The Girl from the Naked Eye

I wasn't on the edge of my seat but I didn't fidgit either. So so acting. So so story. Some rather good flashes of artistic directing. Many Bruce Lee-like fight scenes. Hugely overdone instances of smoking to the point of distraction.

When it comes to independent film screeners, no film impressed us more in recent memory than David Ren's The Girl From the Naked Eye. The film stars newcomer Jason Yee as Jake, a driver for an escort service who takes on the role as heavy when his gambling debts spiral out of control.

In the sordid world of prostitution, Jake find a diamond in the rough – a young 16-year old runaway named Sandy (Samantha Streets) who is working as a prostitute for Simon (Ron Yuan), a high ranking thug in a world of unlawful activities. But as we learn in the opening chapter, Sandy is murdered and Jake will make it his ambition to find out who was responsible and make them pay with his own form of justice.

Jake's investigation will work outside of the police inquiry and each promising lead will take him through the underbelly of a criminal enterprise where countless ruffians are just chompin' at the bit at a chance to take their best shot against the inquisitive Jake.

The Girl From the Naked Eye is told with both flashbacks and a narrative style that is quite impressive from relatively novice writers Jason Yee and Larry Madill. The narrative in particular doesn't add fluff nor does it try and infuse humor into a character that is serious to the core in his pursuit. The flashbacks were also expertly placed and allow for us to understand better Jakes attachment to Sandy while allowing the present day story to unfold in detail.

Most impressive in the production are the fight sequences which are truly top rate. Jake primarily uses his fists to parade through countless brutes in his search for the truth. And the sequences are handled with the precision of a craftsman. A particular scene of Jake fighting a handful of guards in the hallway of a building complex reminded us of OldBoy and was clearly the highlight of the film.

The film was purposefully shot in the darkened crevasses of the city and the film will hardly be one that the anti-smoking lobbyists will endorse. There weren't many bright colors, if any, in the film and I respected the look and atmosphere that was orchestrated by director David Ren.

The story was good, but not perfect. There were a few dead ends and a few troubled spots where I might have had pieces of a scene left on the cutting room floor but for the majority of the very brisk 85-minute running time, the plot moves forward and the audience is largely entertained. And although the biggest baddest villain in the film (played by Gary Stretch) is admirable, he is not as mean and relentless as you might expect out of such a genre film.

The cast in The Girl From the Naked Eye (oh, we should add here that the Naked Eye was the name of a seedy strip club to where most of the characters have connections) all do outstanding work in large and bit roles and Dominique Swain and Sasha Grey both have blink-and-you'll-miss-em scenes that do nothing more than add their name to various search engines pointing to the film.

The sum of its parts results in a film that was directed with a clear vision, choreographed with surgical precision and scripted in a down-to-earth format allowing for a high return on the entertainment dollar.

Over the last few years martial arts films have been making more of a comeback. Sadly most of them just aren't all that great. The upside is if they can deliver on the fighting then you can look past everything else. The Girl From The Naked Eye takes on the martial arts genre, while sporting a comic promotional look and an appearance by ex-adult film star Sasha Grey. Will it be one of those surprise gems that deliver the needed action or will it be an immediate knockout?

The Girl From The Naked Eye follows a man who will stop at nothing to track down the killer of the escort he was assigned to protect. This movie looked and felt like it had some good potential. All this was put to rest once the film got going. The story was all over the place and led by some really poor acting. Sasha Grey has established herself as a pretty decent actress with roles such as Entourage, but here is pretty much just a selling point for promotion since she barely even shows up. Yeah it had some decent fight sequences that are entertaining, but not enough to really help this movie work like it wanted to. There are some recognizable martial arts guys showing up to fight here and there, which makes it that much more of a disappointment when they fights don't always work. When you finally get to some of the better action and the movie seems to be finally be going somewhere, it takes a strange turn and just kind of ends. The ending made little to no sense, but this may have something to do with the slow paced story that was all over the place early on.

This was a movie that should have worked but just does not. If you are of the mindset of watching martial arts films just for the fighting, there are so many others that are a much better option. Enjoy anyone in this film or not, do not let the eye catching cover art suck you in that is the best part of the movie.

http://www.examiner.com/movie-in-dallas/bobby-blakey

Late August and most of September is usually a crappy time of year for films at least for me. Sure there is Expendables 2 out and Lawless coming out Friday, but they aren't movies I desperately want to see or willing to fork at least ten bucks for to see, so this is usually the time I rent films, and that's what I did a few days ago. I rented The Raid: Redemption, Flowers of War and The Girl From The Naked Eye. The Naked Eye was a spur of the moment decision on my part. It's only a buck to rent at the Red Box and the summary sounded decent, so I decided to check it out which leads to my review of the film. This will be another relatively short review.

The film follows Jake (Jason Yee) a driver for high class escorts who seeks justice for Sandy (Samantha Streets) who he finds shot dead in her apartment; even though he's a driver, a recovering alcoholic and in debit to the mob. The story is a noir-mystery that was influenced by the films of the late 1930's, 1940's and the 1950's. Even for the direct to DVD you can tell the film didn't have that big of a budget. Still the story works pretty well as Jake gives us his internal monologue as he tries to find Sandy's killer. The flashbacks gives detail into the relationship of Jake and Sandy and also gives depth to these flawed characters trying to get out of the sh*tty lives they have. For me this was a surprisingly good story with a sad and fitting ending.

The acting by these C level stars was pretty good. Jason Yee was great as the lead showing depth of emotions that fit the role. I had never heard of the actor before this film. He's manly stared in direct to DVD films, but I was surprised he had an un-credited role in The Dark Knight Rises as one of Bane's mercenaries. Ron Yuan (Simon) did a decent job as Jake's boss. He's another actor I'd never heard off, but you might recognize his voice. He gets most of his work from video games. He's had roles in Command and Conquer, Prototype, Alpha Protocol, Fallout New Vegas and many others. Another unknown actor Gary Stretch plays Frank who has an interest in Jake and Samantha. He does a good job playing a bad guy, and apparently has had many roles in direct to DVD films. Samantha Streets is a beautiful actress and did a great job playing Sandy. She's only had guest roles on television shows and minor roles. I think some director or film studio should give her a chance. Samantha is attractive and is a pretty good actress. The overrated retired porn star Sasha Grey is on the cover of the DVD, but she's only in the film for a minute. I know why the studio did that so she could draw attention to the film, but like I said she's only in it for maybe a minute. On a side note I know some men find her attractive, but I don't see the appeal. In my opinion she's ugly and very flat chested. Sasha isn't Hollywood hot and she's not even street hot, and the majority of the women I see on the street are hotter than her. Anyway back to my review.

With such a low budget film you can't expect special effects action sequences, and that was probably the worst part of the film. The action was at best decent. The best scene for action was the climax in a hallway, which was surprisingly really good, but that's pretty much the highlight of the film action wise. David Ren wrote and directed this film and he does a good job with the budget he has. I didn't know this until I looked him up, but he also directed another decent direct to DVD film called Shanghai Kiss, which I enjoyed.

In my ratings you'll find I'm harsher in my criticism to films that I see in the theater then when I rent or download films. I expect more from films that are released in the theater, because they're supposed to be the higher quality films in writing, directing, acting and action/effects. I am a little more forgiving for films that are direct to DVD or films I rent. Would The Girl From The Naked Eye be worth paying at least ten bucks to see in the theater no, but overall the film is pretty good and I recommend that you rent it; it's worth the buck you'd spend to rent it at Red Box. It has a good story and characters with decent acting, below average action and good directing.

I was less then halfway through before I realized that if some, more experienced, people were employed to create this film, it'd probably be a blockbuster. If everyone making it has the experience, then maybe hire some better people. This film smells like Canada, I think it must have been made with 'Canadian dollars'.

The acting was good, the story had a few holes in it, so as long as you don't pay too much attention, then you may not notice. Like when Sandy talks about it being her "first night on the job"

The editing was good, but the scene where he's running down the stairs. Good lighting though.

If you like fighting, and boobs this movie was made for you!