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.

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.

I have been following this project since I saw the panel at Comikaze long before the film was coming out (they have since gone back to Comikaze). I remember watching the trailer with a high degree of hope and optimism.

Truly, I thought, this could be something special. A good cast, interesting idea, and seemed to have some talent attached to it.

Ultimately the result has been a disappointment. I give credit for the attempt, but there are several problems with this film from the beginning.

First and foremost, the music. It's an odd place to start, but stick with me: the music is formulaic, tinny, and lacks the timing to know when to fill the space with notes and when to let the ambient sound give us time to breathe. I don't know whether to blame the filmmaker or the composer, but I know the composer is responsible for the lackluster scoring. There was no vibrancy and life to the music, so it seemed to siphon the energy from the film too.

The cast was fine, although uneven. Specifically, Mark Hamill plays a very odd character that never quite seems the fit into this gaggle of characters.

The pacing is definitely a problem too. After about 30 minutes in we paused to note how long had passed with almost nothing happening. The character introductions dragged and weren't very engaging. The writing is primarily responsible, as the dialogue lacks the same vibrancy that the music does. It feels cheap, in the same way a movie of the week is cheap. And this is not an issue of budget, as I've seen other films do much more with much less. When you don't have the budget to support you, you need to have the script be sharp as a bladed diamond or the audience will drift.

The whole film seems like echoes of Pulp Fiction, as realized through a narrow, uninteresting lens. I realize that on a small project like this the filmmaker likely reads these reviews, so I want to say something specifically to him: I remember you from the panel, and how enthusiastic and excited you were. I could feel the same excitement and energy from the whole cast (except for Hamill, who exudes this persona of a disinterested deity, which suits him). I'm glad you were so invigorated and excited, but this is not the best you could have done.

The script should have been more polished with more engaging dialogue and situations. The editing was at times to frenetic, giving talking scenes an unnecessarily jumpy quality more reserved for action sequences. And the music was really poorly done, and there's no nicer way to say that.

I feel like there are better things for you on the horizon, but I'd be lying if I said this was a great start. You have better projects ahead of you, but you need better material to work with, and better people to help with the creative process, from writing to production. I do believe you have some really interesting work ahead, so don't let negative reviews discourage you. Take them under advisement, ignore the ones that are petty and useless, and become a better filmmaker.

I want to see what you can do next, so show me something.

This is a alright movie to sit through but nothing mind-blowing. It kinda has that "Reservoir Dogs" vibe going for it. But in this case it didn't stand out all that much. The story is about a group of guys pulling off a heist and stole a lot of diamonds and after the heist they want to know where all the diamonds has gone. And it all points to a guy that took the fall and didn't snitch anyone out while in prison. But the group points the finger at the guy that took the fall and went to prison for over 6yrs. After they reunite and dine together while eating sushi off some naked girl. Kinda felt like the Batman villains reuniting with one another and it's not just because it has Mark Hamill in this. I kinda slightly felt bad for the actress that plays the naked sushi girl though cause all she does for the majority of the movie is lay on the table naked with sushi all over her. She does have a amazing body though. But besides the naked sushi girl on the table, the movie doesn't stand out all that much. Even with the twist and turns near the end, it just wasn't mind-blowing but just alright. As a matter of fact some parts of this movie didn't make any sense. But Tony Todd played his role well as this unclear character, sadistic but unclear until near the end. So good casting for a straight to DVD movie and seductive to a degree because of the sushi girl. The rest just didn't seem all that original and lacked the shock factor it probably needed. Maybe a movie like this needed a bit more craziness. Few of the cameo appearances was kinda cool when it comes to Sonny Chiba. He played a expert sword maker in "Kill Bill" in this he is a expert sushi chef. And Danny Trejo makes this Machete character like appearance.

5/10