Premium Rush Reviews

Since I always had a weak spot for Joseph Gordon-Levitt, I was quite eager to check this movie. My first thought was that it should be really neat to have a minimalist thriller dealing with some couriers in New York. My second thought was how will they manage to deliver something really satisfying which such a limited concept? Well, eventually, I thought the whole thing was fairly entertaining, even though the makers definitely used some tricks to cover those limitations. First of all, to prevent it from becoming too dull, they had to give us a rather far-fetched story. Then, they decided to give a random chronology which was a fairly obvious gimmick to make the whole thing much more complicated than it actually was. And, yet, in spite of these flaws, it was still a decent watch. Indeed, it was very nice to have Joseph Gordon-Levitt playing the lead for once and Michael Shannon, one of the most interesting upcoming actors at work nowadays, was a great choice for the villain and they both delivered some solid performances. On top of that, I thought that the alternative world of these bikers was quite intriguing and I could have spent more time with them. To conclude, even though it wasn’t entirely successful, I thought it was still a decent thriller and it is definitely worth a look.

Lots of great action and decent enough story to support it. However the dialogue is hokey and there are plenty of moments that don't make logical sense; but still entertaining enough.

Trade in a car for a bicycle, and you've got "Premium Rush" an action film with such the simplest, transparent twist on the classic formula that it should leave viewers bored within five minutes. It should, but it doesn't. It's the rhythm that the film has and carries with it for the entire 90-minute run time that makes it quite satisfactory.

Wilee (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a bike messenger, one of 1500 in New York City, who jumps pedestrians, dodges cabs, and out-chases cops. He does it because people in grey business suits make his balls shrivel up. Detective Monday (Michael Shannon) is a cop but one with impulse control issues, using more force than necessary, and a penchant for gambling with other people's money. He's a douche-bag except he really doesn't like that word.

Shortly after meeting Shannon's dirty cop, one of Wilee's compatriots starts telling us that Wilee is actually insane. That he zips between cars, causing accidents and barely escaping them himself because he has a death wish not because he has any cycling skills. Fellow messengers are supposed to look out for one another, but he can be forgiven since they both like the same girl. And I would also agree with him just with one minor concession: he has some skills, mostly death wish, but definitely all crazy with a hint of finesse and charisma. Somebody, however, should have told Michael Shannon that he wasn't supposed to be the crazy one in this movie. Evil, yes, but he should have toned down the insanity.

The story is mostly revealed as Gordon-Levitt cycles through the city, the rest of the story as it pertains to the supporting characters is told through flashback. The story itself is very pedestrian, but it's told in an interesting way as it always picks up when it's time to take a life and death trip down to Chinatown. The trip may not be new or intense but it is entertaining.

Clocking in at just under 90 minutes, it still manages to feel like I sat through something longer. Which in this instance is a good thing. Because at the end of the day, it's still about bike messengers. No offense. From the first time I saw a promo for it, it seemed all too familiar. Like I'd seen something like it before, and I have. If you've ever seen the movie Hackers, it's basically that, except with messengers instead of hackers minus the camp. Most of it anyway.If you've got nothing to do and want to see something different but not too different, this might be a movie to consider. The story is pretty simple and not really any surprises in it. I'd say the best part of the movie is this running gag with a bike cop that is basically chasing Wiley, the main protagonist, down throughout the entire movie which has very little significance to the actual plot. the worst part is they keep trying to squeeze in why Wiley does the job that he does despite the inherent danger and that he could actually be so much more were it not for his love of riding. It bares zero significance to the story. Even less the the aforementioned bike cop. Wisely, it doesn't linger too long on those deep thoughts and just keeps riding at full speed without stopping for long.

Premium Rush succeeded where a handful of movies this summer failed to do which was, it actually delivered on what it promised. When I first saw the trailers last year my initial reaction was, bike messengers? Really? How could you make a movie about bike messengers entertaining? Then I saw the director and the cast an my thoughts about the movie changed a bit and got kind of excited for this movie. I had a blast while watching this movie, this was one of those late summer surprises. I did not expect it to be as good or as much fun as I thought it would be.

While I did have fun watching this movie there were some.things that bothered me a bit but, they are only minor things. First and foremost the story is nothing new and is pretty thin along with the plot. This movie did also have trouble trying to find a consistent tone, but, it didn't bother me as much as some people. Lastly, Jamie Chung's fake Asian accent annoyed me a bit, it was somewhat bad too. as I said though, these were minor things.

Now even though the story and plot are thin and not very original, it's what director David Koepp does with the story and plot. He puts a fresh spin and twist on it. I'm surprised no one has ever thought of doing a movie like this. It's refreshing to see something different than your typical car Chase scenes in a Chase kind of movie. He makes bike messaging seem so badass.

The visuals and style of this movie are different than anything I've seen before. For example, when Wilee approaches incoming traffic we get a look inside his head as he tries to find a way out and are subjected to multiple videos of how that route will turn out. If he goes left he'll hit a pedestrian, if he goes right, he'll hit a car etc. The direction is great too, we get everything. Point-of-view shots, read-view shots, overhead shoots you name it.

The way this movie is told is nothing new, Koepp keeps jumping from past to present even though this whole movie really only takes place within 4 hours, but, the storytelling does not affect the movie's breezy pace. There's never more than a few minutes between each action/chase scene.

While everyone in the cast did a nice job, the two standouts were Joseph Gorden-Levitt and Michael Shannon. Not much of a surprise there. Joseph Gorden-Levitt has really been widening his range. He is probably one of the best actors in the business today. He shows no struggle with every part he plays and he proves just like in 50/50 that he has no problem carrying a film. Michael Shannon is a badass and he knows it. He is a great actor and gives such an awesome performance as the villain he should continue to do roles like these.

Overall, though there the story and plot are nothing new, this movie has trouble finding a consistent tone, and Jamie Chung's accent is laughable bad. Those shouldn't be much of a problem however thanks to the cast, especially Joseph Gorden-Levitt and Michael Shannon, the nice direction, the nice visuals, the style, and the action/chase sequences which were well-shot(thankfully there was no shaky cam thanks to Koepp which made this more pleasantly enjoyable). This was a fun movie, it was entertaining throughout, and it didn't disappoint.