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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.
