Elektra Luxx

[superglue]

As promised, here's the clips of TO in Elektra Luxx. It's completely unfunny and dumb. It was a sequel to apparently a better indie. Carla Gugino is actually terrific, even if she is looking cheap in a movie with no plot. I can't believe they got such a good cast for this: TO, CG, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Julianne Moore. A waste of all their talents. Hopefully TO got a few mortgage payments out of this one.

So to set up the scene, Elektra meets this woman who cheated on her fiancé and can't bring herself to tell him, so she talks Elektra into seducing him so they're both even. The other woman gets drunk and is hiding in the bathroom.

The sex scene is bizarre to me because it's focused entirely on her face. I almost wonder if TO didn't want to be filmed? It's hard to imagine it had to do with the rating. It's like he's not even in the room and I don't know if that's him moaning in the background or not.

rutube.ru/video/914051d70b9b12c8d02df5cc990f4564/

My impression of this movie is that it was written and directed and produced by men based on what they wrongly think women would like. Cutting TO out of a TO sex scene? 0 stars!

He's also in this scene in a coffee shop.

rutube.ru/video/f4fd098888b6e7e3a1926b9f9ad0cf1a/

[bluerain]

Thanks for this superglue! It took me a second to realize that that was Carla Gugino, blonde hair doesn't suit her at all. That sex scene was super strange. I would find it strange if the reason was because he didn't want to do it, I mean he did one in Deadwood, and there were several in Justified. 

For a bad movie, the acting was really good though just from what I saw in these two scenes. I really don't have a desire to watch the movie in its entirety after seeing these two scenes though. I do see that is available to stream free on Crackle for anyone interested. 

[superglue]

Jun 22, 2019 23:27:32 GMT -6 bluerain said:

That sex scene was super strange. I would find it strange if the reason was because he didn't want to do it, I mean he did one in Deadwood, and there were several in Justified. 

It's possible Carla Gugino didn't want to do a graphic love scene with a male actor, given her dialogue. But then again she accepted this role as a porn star, so that doesn't really make sense either.

Maybe the difference was those had artistic merit and this was just a paycheck? Catch & Release too. He was directed by a woman there too who knew how to shoot for female audiences.

Btw I uploaded a brightened version of the C&R love scene the other day. It's hard to tell what was going on because of how dark it was and how it was overlaid in like a double exposure, but this scene is amazing. Oh, 0:44! 🤤 At first I thought they were interrupted by that jerk and couldn't understand why he didn't follow her into her bedroom, but now I think Fritz fritzed. 😂 Am I right?

rutube.ru/video/8fdeb70ad3d4601a962e0224c3096dae/

[bluerain]

Maybe the Elektra Luxx scene was the director's choice to film it that way? Who knows? There doesn't seem to be a plausible explanation for it. Carla Gugino refusing to do a sex scene like that after she has accepted the role as a porn start makes zero sense. 

That overlay in Catch and Release drives me nuts. It's just too much. One of them needed to be a lot more translucent for that to work. I think you are right though, Fritz went on the fritz when she went to the bedroom and didn't know what the right move was. 

[superglue]

Jun 23, 2019 13:12:15 GMT -6 bluerain said:

Maybe the Elektra Luxx scene was the director's choice to film it that way? Who knows? There doesn't seem to be a plausible explanation for it. Carla Gugino refusing to do a sex scene like that after she has accepted the role as a porn start makes zero sense. 

That overlay in Catch and Release drives me nuts. It's just too much. One of them needed to be a lot more translucent for that to work. I think you are right though, Fritz went on the fritz when she went to the bedroom and didn't know what the right move was. 

Yeah it's weird. It was written and directed by the same guy so it makes even less sense he would direct it that way, considering how visual men are and given the content, he was clearly not conservative when it came to sex.

The only reason I think Tim said no is that he is completely absent. They could have shot it above the shoulders and showed both of them if they were both lying down. It would have been basically the same effect. Do actors get paid more for sex scenes? Because of how uncomfortable they can be to shoot (especially for married actors) I wonder if their contracts might specify sex scenes or no sex scenes.  You don't even see them kiss.

I hate the overlay in C&R too. It made the scene go twice as fast and it was seriously hard to tell what was going on. It could have been even more amazing, the way it was shot. Swoon. I remember in some interview he said something about how he was very conscious of the fact that she was pregnant and tried to be careful. I'm assuming he's referring to lying on top of her.

I just discovered color correction on my video editor so here's a color-corrected version of his first love scene with Natalie on Justified. I hate the red light, reminds me of the Kenny Rogers Roasters episode of Seinfeld.

rutube.ru/video/2d6eaca07272bc20ed02113413a2c998/

[superglue]

OK, I think this might explain it and it might have been a contract thing for both Tim and Carla, since they were both big enough stars to negotiate.

SAG-AFTRA, the entertainment industry labor union, designates a nudity rider as a requirement in contracts for roles that require "nudity, partial nudity or simulated sex acts."

This document is negotiated by the actor, their representatives, and the production team. Within the rider are detailed descriptions of what the actor is willing to do on screen. This includes scene information, the type of nudity required, limitations on usage of the footage, and any details or terms the actor and producer agree upon.

It's not unusual for a nudity rider to include minute details such as exactly which body parts are visible, how much of the body part can be seen, and for how long the body part is shown.

www.insider.com/how-sex-scenes-are-shot-2018-9#nudity-and-simulated-sex-are-outlined-in-detail-in-the-actors-contract-and-discussed-prior-to-casting-1

Carla has been in tons of graphic sex scenes. If you Google her name + sex scene you'll find clips on actual porn sites. So surely this was Tim?

OHHHHH... I just discovered that Sebastian Gutierrez, who wrote and directed this film, is/was Carla's long-time boyfriend. Maybe he did not want to see Tim anywhere near his lady?

www.esquire.com/entertainment/videos/a10906/carla-gugino-nude-pics-1011/

[bluerain]

That makes sense actually. I still find it odd that Tim would opt out of given his other sex scenes but maybe this one was more explicit than he wanted to do. Or maybe the sex scene was added after he took the part? Why take a part where you only have 2 scenes and one of which contains a sex scene if you don't want to film a sex scene? Seems like it would make more sense to just pass on it. Unless he really need a job. 🤷

[superglue]

The whole movie is a mess. I was wondering if there were DVD commentary or deleted scenes that might explain anything but no. This is a really good review of the film and its faults:

www.dvdsleuth.com/ElektraLuxxReview/

He even says he understands how he got Carla to sign up, but what about everyone else? It apparently had almost no budget. Julianne Moore already had four Oscar noms at this point and wasn't even credited. This is a choice I don't get here for Tim, except it was probably two days of shooting. The first one was apparently shot in a week. 

Btw if you google "why do good actors make bad movies" you'll get about 10,000 hits. Some good answers:

www.quora.com/Why-do-talented-financially-secure-actors-make-bad-movies

I think the answer was he needed the money even if it was just $75,000 or whatever (making up a figure). If you look at the timeline, after Hitman, he was in either small movies or small roles, so not as financially secure as we imagine famous actors all are. Another reason to love Justified. 

[bluerain]

That review was really interesting, I had to laugh at the line about the vacuum cleaners. 

I did a little research on Women in Trouble, it apparently only had a budget of $50,000 so I can't imagine Elektra Luxx had a budget that was much bigger than that. So it's unlikely money was Tim's motivating factor here, he probably only got a couple thousand for it. Maybe he really wanted to work with Carla? He's always been really complimentary of her whenever she has been mentioned in interviews. 

And yeah, he probably wasn't getting huge paychecks for anything after Hitman until he did Justified. His two starring roles after Hitman were still small budget movies. The Crazies did turn a decent profit so hopefully Tim's agent had negotiated a good backend deal so he got a decent percentage of the profit in addition to his upfront. 

[superglue]

Wow, $50,000 only? That's a shoestring budget. But apparently the first one was a surprising success so I think they got studio funding for the second one. There's no info at all about budget but it had a theatrical release via Samuel Goldwyn Films, which is a decent-sized studio. I think the first one and the even more forgettable third one were all straight to video.

This is the same guy who wrote the screenplay for Snakes on a Plane. He needs to stop making films.