Premium Rush

"I live my life how I ride, no gears, no brakes," This is just one of the lines that come out of our protagonist's mouths.  But how could you possibly be rooting for any bike rider after living in the city for as long as anyone has. Bikers are  the bane of both city drivers and walkers, full of hipsters, weaving in and out of traffic, running red lights whenever they feel.  Bikers are the worst.  I'm sure you my biker reader are a perfectly fine human being, but as soon as you hop on that bike you become my sworn enemy.  How could you possibly root for a biker, even with a lead character that is so usually dynamic as Joseph Gordon Levitt.  Here he is not asked to do any kind of acting he just needs to keep moving because "if you stop, you die.  That's how I live my life."  Ugh this is just the worst kind of character.  Premium Rush is a fully ridiculous chase movie that doesn't go anywhere and doesn't do it all that fast but is mostly just inconvenient because they think they are better than red lights.  This movie is a lot like bikers, it is just the worst.

Joseph Gordon Levitt plays the character Wilee, beyond praying that this is a nickname and not a parent's attempt to pigeon hole a child into growing up to be a complete d-bag.  While he excelled at law school, he chose not to take the bar because wearing a suit at this age scares him.  That part I get, hey I'm in radio I feel the same way.  But that really is the depth to his character.  I have no idea what JGL is doing in this movie, he's been on such a roll in all his movies and only getting better and better.  Here they just seem to want him to be an urban surfer which tries to elevate bike messenger-ship to an art form and a way of life.  And besides Michael Shannon that may be the character with the most depth.  All he is really asked to do is pedal faster.

The supporting cast mostly speaks in out of breath gasps, which is understandable as all they do is ride their bike all day.  So it is hard for any of the younger actors to gain any kind of connection with the audince.  The only actors of any kind of note are Aasif Mandvi as Wilee's dispatcher who is getting a knack for a being a d-bag who can dish out one liners and Michael Shannon.  Shannon plays a corrupt cop who is trying to get his hands on a package that Wilee is delivering.  Shannon also seems to be the only actor who understands how ridiculous the premise of the movie is and allows his character to be over the top in his villainy.  All the other young actors from his girlfriend, to the girl he is delivering the package for, to his rival in the company who just wants to prove he's faster with his gear shifting bike, because obviously this movie has a character who is just there to be a jerk, provide very little to the movie.

The movie isn't about the actors though, its about the action.  At the heart of this project it is a chase movie.  Cops, rivals, time, they all are after Wilee, which is weird since it was usually the coyote chasing the road runner, but that is besides the point.  He is chased by both less skilled bikers where the main threat are pedestrians and opening doors, and then there are cars as well which have the advantage of not being able to go everywhere a bike can especially in a grid locked New York City.   It is just like a movie full of car chasing except you know without all the speed and drama of car chases.  Director David Koepp uses New York effectively as a backdrop for the movie.  The most distracting feature though is when he digitizes his movie by putting a clock of the screen, or using a map to show the route he needs to take it really takes the viewer out of the action.

This is nothing substantive to Premium Rush.  And the all the chase sequences are slower and more annoying to watch then any chanse sequence out there now.  And the whole movie is just that, a bunch of slower chase sequences.  At a brief 90 minutes it still feels like a bike ride over all of New York City would still be more exciting.  The over the top acting of Michael Shannon may be the only saving grace of the movie and that is only if you like over the top ridiculousness.  In fact that's a great way to describe this movie: ridiculous.  D

Ruby Sparks

I don't think at this point it is that hard to believe that Little Miss Sunshine came out six years ago.  That was the last time we heard from the married directing duo of Valerie Farris and Jonathan Dayton.  They once again try to capture lightning in a bottle with a darling little indie to entertain the  masses.  I doubt this will have the commercial success of their first film but it will be a good movie for couples to go see.  Ruby Sparks is the second feature film for Farris and Dayton and despite a glaring lack of explanation it is a cute movie to go see.

Written by the movies female lead, Zoe Kazan, Ruby Sparks is the story of a young writer, Calvin, who peaked as a teenager writing a modern American classic.  But now 10 years later has yet to put anything else out.  Calvin is played by Paul Dano who previously worked with Farris and Dayton on Little Miss Sunshine.  It seems appropriate that the directing team featured a story on a person with writer's block, since it has been six years since they have done anything.  So once again they have teamed up with FOX Searchlight hoping for similar success to their first movie.

But where Little Miss Sunshine focused on an eccentric family of loveable losers, this movie mostly focuses on one young couple in love.  While that is not a bad thing, there was just more to grab onto in their first movie. If you didn't particularly enjoy one story line you wouldn't have to wait long for another and the family motif really helped tie it all together. It also featured a lot of big names to draw the viewer in.  Including the extremely lucky casting of Steve Carrel who while filming was still not widely known because "The Office" had not aired yet.

I had a chance to talk to the stars and directors of the Ruby Sparks.  Click here to listen to what they had to say about getting this project started, how they have dealt with the success of Little Miss Sunshine and where they go next.

In this movie Calvin's dream girl is actually from his own mind as she is the female lead in his newest novel and has now magically come to life.  There is no explanation why and any attempt to do so, is quickly side stepped.  Even Ted manufactured a way for a teddy bear to come to life, the best explanation we got was possibly a magic typewriter, but you can never quite be sure.  Anyway Calvin believes he has created the perfect woman and for his hipster little self they seem to blend perfectly together.  But having only ever been in one real relationship he doesn't quite understand that any relationship needs work, even one with the perfect girl.  The theme here is fantastic and I think some of the highlights of the movie may be when Calvin uses his magic typewriter to change the girl to fit his needs.  While they used the themes to bring out some of the funnier moments in the movie, the main use of the alterations was an ethical look at the amount of control one person may have over another.  Kazan is at her best jumping from extreme to extreme and Dano also rises to the occasion when dealing with the alterations to his creation.

Kazan and Dano both did fine jobs with the lighter moments of the movie, but Dano's performance stayed consistently solid as the movie progressed well past the climax of the movie.  There was a host of fantastic supporting actors surrounding the two young stars which helped the story progress with an especially wonderful performances from Antonio Banderas as the eccentric boyfriend to Calvin's mom who was also played wonderfully by Annette Bening.  Steve Coogan also did amazing work in several scenes as the sleezy book executive looking to capitalize on Calvin's success.

Do we ever find out how a fictional character that appeared out of no where has her own place in Los Angeles?  No.  But I imagine Kazan is hoping that you will fall in love with the story so much that you will be able to look past these plot holes.  There is a wonderful story in here about what it takes to be in a relationship once the honeymoon bliss wears off and Ruby Sparks should be the perfect alternative to the major blockbusters that are out there now.  B-