a tone where the actors bring energy into their characters, it makes you get caught with the characters and everything that goes in the film. Another thing that makes this direction good was Gutierrez’s ability to not get too crazy with the way that he directs some of the sexual material in the film. He takes a more tone down approach in the way that he handles it and it fits with the film’s tone. If he had taken the film down a raunchy route with the sex material then I would’ve had a different opinion of everything that happens in the film. It doesn’t and I liked the fact that he doesn’t make the sex aspects the focal point. Instead he makes the characters and acting, the film’s focal points.

Speaking of the acting, it’s the strongest strength this film has. I liked how Gutierrez get his actors to be interested in the material and not make it one of those films, where it has an all star cast and they are there to just to have a good time and work with one another. Besides the acting, this film also has a very good score by Robin Hitchcock. His score also helps gets you into the groove of the film, as it helps the film become energetic with all the action that is going on.

Another thing that makes this film fun to watch was Gutierrez screenplay. The screenplay does a good job making everything come together, considering this film has multiple plot lines. Gutierrez makes all the characters interesting and the action work, by intersecting the characters into each of various plot lines and making work within the confines of the story. By doing that it does two things, it makes the film entertaining and develops the characters to the point that you find them interesting and entertaining. He also does a good job making the story and the characters offbeat. This is what made this film appealing to me. This is the type of film that could have easily put me to sleep considering that this film feels more of a chick flick than a comedy. But it’s Gutierrez’s ability to have this sense of offbeat dialogue and humor in the action and the characters to grab my attention. That makes it fun to watch.

“Women in Trouble” does a good job not getting into trouble, as this a film that does a good job making the characters and offbeat action entertaining.

Review Rating: Four Stars