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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.
6/10
