Sushi Girl

Fish (Noah Hathaway) has spent six years in jail. Six years alone. Six years keeping his mouth shut about the robbery, about the other men involved. The night he is released, the four men he protected with silence celebrate his freedom with a congratulatory dinner. The meal is a lavish array of sushi, served off the naked body of a beautiful young woman.

Look at this cast: Tony Todd, Michael Biehn, Mark Hamill, Jeff Fahey, Sonny Chiba, Danny Trejo. And then we start out with the song "Diamonds Are Forever" -- known from James Bond, but with a very different meaning here.

We have James Duval -- is he all grown up? And we have the sensibility and spiritual feeling of "Reservoir Dogs", one of the all-time greatest heist movies.

I do not even need to write a real review because this movie is just so darn good.

I was wanting to watch this movie ever since I heard Tony Todd was gonna produce it and I gotta say, that I wasn't disappointed in the least. It had strong Tarrantino elements and a lot of suspense. I was intrigued every step of the way.

The storyline is simple. 5 criminals are summoned for a Sushi Dinner by Tony Todd who's waited 6 years for one member ; who was caught; to be released and tell him where he hid the diamonds. What transpires; once the 6 men reunite is a clash of egos and personalities}, which ends up "Opening wounds for the past" or the present in order to get some strait answerers as to what happened to the diamonds?

Tonny Todd hasn't been this sinister since his Candy Man days and Mark Hamill was a real treat. I wasn't aware that he had such a huge career in voice overs. Particularly , lending his voice for tons of Super Hero villains. I've seen some of those animated Batman flicks and whereas Heath Ledger and Cesar Romero were perfect as Joker in their respective eras; I believe Hamill does a perfect Joker in the animated series. He obviously found a way to bring his Joker persona onto the screen for his Crow character in Sushi Girl. Add a little flamboyance and passive lunacy and I believe he gave his best performance ever. I kinda felt his performance like I did when Tarrantino first resurrected John Travolta's career in Pulp Fiction.

Besides the great storyline, we also get a lot of favorites from yesteryear. Danny Trejo donning a Machete was a pure classic Grindhouse element that he also played out in one of Steve Austin's latest action films.Jaff Fahey and Michael Beihn also Starr in minor roles. I would have loved for Michael Beihn to have played one of the characters at Tonny Todds table.

The newcomer; Courtney Palm has one killer bod and seemed perfect for this kinda Tarrantinesque Grindhouse flick.

the action scenes were incorporated in flashback style, but it never got boring. IT actually all takes place at Tony Todd's Japanese Restaurant, so expect a lot of Tarrantino style dialog. Throw in a couple of nail biting torture scenes and Mexican Style stand Off ending and you have the movie that Tarrantino easily could have directed.

The cinematography is very stylish and attractive. Mot just for the naked Courtney Palm, but also for the various decorations amidst the restaurant. It is, after all, Japanese- inspired. Very classy. This is definitely, my kinda flick.

It's what I would call a high-concept movie on a silly premise. You have a handful of criminals talking and eating sushi placed all over a beautiful naked woman in the back room of an abandoned Asian restaurant. Of course, not all of them are there by choice, so secrets and double crosses are to be expected. I found the movie engrossing despite its limited setting. It didn't feel claustrophobic, but it was conducive to tension. This closed room dramatic suspense was offset by flashbacks to a heist gone wrong 6 years ago. The way it was filmed and edited didn't make it feel boring or like a play either. The torture scenes seemed particularly brutal and effective to me, and I consider myself a jaded viewer. Praise to the person who did one particular makeup involving a face. I enjoyed the different personalities of the 5 main characters and their more or less revealed pasts.

Most people praised Mark Hamill's acting (Luke Skywalker), but I found him an annoying, affected gay caricature, until later on where he channelled his inner Joker and became more sinister. Your own appreciation might vary. On the other hand, Tony Todd's(Candyman) was impressive and he just emanated quiet foreboding menace. When he talks about his past to the guy tied up, he's just so good, it's like he brings himself to tears by himself. The sushi girl herself is basically a pretty accessory except for the start and ending where some acting chops are shown. I liked the story and I liked the twists that I didn't see coming. It has a definite Tarantino vibe back when he was better.

Rating: 7 out of 10 (very good)

"Sushi Girl" is a very competent crime drama in the vein of gritty, low-budget films like Reservoir Dogs. And I have no doubt that many others will make similar comparisons to this Tarantino flick.

Film industry veterans deliver competent performances in a movie that combines plenty of tension with subtle twists and turns. The violence is sometimes gratuitous but always powerful, although the torture porn promised by the trailers serves more as exhibitionism than anything.

Tony Todd arguably delivers the performance of his career. Hathaway, Hamill, Mackenzie, and Duvall all deliver competent performances that effectively keep the tension in the movie high.

Danny Trejo, Michael Biehn, and Jeff Fahey share a brief cameo scene that plays out like a Rodriguez Grindhouse reunion, although Fahey and Biehn are sadly underutilized in this movie. Sonny Chiba also makes a brief appearance.

Cortney Palm in the titular role serves mainly as eye candy for much of the movie, and absolutely fantastic looking eye candy at that, with what I would consider a perfect figure. But she also shines in those critical moments in front of the camera, whether she is delivering dialogue or just conveying subtle emotion with those expressive eyes of hers. And I'm sure that her performance here will garner her higher profile roles in the future.

All and all, "Sushi Girl" is a solid genre film with good acting, tight directing, and above average production values.

Well, appearances can be deceiving and I must say that I initially didn't have much expectations to this movie given the poster and DVD cover for this movie. But still, I decided to give it a go, and I am glad that I did, because this movie took me by surprise.

The movie turned out to be a really interesting movie with a very well-told story. However, I will point out that albeit the story is compelling and the movie is interesting, this is the type of movie that you watch once and never again because it just doesn't have enough to offer for a second watching. That being said, I am not saying that "Sushi Girl" is a bad movie, far from it.

The story is a tale of revenge and betrayal, where the audience is left in the dark trying to grasp out what is going on, and the movie tends to take turns here and there, and those turn are for a better twist and a more gory twist. So if you enjoy blood and torture, stick around for the movie.

Now what really surprised me was the people they had assembled for the cast. The main cast was really nice and they did good jobs with their given roles, and there were some great appearances in the movie as cameos as well. All together a very good ensemble of actors on the billing list. Personally, it was great for me to see Mark Hamill in this role, after having seen him flunk out with the last couple of recent movies. And seeing him in this particular pseudo-psychotic role was just brilliant. But also hats off to Tony Todd for his usual gloomy, charismatic performance. Noah Hathaway and Andy Mackenzie also did really great jobs. And for the cameo appearances you have Jeff Fahey, Michael Biehn and Danny Trejo. Of these latter three, Michael Biehn's role was just off the rails, it was awesome.

"Sushi Girl" is a heist movie gone bad, and it was great from the very beginning to the very end - despite it being a single shot movie (in the terms that you watch it once and never again).

I can highly recommend "Sushi Girl" if you want to be entertained for about an hour and a half. Just be warned that there is some torture scenes that can be quite graphic to watch for those faint of heart.