Premium Rush - the movie

Cafe Society
#1

I stumbled on this movie recently and I wanted to get your thoughts on it.

I enjoyed this movie much more than I thought I would. I like Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Michael Shannon was very good as the crooked cop. Very funny, but also believable as a degenerate gambler.

Dania Ramirez, as Gordon-Levitt’s girlfriend, is amazingly hot (she played AJ Soprano’s girlfriend Blanca for those of you that remember her.). In fact, most of the casting choices were good except for one.

Jamie Chung, the Chinese woman who is trying to import her son from China, is who’s story the plot revolves around, and she is awful.

I can’t believe that she was cast in the movie. She is so bad, I actually looked her up on IMDb, and it turns out she isn’t even Chinese, but Korean. And she was born and raised in California, which would explain why her Chinese accent sounds so stilted and unnatural.

If anyone has seen this movie, can you tell me what your thoughts are, and if you agree or disagree with me on Chung?

It almost feels like she won a contest to get the part, or she had a powerful friend or relative put her in the movie. Because the movie, which wasn’t going to win any oscars anyway, still could have been excellent if it wasn’t for her stiff performance.

A mindless, fun NYC bike messenger service movie could have been a decent sleeper and one of those movies I could watch any time I felt like watching something fun with some dark comedy elements… But I can’t get by Jamie Chung. Every time she appears on screen, the movie grinds down from maybe a 7.5 to a 4.5 (out of 10) for me.

Such a pity. But this is the kind of decision that has always baffled me in Hollywood. A terrible movie somehow gets made… Or a particular actor gets chosen for a role they can’t pull off, and drags the entire movie down with it. How can no one see/hear what I am seeing and hearing when she appears? It’s painful.

#2

Everybody pan Chung tonight.

#3

I can’t recall her being all that bad. She was in something else I saw recently (Believe, I think) and she was fine in that, so she’s a decent actor.

The main problem I had with Premium Rush was the way the pace and momentum is fast, fast, fast, and then suddenly screeches to a halt at about 70 minutes, wobbling clumsily to a really lame ending.

#4

I saw Premium Rush on a flight once.

And I do mean saw, because I didn’t pay for the headphones and so I couldn’t hear any sound or dialogue. Despite this I had no real problem following the obviously very basic plot, that film had all the depth of a music video.

I did get a good laugh at all the cyclists flooding out of some bike messenger bar in a call to arms. Should have had one of those gangs in The Warriors!

#5

I think this is a good point. It seemed like they really didn’t know how to end it. The bike riding scenes through the city were good, and they did a lot with that. But it was all basically the same, just with different bits of dialog. The end, though was very predictable and slow.

As to Chung, I’ve never seen her in anything else, so I’m willing to give her another look. But she was bad in this one. Maybe it was the dialog they gave her.

#6

Confess: the OP-writer is an alt-account of yours, and you wrote the OP purely so that you could post this dreadful pun.

(Yeah, I laughed.)

As for the movie: I was entertained by it when I saw it on cable a few months back. I have no clear memories of Ms. Chung, so guess I didn’t find anything upsetting about her performance. As others have said, the movie isn’t particularly well-shaped or original in its plotting.

#7

Awesome movie, complete fun from beginning to end. I loved learning about bike ‘fixie’ culture, and the stuff about the Chinese importers, pai gow, and other stuff was just great.

I actually saw the movie in the theatre not least because I am a big Jamie Chung fan. Her accent was…horrid, but look at Shannon’s over-the-top acting as well. I just put it all toward a certain mood that the director was going for, put on some popcorn, and enjoy the show. Chung’s parts are quite quotable in her horrid accent, by the by.

#8

I didn’t notice any problems with Chung, but I’m not sure I was watching for anything like that. It’s obvious by fifteen minutes in (maybe not even that far) that it’s a movie you watch for the visual adrenaline. As someone else said, it plays just fine even without sound.

I thought it was an enjoyable way to spend 90 minutes and very well done for that type of movie.

#9

And just an FYI, I don’t think you are permitted to accuse someone of using a sock on this board. I think I remember reading that somewhere. I am pretty sure you were kidding, but it doesn"t matter what I think.

Well, it is a good movie for what it is,(except for the ending, which was slow). And i can watch it when it comes on cable (and it currently is in the rotation of one of the kovie channels). However, it could have been better if Chung either wasn’t in it, or wasn’t forced to try a Chinese accent.

I don’t think it would have been hard for them to find someone else to play the role. Chung is very attractive, but those girls are a dime a dozen in Hollywood. At the very least, they could have found a real chinese woman to play the role.

I know this shouldn’t bug me as much as it does, but this was one of those movies which I was very surprised by when I sat down to warch it. I didn’t expect to enjoy it at all, and was prepared to turn the thing off within 10 or 15 minutes. But it was entertaining. Very entertaining.

I also enjoyed learning about the bicycle messenger culture a little bit, as well as watching Gordon-levitt operate the bike with no brakes. I’m still not clear on how he was able to stop it, unless “no brakes” meant “no brakes on the handle bars”. It appeared that when he pedaled backwards, the rear tire locked, which is exactly what my bikes did when I was a kid. That was the only brake I needed, but it was nothing kike the brakes on a ten speed, with pads that squeezed the rim like disc brakes on a car.

#10

I thought the movie was pretty entertaining. Not great but certainly not awful. I really don’t remember much about Chung’s performance but I guess I thought it was acceptable.
I generally like Michael Shannon but I found his character pretty over the top and almost cartoonish. I’m sure he had fun with the role.

Wikipedia page gives info on braking of a fixed gear bicycle.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixed-gear_bicycle

#11

Just finished it, and I enjoyed it a lot. Yeah, it kind of falls apart at the end–and I didn’t particularly care for the antagonist, but I really enjoyed the film. Great action pieces that were filmed really well.

Although was I the only one bothered by the way the villain went out? Seemed unnecessarily dark.

#12

Ah–thanks for the heads-up; that hadn’t even occurred to me. :o (Yes, I was being facetious. I do like the way this message board works, though, and wouldn’t want to break the rules, even if inadvertently.)

I, too, was fascinated by the “no brakes” thing. No doubt it’s based on some real-life rider’s philosophy, but…wow. I wouldn’t want to try that!

#13

I actually used this film as a springboard into more nostalgic matters on my blog.

#14

Everybody slam puns tonight!

#15

NO. Let’s put a brake on your courier as a Premium Rush punster.

Levitt alone.

:mad: