Premium Rush

[3.5 stars] [IMDb Link]

[Amazon Link]
(paid link)

OK, so this is probably a silly, formulaic action flick. Still, I liked it.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays "Wilee", one of Manhattan's anarchic horde of bicycle messengers. Once on trajectory to become a respectable lawyer, he prefers the risky, adrenaline-soaked career of dodging vehicles and pedestrians to get packages to their destinations.

That could have been the premise of a small character-study movie. The heck with that, because this is a chase movie, full of gimmicks and gags.

The MacGuffin is a small slip of paper that Wilee is hired to transport from Columbia down to Chinatown. Wilee immediately finds himself targeted by a dirty, violence-prone cop. (He's also targeted by a clean cop for his borderline-insane flouting of traffic law.) Flashbacks (eventually) uncover the motives behind everyone doing what they're doing; there's heavy involvement of the Chinese underworld. But what really matters is the chase and the stunts.

This worked for me because Joseph Gordon-Levitt manages to infuse his character with a likeable pluck. The dirty cop, played by Michael Shannon, is also quite watchable and gets some good lines. (Amusing to a onetime science fiction geek: when providing a fake name, he uses "Forrest J. Ackerman", a sainted figure in science-fiction fandom.)

This is one of the rare movies that I wouldn't have minded seeing one of those making-of documentaries, because (a) that really does appear to be Mr. Gordon-Levitt taking totally insane high-speed risks with only a bike helmet for protection; and (b) it's all played out in Manhattan traffic that also appears unstaged. How did they do that?


Last Modified 2024-01-28 7:18 AM EDT