Premium Rush - 超急快遞

Premium Rush (超急快遞) is an 2012 film. The film stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Shannon, and Dania Ramirez. The supporting cast include Jamie Chung and Wolé Parks.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Wilee, a New York city bicycle messenger. Wilee picks up a package from Nima, a Chinese immigrant working at a local college. The package is to be sent to a Chinese smuggler to bring Nima's son and mother to the USA. A local loan shark passes the information to a dirty NYPD detective with money problems. The package contains a $50,000 claim ticket. The NYPD cop, Bobby Monday, played by Michael Shannon, goes on a wild pursuit of said package. Will Nima's ticket get to the smuggler or will Monday get it. The rush is on.

This is a good movie. Lots of action, suspense, and an easy to follow story. JGL does it again. Taking on a genre story that makes us care. The cat and mouse chase between Monday and the bicycle messagers was pretty good too.

Where da Asians at? Everywhere. Unfortunately, it was a NYC Chinatown story. You know, that's the only place Chinese ppl exist in major metropolitan cities. And they are always up to no good, always up to some black trade. Will Hollywood always default to this when Chinatown is involved? I have no hope that this will change within my lifetime. Maybe my grandchildren will see some real changes. Until that time, I can only cringe and bare these "Chinatown" inspired movies.

Jamie Chung and Aasif Mandvi played major supporting roles in the film. Jamie's Korean-American, but takes on Mandarin for some parts of the story. Which I thought wasn't too bad, it was noticeably "americanized". But good enough to pass off to the rest of the English only speaking world. Aasif does his thing as the dispatcher, killed it.

I do recommend watching this movie at least once. JGL kills it and Jamie's Mandarin is quite cute.

The Man With The Iron Fists - 鐵拳

The Man With The Iron Fists (鐵拳) is an 2012 film. The movies stars RZA. With a rather large ensemble cast that include Rick Yune, Jamie Chung, Russel Crow, Lucy Liu, David Bautista, Cung Le, and Byron Mann. With special cameos from Pam Grier, MC Jin, Daniel Wu, Grace Huang, Gordon Liu, Chen Kuan-tai, Bryan Leung, Zhu Zhu, and Terence Yin. Film primarily in Zhong Guo, you'll see a lot of actors based in HK show up in the film with "english speaking" roots.

RZA plays an iron smith that makes weapons for the different clans of Jungle Village. He is trying to save enough to buy the release of his brothel girlfriend, played by Jamie Chung. However, just as he was about to leave, a lot of gold comes through town. Bringing with it outsiders and the locals seeking to steal it. Lots and lots of fighting happens and the man with the iron fists must bring order to the town.

This movie was fun to watch. From both an "Asian American" POV and also from the POV of someone whom watches a lot of stuff from Zhong Guo, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. It had me thinking the whole film. I was looking at all the familiar faces. Wondering whom in the cast grew up or spent time schooling in the USA, Canada, or Australia. Did they come from Singapore? The set pieces also got me thinking a lot. Would this set appear in an wuxia series or movie produced by locals? Lots and lots of thoughts. This is one of the few movies that had me pausing and rewinding alot.

The movie itself as a whole was good. Entertaining. I'd prolly have repeat watches of this if it shows up on cable. I however would not rent or buy this film (I rented this time). Also, all those questions I had were hard to overlook. Which might have caused me to not enjoy the film as much. I don't know if I could have avoided this due to the casting and my personal background.

The movie ends on a cliff hanger for a sequel. With its box office performance dismal, I highly doubt we'll see one. It was a fun ride for RZA, but we'll prolly see him making an "american" film next time around.

The Hangover Part II - 醉後大丈夫2

The Hangover Part II (醉後大丈夫2) is an 2011 film. The movie stars Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and Zach Galifianakis. The supporting cast includes Justin Bartha, Ken Jeong, Jamie Chung, Mason Lee, and Paul Giamatti. The film is set in Thailand and its capital city of Bangkok.

The movie is like the prequel, the three guys wake up and have no clue what happened the night before and have to backtrack. This time, they are joined in by Ken Jeong for an extended period of time and Paul Giamatti makes them sweat a little. Jamie Chung plays Stu's fiance in waiting and the reason they are in Thailand. In the end, they make it to the wedding.

The movie rehashes what the prequel had and than some. Letting Ken Jeong loose was a good idea and he steals the movie when he's on. Jamie's turn as Stu's fiance is the highlight of the film. If you liked the first, you'll get a little of the same and a little extra in this film. The Asian factor is turned up because they are in Bangkok.

Sucker Punch - Jamie Chung - Upcoming

Sucker Punch featuring Jamie Chung is an upcoming 2011 film. The film is directed by the famed director of 300 and Watchmen, Zack Snyder. The trailer looks pretty amazing.

I had seen this poster around the time of the 2010 Comicon in SD, but it was a pretty small image. The one on the WB site is huge and shows Jamie Chung in all her glory. After Grown Ups, I am a huge Jamie fan now. Her turn as Chi Chi in Dragonball was a major negative. But with Sucker Punch, I think she'll redeemed herself.

Grown Ups - 亞當等大人

Grown Ups (亞當等大人) is a 2010 film. The film stars Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade, and Rob Schneider. The ladies are Salma Haye, Maria Bello, Maya Rudolph Jamie Chung, and Madison Riley.

The Cast
Adam Sandler as Lenny Feder
Kevin James as Eric Lamonsoff
Chris Rock as Kurt McKenzie
David Spade as Marcus "Higgy" Higgins
Rob Schneider as Rob Hillard
Salma Hayek Pinault as Roxanne Chase-Feder (Lenny's Wife)
Maria Bello as Sally Lamonsoff (Eric's Wife)
Maya Rudolph as Deanne McKenzie (Kurt's Wife)
Madison Riley as Jasmine Hilliard (Rob's daughter)
Jamie Chung as Amber Hilliard (Rob's daughter)
Di Quon as Rita (Nanny for Lenny's family)

The Story
30+ years ago in 1978, a group of 12 year old help their coach, Buzzer, get his lone championship. In the present time, they find out old buzzer has passed and congregate for his funeral in their old home town. Lenny is a highly successful Hollywood agent while Roxanne is a successful fashion designer. Lenny decides to rent out the old summer house for the 4th of July holiday. All 5 families head there for a grand old time. As you can guess, they have time to bond and their kids find out what its like to be with normal people and play outside. As part of this reunion, the losing team wants a rematch and they go down to the wire.

My Thoughts
Classic Sandler film. You get people that are way less than perfect and as the film goes along, they learn a little about life, than about themselves and make a change for the better, yet still being flawed still. Its worked for him in the past and it works for him now. Also part of his formula is to have some extremely good looking women. In this case, Jamie Chung stole the movie for me. Jamie is officially the hottest asian american actress of 2010. Officially.

On another note, it was great to see the late 80s and early 90s SNL crew pop up in random scenes. It was a nice ride memory lane to that era.

Dragonball Evolution - 七龍珠：全新進化

Dragonball Evolution (七龍珠：全新進化) is a 2009 film. The movie stars Chow Yun-Fat, Emmy Rossum, Jamie Chung, and Justin Chatwin. I had written an upcoming post about this movie back in March.

I am going to include Netflix's summary as I feel extremely lazy writing about this film. The summary from Netflix is:

After training with the great Master Roshi (Yun-Fat Chow), powerful warrior Goku (Justin Chatwin) fights to protect the planet from the evil Lord Piccolo (James Marsters), who is determined to conquer the universe by collecting the seven mystical Dragon Balls. Based on the hugely popular anime series, James Wong's live-action film follows Goku's thrilling adventures and incredible battles against dangerous alien adversaries.

Oh man. Where do you begin. The movie has a white guy playing an Asian role. Chow's turn as Roshi was not believable. Jamie Chung did her best. I had this on while washing dishes so it hurt less.

Dragonball Evolution - 七龍珠：全新進化 (2009) - Upcoming

Dragonball Evolution (七龍珠：全新進化) is being released in Taiwan on March 13, 2009. Coming to the US on April 8, 2009. Which is unusual since its a US film.

The trailer are out and the hype and promotion is starting to pick up.

For the record, Dragonball is after my time. I have not watched or read the comics in the past, so I have no warm and fuzzy feelings about this movie. Not like I did for Transformers or the upcoming G.I.Joe. I grew up on Voltron, Thundercats, Transformers, Go-bots, and G.I. Joe. I am in 80s kid through and through. Dragonball is a late 90s thing. I was already working when it made it to the US.

The controversy is the casting of a non-Asian actor in the lead role of Goku. There is a smattering of Asians in other less prominent roles. Its racist Hollywood at work again.