Dead Sushi (2012)
9/10
Utterly fun and demented effort
12 March 2018
Trying to appease her grandfather, an aspiring sushi chef instead takes a job at a high-class hotel where her attitude about how the preparation differs from her training ends up putting her skills to the test when a curse turns the food against humanity and forces her to save everyone.

This emerges as an incredibly fun and goofy splatter comedy. Among the better qualities of this one is the fact that there's plenty of fun to be with how it tackles the extreme concept. This one gets a lot of mileage out of sushi preparation and the extreme lengths people go to in order to make it servable to others which is an incredibly goofy and silly concept in general. Focusing on her exacting processes and martial arts training is where this one really goes overboard with the silliness. That carries over into the central premise in that this one is trying to sell the idea that reanimated sushi are capable of going on a rampage from a curse and eating people alive. This is such a goofy idea that it becomes a plausible storyline here with the series of outlandish antics that continually arise here. That provides the film with plenty of strong action, from the opening attack on the couple that starts the curse to the first attacks on the staff at the hotel where the reanimated pieces begin flying around grabbing everyone, there's a sense of fine cheese on display that continually appears to be featured in other aspects. The action is utterly enjoyable, from the sushi going wild on the corporate guides flying around the room and slicing up their bodies in reckless abandon to the individual battles against the creatures inside the hotel where the voracious creatures attack or manage to get put down temporarily to the later action of the ravenous swarms appearing as a group to launch their attacks by embedding themselves into different parts of the body make for a lot of fun as well as funny, cheesy goodness. Even the kung-fu scenes look good, and with the enhancement of the giant fish-headed creature coming into play in the final half, it has a lot to enjoy about its action overall. Combined with the silliness of the comedy and plenty of fine gory ideas present throughout here, this one has enough to hold it up over it's few minor flaws. The main issue here is the atrocious CGI that propels this one forward which is just utterly abysmal in how it handles the creatures. There's a plethora of scenes here that play off the swarm of sushi-shaped globs floating around in mid-air attacking the people, and it never looks even remotely believable. The creatures come off as laughable blobs that barely interact with their surroundings only for a series of ridiculous streaks of blood-splatter to come flying out of wounds they supposedly inflict on everyone. Some of the humor might not be for everyone, as there's a wide realm of body humor and silly sight-gags that might not be suitable or appealing for all audiences.

Rated Unrated/R: Extreme Graphic Violence, Nudity, Graphic Language and sexual acts.
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