NateWatchesCoolMovies Sushi Girl. What a title for a film. Could go one of many ways, and the filmmakers here have wrought a neat little genre package that would make Tarantino applaud. It's bloody, pulpy, larger than life and a siful little cinematic treat. After a diamond heist blows up in the face of a group of hapless criminals, they gather in a dank warehouse to smoke out and eliminate the one who has betrayed them, inch by ultraviolent inch. Their leader Duke (the awesome Tony Todd) is a dangerous dude who will go to any lengths to obtain the stolen wealth. Fish (Noah Hathaway) is the punching bag for their little inquisition, taking quite a disturbing beatdown at the hands of Crow (Mark Hamill) the deranged lunatic of the group. Hamill steals his scenes, injecting a bit of his Joker persona and a whole ton of really scary energy into a psychotic performance that keeps the intrigue buoyant and electrically charged. The other two members of the group are two unsavory lowlifes called Max (Andy MacKenzie) and Francis (James Duval). The group doesn't know how to play nice, especially Hamill, and we are treated to delightful vignettes of profanity, distrust and extreme violence for much of the film. This all plays out while a nude girl (Courtney Palm) splays out on the table in front of them, covered in sushi prepared by a strange chef (Sonny China, who else). This seems arbitrary.. trust me, it's not. It's pure pulp with a vague horror vibe, due to the presence of such genre titans and the graphic nature of the violence. It's also got a brain in its head, a genuine story to tel which took commendable effort, and a cast that's game to have a little fun as they take a trip into a twilight zone that's part Reservoir Dogs, part Agatha Christie with just a dash of the macabre. Watch for a trio of hilarious cameos from Danny Trejo, Jeff Fahey and Michael Biehn, who are short lived in the film, playing the joke to the hilt.

Miranda Crohan (randi2016) Two things brought me to this movie initially: the casting of Mark Hamill, and the description of it as "crime fiction". I watched this movie last night after recording it, and it quite honestly exceeded my expectations. A criminal named Fish has been let out of jail after 6 years. He is brought to an abandoned restaurant, where his old crime buddies Francis, Duke, Crow, and Max are waiting. Also in their presence is a naked girl covered in sushi, who has been told that she cannot move or speak, no matter what she sees or hears. It turns out that the diamonds from heist that the group had pulled six years earlier are missing, and the others all place the blame on Fish. Thus begins a night of relentless torture for Fish, and the reveal that Francis was wired to record the meeting for the police, Duke planned to have them all dead, and a shocking tie-in involving the sushi girl.I've heard that this is a retread of Reservoir Dogs, and some even say a bad one at that. I haven't seen Reservoir Dogs, but it is certainly possible that this movie is trying to be that movie, and that Kern Saxton is trying to be Quentin Tarantino. However, taking that out of it, Sushi Girl works incredibly well on its own. The style reminds me of any Tarantino movie, but the setup is creative in my opinion. I loved looking around the restaurant they are in, and the flashbacks of the actual heist taking place are very well done.The cast is this movie's other strong suit. Tony Todd does excellent as Duke, the "mob boss" of them all. Noah Hathaway, the actor behind The Neverending Story's Atreyu, makes you feel for him, despite him being a criminal. The torture done to him is brutal in every way (by the way, the makeup artistry is great) and it's hard not to feel sorry for him. But the best has to be Mark Hamill as Crow. Crow touches both ends of the spectrum by being not only hilarious, but also downright intimidating. He is willing to put anyone's life on the line but his, and his menacing smile and voice just complete the picture. Every character, while somewhat of a cutout, is unique and has their own quirk to them.The movie is NOT appropriate for kids at all. There is nudity, an abundance of swearing, and like I mentioned before, intense blood and gore. If you are able to stomach all of that, and want a great character study, this film is for you,

Ben Larson I absolutely could not recognize Mark Hammil (Star Wars). Yes, there is a 30+ year age difference, but he has really changed.Tony Todd Candyman), however is ageless. Five robbers gather to eat a meal off the body of a Sushi Girl (Cortney Palm). Her naked body was exposed throughout the evening as they tortured Fish (Noah Hathaway) in an attempt to discern where the diamonds were from a robbery six years earlier. It was pretty gruesome, and the ending was predictable.But, wait, it didn't end when I thought it would. There was another ending that was just fantastic. It was definitely worth the wait.Cortney Palm is a combination of Angelina Jolie and Audrey Hepburn - beauty and grace. See more of her in Seance: The Summoning and Silent Night.

ljbk5 SPOILER WARNING!!!! You've been warned. Sushi girl is a wannabe Reservoir Dogs as far as the plot goes. It looks like it wanted to be a love letter to Tarantino, but unfortunately it falls really short. It is like Sushi Girl's writers took every cliché' stereotype bond/batman/reservoir dogs criminal they could think of and mashed it up. Crow is gay joker, period the end, and not gay as in the character really likes the same sex, but gay as in its all a character device (like Silver from Skyfall) specifically to up the creepy factor of the villain by playing to homophobia. Duke is the Japanese fetishist/yakuza lover who insist everyone following the rules...I knew someone would be losing a finger in this film the second the word Yakuza was uttered and shared a scene with a cigar cutter. Then you have Max the blunt object, all violence and no finesse or intelligence, Francis the one who has softened because he has a kid, and Fish, the new guy, who went to prison and didn't roll on anyone he barely knew, stashed the diamonds from the heist, and who becomes the victim of the rest. (Honestly though the audience is the victim here)None of the plot makes any sense, it all is force funneled into making sure the story, realism be damned, arrive exactly at the plot twist the writers need it to. I mean why is Fish suddenly the most stoic person alive while being beaten to death, if he knew where the diamonds were, why not tell? You can't spend them if you are dead? The idea of him double crossing the guys he didn't roll on in 6 years of prison makes little sense. He could've rolled on them for a reduced sentence, put them all away, got out, and spent the diamonds. Similarly if he was loyal enough not to roll, why not split the diamonds with them? Or even just crack under the torture that was way over the top? Garbage character motivation and realism is why. Also, many uncontrollable events that no one could've planned for had to happen just right to arrive at the last scenes with only the Sushi Girl and Duke, with Duke paralyzed from tetrodotoxin from the blow fish. It wrapped a little too neatly and again makes the whole thing feel forced. This movie seeks to get over just by hitting the beats of over the top cliché's, graphic violence/torture porn, casting, and the fact that there is a naked woman in almost every scene. So 14 year old boys will love this, and no one else. To be fair, I enjoyed the plot twist of the Sushi Girl getting vengeance, that was pretty satisfying unrealistic or not, but it was diminished by the train-wreck that was the first hour I had to suffer through getting there. So all in all, I wouldn't recommend this movie, which is a shame, there is a great deal of wasted potential that could have been salvaged with a better story, more well written characters, and a premise that started out as more than a random joke idea of "Hey dude? What if a bunch of criminals were gathered around a Sushi Girl talking about their crimes?"