Premium Rush

The movie is set around bicycle messenger/courier who chases and is chased around New York City due to an envelope containing a wanted item by people with different intentions. The events - not shown in chronological order, through various flash-forward and flash-back cuts - are intense, but not too realistic: New York is full of policemen, on foot/in cars/on bikes, and it is not likely to race and speed negligently for miles through dozens of blocks, causing accidents or incidents... Chases are, however, gripping to follow, and thanks to great performances by Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Wilee and Michael Shannon as Bobby Monday, the movie goes beyond trivial cat and mouse play (only pity that Monday did not have the same vehicle than Wilee). Female performers, on the other hand, are not very catchy and romantic/sympathetic background is rather perfunctory.

The movie is definitely for you if you like fast races and thrill within a big city and/or you know NY well (joy of recognition).

Now this is how to make an action flick! A small one, mind you, but it's one of the most fun pictures to come out this summer. Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as a bicycle messenger in Manhattan who lands the unfortunate job of delivering a small slip of paper worth a ton of money. Corrupt cop Michael Shannon, trying to pay off a Chinatown gambling debt, gets wind of the item and attempts to relieve JGL of it. Unfortunately for Shannon, JGL is a pretty darn fast rider and great with stunts, and soon he has the help of his girlfriend (Dania Ramirez), who is also a bicycle messenger. It's just a simple chase movie, but it's perfectly edited and paced, with well-timed jumps back in time to explain the situation. The actors are all fine (I also really liked JGL's professional and romantic rival, Wole Parks), but Shannon really steals the show. This is the perfect place for his style of menace. Well worth your time.

Premium Rush is a commercial film that sticks to being a 'B' movie with some A-movie assets - chiefly the actors Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Michael Shannon as the hero and opposition - and David Koepp does a very good job balancing those elements. It could have been just a straight to video title, but it's smart about being a little movie (that is, not quite as on the radar as a big summer tentpole), and has a script that can hold its story and juggle a few elements with more than just competency, that you can go for the ride without being insulted. And yes, it isn't just hyperbole saying it's a 'ride'; here, as in some TV shows (only here with better visual intentions than just quick- adrenaline-fixes), we see with big visual effects the scenarios our hero Wiley (yes, perhaps ironically named as he is really the Roadrunner) navigates the streets, his main route, and then when he's at a cross- walk and cars coming on all sides which of three paths he could take and if he'll die or not or kill others.

Sure, most of us (those of us walking or driving in a city, such as New York) don't like bike messengers, but it's in abstract or in the all-too personal. Koepp's cleverness is to look at a bike messenger on the street and go 'hmm, how about a movie about him and what he has to do, and then what if we throw in a crooked cop and a mob element and a woman wanting to reunite with her kid?' A lot of these elements on their own (and perhaps still the woman with the kid) could be under-cooked or just not very interesting. Altogether, they amount to something, rather that the elements can connect through Michael Shannon's cop Detective Monday (or "Officer Ackerman") who sets a lot of this into motion through his comically inept gambling addiction and inability to get money together - or a ticket from a bike messenger.

Some of this may just seem like 'screenwriting 101', with pieces like the woman with the son and the hero's conflicts (love interest, side- opponent in another bike messenger, the latter I didn't care for as it was too weak on its own and in the movie), but hey, in a first-level class there can be good work done! It's not even a 'turn off your brain' kind of suspense thriller either; Koepp has enough experience to inject, along with his co-writer, really funny or witty dialog, solid (albeit 'movie') character dynamics as people ride on their bikes and can speak on their blue-tooth phones. It's so good when watching the actors bicycling along, and some stunt doubles but who knows when they really use them it's so well integrated, it almost slows the movie down when they have to stop to fill in the spots of the story's quasi- MacGuffin object in the envelope.

But mostly, it's the acting that carries it through. Gordon-Levitt is an appealing lead, likable but has a tough attitude when he needs to, and of course you got to go with him. But without Shannon, frankly, I don't know if the movie would have been as successful, at least to the level it's at now. He's such a convincingly kooky-looking villain, brutal, nasty, but cartoonish in a big way (listen to his laugh, or chuckle, and it's a touch of Chucky the doll or something!) Even in a supposedly marginal Hollywood thrill-ride, Shannon brings his A-game.

Wilee (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a high risk bike messenger. Bobby Monday (Michael Shannon) is a corrupted cop who's desperate for what Wilee is carrying. That's as simple as it gets. There isn't much more substance in the story.

The story is simplistic and reasonable. The involvement of the snakeheads allow a minimal semblance of substance in the writing. Make no mistake, this is about the action. And it's got great exciting NYC street racing action. David Koepp is the writer/director here. He's a prolific Hollywood writer and has directed a couple of good thrillers. In this one, he used all of his action skills.

It's not a 10 star film but it is a fun ride with action that makes up for a few flaws in plot and the flow of storyline. The best issue in this film is almost constant action and wild biking through the New York streets. One of the elements that were new to the screen and highly workable were the sudden stop of action to follow the split-second decision making of a messenger/biker. Choices (usualy three) that have to be made in the moment. The bad guy in the film is nasty and very believable. So, if you're looking for a thrill ride and a fun film then go see it. Enjoy the earthy feel of the cameras that capture the life of a messenger on two wheels competing with trucks, cabs, and cops.