Carla Gugino and Timothy Olyphant in "Elektra Luxx"
“ELEKTRA LUXX” (Now available)
I’ll watch Carla Gugino in anything (“Spy Kids” movies excepted); apparently I’m not alone in this.
Which may account for the straight-to-video success of 2009’s “Women in Trouble” and now this sequel, “Elektra Luxx.”
Both comedies feature Gugina — ravishing in blond wig and cleavage-challenging fashions — as Elektra Luxx, a legendary porn star. This new entry finds Elektra retired from the skin game and pregnant with the baby of a recently deceased rock star.
The films — both directed by Sebastian Gutierrez — are story thin and smarm rich. Basically they’re a series of loosely-related comic episodes following Elektra’s misadventures with men, women and life in general.
There are plenty of knowing jokes at the expense of the porn industry (one of Elektra’s classic performances was in a Western called “Even Reverse Cowgirls Get the Blues”) and of said industry’s fans (Joseph Gordon Levitt plays a smut-obsessed video blogger whose webcast reports on Elektra’s post-porn life pepper the film).
Plot? They don’t got to show you no stinkin’ plot.
Evidently in Hollywood the Elektra Luxx franchise (for that’s what it now is) is quite the draw…at least it’s attracted some very reputable actors. Showing up here are familiar faces like Kathleen Quinlan (as a mystery writer attending Elektra’s community center course on “How to be a Porn Star in Bed”), Timothy Olyphant (TV’s “Justified”), Justin Kirk (“Weeds”), Adrianne Palicki (late of “Friday Night Lights” and soon to be seen as Wonder Woman), Marley Shelton (“Planet Terror”), Lucy Punch, Vincent Kartheiser (“Mad Men”), Malin Akerman (“Watchmen”), Julianne Moore (as the Virgin Mary in a vision) and, in a deleted scene found among the extras, Eric Stoltz.
“Elektra Luxx” has a few laugh-out-loud moments and one surprisingly meaty scene in which Gugino plays both Elektra and her imprisoned twin sister. But mostly it’s lightweight cheese.
It’s also a massive tease. Despite the R rating there’s virtually no nudity here. Just lots of sex talk.
Apparently for many of us, that’s enough.
| Robert W. Butler
Butler's Cinema Scene 
I love Ms. Gugino as well, though I can’t provide any valid reason for my love. Her boyfriend is Sebastian Gutierrez, who directed “Elektra” and “Women in Trouble”. I saw “Girl Walks Into a Bar” at SXSW, and it is the next in this series. Again, Gugino was lovely as hell.
She is also fantastic in television’s “Californication”