Sexina (Lauren D’Avella) is the hottest popstar on the planet. Little do her legions of fans know, she also moonlights as a leather-clad private eye. When a scientist (Cash Tilton) is kidnapped, Sexina trades her Britney Spears-inspired attire for a biker chick get-up and investigates. The trail soon leads to a mysterious music mogul (Adam West) with plans for world domination.
Popstar Private Eye tries to spoof various genres all at once, but it just has too many irons in the fire to make for a truly funny send-up. Things start off promising enough with a James Bond-inspired credits sequence, complete with a theme song performed by none other than Davy Jones of The Monkees. Unfortunately, it all goes downhill from there. Writer/director Erik Sharkey takes obvious jabs at the shallowness of the record industry, and yet the jokes are all so toothless that none of the gags land.
The premise might’ve worked with some tried-and-true exploitation elements (namely sex and violence), but the flick is way too chaste to be much fun. With the editing of the occasional obscenity here and a crude sexual reference there, it probably would look right at home on The Disney Channel. There’s also an extraneous subplot involving Sexina’s number-one fan (Kellie Fernald) trying to win a contest so she can perform a concert for her school that is painfully clunky, and just feels like filler.
D'Avella does what she can with the weak material. She looks great in a variety of sexy outfits, and she holds your attention for the most part, even when the jokes are floundering. West seems like he’s having fun, although his performance is more of a voiceover as the villain is one of those Dr. Claw-type deals. He only pops up in the flesh in the final minutes of the film, and while his appearance is amusing (he has a soul patch), it’s ultimately too little, too late. Despite the efforts of D’Avella and West, Popstar Private Eye never really pops.
AKA: Sexina. AKA: Sexina: Popstar P.I.
I thought this one was pretty funny.
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