Awesome special effects of Joseph Gordon-Levitt appearing to bicycle madly in and out of Manhattan traffic kept us on the edges of our seats watching this inventive action movie about a messenger, his girlfriend, his rival, and a bad guy played by Michael Shannon (last in Take Shelter), who does crazy so well. The flashbacks, flash forwards, and cinematic thought processes add to the excitement. David Koepp (I liked his direction of Secret Window (2004), his script for Panic Room (2002) and his co-writing on Jurassic Park (1993), The Paper (1994), Mission: Impossible (1996), Spider-Man (2002), and Angels & Demons) directs and co-wrote the script with John Kamps.
Gordon-Levitt (I finished writing about Looper minutes ago) really did hurt himself making this movie, as shown in this clip, discussed on the trivia page, and shown during the credits of the actual movie. Maybe I'm wrong about it all being special effects! Co-stars include Dania Ramirez (series arcs in The Sopranos, Entourage, and more) and Sean Kennedy (his debut) who, like Gordon-Levitt, look great in bike shorts with chain locks slung around their trim midsections, as well as Jamie Chung (Lauren in The Hangover Part II, more) and Aasif Mandvi (most recently in The Dictator and Margin Call).
Composer David Sardy also wrote the music for 21 (2008), Jack's favorite Zombieland (which shares with this one producer Gavin Polone), and End of Watch, which I'll write up soon. Here's some good music from Premium Rush. Some of the songs used in the movie are listed here.
We liked this a lot more than the rottentomatoes folks (75% critics/68 audiences) when we saw it almost seven weeks ago. Those with more than a passing interest in Manhattan will also appreciate the maps and should save it to your netflix queue for its expected December release.
Showing posts with label premium rush. Show all posts
Showing posts with label premium rush. Show all posts
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Placeholder for 6 movies
Yeah, I was behind in blogging when I left town on September 22, and since then I've been home for about 10 non-consecutive days, so here are brief summaries in the order in which we saw them, which I hope to flesh out soon, randomly. Please don't judge me for quoting myself later--a gal gets only so much inspiration. As of tonight three* are still playing on first-run screens in this area and one** in a second-run movie house.
Farewell My Queen, seen on 9/5. Beautiful costume drama about the spoiled Marie Antoinette (Diane Kruger), her devoted servant (Léa Seydoux), and her best friend (Virginie Ledoyen) with both of whom she cuddles every chance she gets. Noémie Lvovsky has a wonderful turn as the head ladies' maid who speaks volumes wordlessly. We liked it a lot.
**Premium Rush, seen 9/14. Awesome special effects of Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a bicycle messenger appearing to weave madly in and out of Manhattan traffic. An inventive action movie with Michael Shannon playing yet another crazy guy, this one evil.
Celeste and Jesse Forever, seen 9/19. A grown-up romantic comedy co-written by and starring Rashida Jones as a career woman pulling away from her Peter Pan husband played by Andy Samberg. We loved it. Shot mostly with a handheld camera, this induces motion picture motion sickness (MPMS) on the big screen. Lucky for you, it isn't playing on any now and you'll be fine watching it at home.
*The Master, seen 10/3. Oscar-worthy performances from Philip Seymour Hoffman as a cult leader and Joaquin Phoenix as his angry protégé. Amy Adams supports as the cult leader's wife. Beautiful photography, wonderful period (1940-50s) set dressing and costumes.
*Looper, seen 10/5. Joseph Gordon-Levitt again, this time playing a young Bruce Willis, much the same way Josh Brolin played a young Tommy Lee Jones in Men in Black III. Only here, in addition to imitating the voice, Gordon-Levitt's eyebrows and certain facial characteristics have been altered digitally so that he resembles Willis. Good acting and well-crafted story about time travel in the near future--the third feature from director/writer Rian Johnson.
*End of Watch, seen 10/18. Pretty darn good, this veers wildly yet successfully between being a goofy buddy picture and a violent cop drama starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña. There are some bloody images that will stay with you. It's also a serious MPMS inducer since a subplot is that Gyllenhaal's character is documenting his life with a hand-held camera. Apparently I was warned but didn't look at my notes before we picked something to see while we were out of town last week.
Completed full posts will be linked to the titles as I complete them.
Farewell My Queen, seen on 9/5. Beautiful costume drama about the spoiled Marie Antoinette (Diane Kruger), her devoted servant (Léa Seydoux), and her best friend (Virginie Ledoyen) with both of whom she cuddles every chance she gets. Noémie Lvovsky has a wonderful turn as the head ladies' maid who speaks volumes wordlessly. We liked it a lot.
**Premium Rush, seen 9/14. Awesome special effects of Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a bicycle messenger appearing to weave madly in and out of Manhattan traffic. An inventive action movie with Michael Shannon playing yet another crazy guy, this one evil.
Celeste and Jesse Forever, seen 9/19. A grown-up romantic comedy co-written by and starring Rashida Jones as a career woman pulling away from her Peter Pan husband played by Andy Samberg. We loved it. Shot mostly with a handheld camera, this induces motion picture motion sickness (MPMS) on the big screen. Lucky for you, it isn't playing on any now and you'll be fine watching it at home.
*The Master, seen 10/3. Oscar-worthy performances from Philip Seymour Hoffman as a cult leader and Joaquin Phoenix as his angry protégé. Amy Adams supports as the cult leader's wife. Beautiful photography, wonderful period (1940-50s) set dressing and costumes.
*Looper, seen 10/5. Joseph Gordon-Levitt again, this time playing a young Bruce Willis, much the same way Josh Brolin played a young Tommy Lee Jones in Men in Black III. Only here, in addition to imitating the voice, Gordon-Levitt's eyebrows and certain facial characteristics have been altered digitally so that he resembles Willis. Good acting and well-crafted story about time travel in the near future--the third feature from director/writer Rian Johnson.
*End of Watch, seen 10/18. Pretty darn good, this veers wildly yet successfully between being a goofy buddy picture and a violent cop drama starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña. There are some bloody images that will stay with you. It's also a serious MPMS inducer since a subplot is that Gyllenhaal's character is documenting his life with a hand-held camera. Apparently I was warned but didn't look at my notes before we picked something to see while we were out of town last week.
Completed full posts will be linked to the titles as I complete them.
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