a5c7b9f00b Jake, an ex-gambler trying to pay off a debt, finds worka driver for The Naked Eye. The Naked Eye is a private gentleman&#39;s club that fronts for a prostitution ring. Jake tires of chauffeuring around call girls and roughing up deviants that don&#39;t pay. Jake is stuck in this sad existence until he meets Sandy, an innocent misguided runaway with nowhere else to go. They form an unlikely bond and give each other the will to strive for a better life. When Sandy is found murdered, Jake searches all night to find out who killed the only person in the world who saw the good in him. Jake must survive the night while deciphering through lies, clues and his own true feelings about Sandy, The Girl from the Naked Eye. From Executive Producer Henry Mu comes &quot;The Girl from the Naked Eye&quot;, fresh off the heels of his 2009 Toronto International Film Festival hit, &quot;La Soga&quot;, Mu delivers another exceptional knock out by forging the diverse talents of acclaimed Director David Ren (Shanghai Kiss), acclaimed Action Director Ron Yuan (Sundance&#39;s Black Dynamite) and sizzling newcomer Jason Yeethe lead protagonist in this stunning poetic blend of comic book and film noir. &quot;The Girl from the Naked Eye&quot; is a stylized thriller/ action/ romance that pays homage specifically to Pulp murder novels &amp; Noir films of the 1940s. Jason Yee is this generation&#39;s Eastwood playing the cool but sympathetic Jake in a story that packs mystery, action and romance in every unexpected corner. Samantha Streets fills the screen with beauty and pathosSandy, his doomed love. Ron Yuan (Prison Break, CSI:NY, Entourage) provides comic reliefthe foul mouthed pimp Simon whom both Jake and Sandy work for. Rounding out the cast are Dominique Swain (Alpha Dog, Lolita), Gary Stretch (The Heavy, Alexander), Sasha Grey (Girlfriend Experience, Entourage) and Wilson Heredia (Rent). Jake is a driver for a seedy escort service operating out of &#39;The Naked Eye strip club&#39;, he&#39;s a street thug type who falls for a witty high-class escort named Sandy. Except one night Sandy is found murdered, the only clues left behind are cell phone calls made the night she died. To avenge Sandy&#39;s death Jake must risk everything and walk a bloody path to find her killer. 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&#39;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&#39;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&#39;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.<br/><br/>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&#39;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&#39;s, 1940&#39;s and the 1950&#39;s. Even for the direct to DVD you can tell the film didn&#39;t have that big of a budget. Still the story works pretty wellJake gives us his internal monologuehe tries to find Sandy&#39;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.<br/><br/>The acting by these C level stars was pretty good. Jason Yee was greatthe lead showing depth of emotions that fit the role. I had never heard of the actor before this film. He&#39;s manly stared in direct to DVD films, but I was surprised he had an un-credited role in The Dark Knight Risesone of Bane&#39;s mercenaries. Ron Yuan (Simon) did a decent jobJake&#39;s boss. He&#39;s another actor I&#39;d never heard off, but you might recognize his voice. He gets most of his work from video games. He&#39;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&#39;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&#39;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&#39;s only in it for maybe a minute. On a side note I know some men find her attractive, but I don&#39;t see the appeal. In my opinion she&#39;s ugly and very flat chested. Sasha isn&#39;t Hollywood hot and she&#39;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.<br/><br/>With such a low budget film you can&#39;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&#39;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&#39;t know this until I looked him up, but he also directed another decent direct to DVD film called Shanghai Kiss, which I enjoyed.<br/><br/>In my ratings you&#39;ll find I&#39;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&#39;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&#39;s worth the buck you&#39;d spend to rent it at Red Box. It has a good story and characters with decent acting, below average action and good directing. Must admit the movie had moments that surprised me. The relationship between Jake and Sandy had moments that were quite heart warming. I thought the Sandy actress did a great job. Kinda reminds me a lil of the relationship in Leon: the Professional between Natalie Portman and Jean Reno&#39;s characters. There were some scenes that was actually quite funny where i found myself chuckling out loud. Jason Yee did a pretty good job playing a bad/good guy. The cigarette smoking was kinda a thing in the movie with his character for some reason. Some of the flow reminded me of sin city in the atmosphere they were trying to create. Also surprising was how humanized the characters were. The Simon character was very down to earth and didn&#39;t fit the typical bad guy portrayal. The movie felt like they put a lot of heart into it and did the best they could with what they had. Sure the fight scenes were&#39;t typical Hollywood style hyper edits and loud added explosive hitting sounds but for the movie it fight pretty well. More like early Steven Seagal fights. Like to see him more in movies. Early on, it's tempting to dismiss the noir pastiche The Girl From the Naked Eyea warmed-over pulp wannabe, what with the overwrought camera work and clichéd dialogue. But in its moments of sometimes comically violent antagonism, the movie shows some flashes of genre pizazz.
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