Premium Rush (2012)

What could be better than breathtaking city road chases in expensive sports cars? Bicycle chases through the busy New York streets apparently. With the abundance of action flicks all fighting for our attention on the big screen, Premium Rush, directed by famed screenwriter/director David Koepp, does a great job in setting up a fresh new premise for the genre. Like his other works, Koepp once again pulls off a thrilling action film for the theaters.

Released on August 24, 2012, Premium Rush stars the up and rising Joseph Gordon-Levitt, from other hit movies such as 50/50, Inception, and The Dark Knight Rises just to name a few, as Wilee, a reference to Wile. E. Coyote from the road runner cartoon, leading us through the crowded streets of New York delivering urgent parcels in his no braking, no coasting bike. While on one of his routine runs, Wilee realizes that he is involved in a more than average parcel delivery run as he gets chased around by a man in a car, discovered later as a cop, for the envelope he carries. Whilst avoiding cars, pedestrians and the cop after his package, Gordon-Levitt takes us on a wild ride through the streets on his trusty bike to drop off whatever he’s carrying to its final destination.

With an amazing director running the show, Premium Rush gives us a good and close up chase through the city streets with occasional flashbacks to properly flesh out the story. The chase scenes are up close and personal with the agile Gordon-Levitt sweeping through narrow passages and jumping fences and the occasional comedic bike-o-vision scenes thrown in, while the flashbacks ties together the background story for the movie progression to make sense. Gordon-Levitt puts on another spectacular show on screen, and is said to have performed most of the stunts himself without using body doubles. The rest of the cast supports him well with notable performances by Michael Shannon as the cop and Aasif Mandvi as the humorous guy running the show for the courier service Gordon-Levitt works for.

Apart from all the actions of the film, the romantic plot of the film really falls through and doesn’t add much to the story at all. All it manages to do is manifest some artificial conflict between Wilee and one other messenger biker to show their reason for being at each other’s throats throughout the movie. However, this can be done much more easily with other reasons rather than a quarrel over something as messy as love.

All in all, for those looking for a fast-paced action film filled with dangerous and exciting bike stunts need look no further because Premium Rush provides it all. It’s a simple and easy story that everyone can follow until the end and leave satisfied. I would give this movie a 4 star out of 5 as it does precisely what it advertises, entertain with dangerous bike chases through busy city streets, and does well.

Kit Kong