Premises don’t
get much thinner or more absurd than David Koepp’s Premium Rush, which depicts the life of a bike messenger as a
challenge not unlike signing up for Seal Team Six. These are not just a select
group of people that ride around delivering mail. No, these are soldiers doing God’s work, and they are putting their life on the line each and every day... for
us. We just don’t appreciate their bravery. Premium
Rush shows us one evening in which riding becomes even more life-or-death
than usual, as one particular package begins to attract the attention of a more dangerous crowd.
The rider of focus here is Wilee (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a daredevil who rides a rickety
old bike with no brakes. When a visibly nervous customer named Nima (Jamie Chung)
tasks him with delivering one small envelope, everything gets hairy real fast.
A strange and obviously sketchy man in a suit (Michael Shannon) starts to demand that he hand over
the envelope, and thus begins a series of bike/car chases all across the
streets of New York.
If the film’s
intentions aren’t made clear by the name of the protagonist, audiences will
know very quickly that they’re dealing with a cartoon and not a typical
live-action thriller. Premium Rush is
like a less-experimental Run Lola Run;
it’s short, energetic, and concerns itself only with the chase that consumes
the entirety of the running time. It’s even more straightforward than Lola—which is saying something—but it
occasionally throws in some wonderfully Lola-esque
touches, like a recurring bit in which Wilee sees the various paths he can bike
through to get out of his current predicament, and how pretty much all of them
lead to a brutal and violent death. Except one, usually.
There are some
attempts at character development, but nothing too crazy. Wilee is clearly in a
relationship with fellow rider Vanessa (Dania Ramirez), and has developed
something of a rivalry with the ambitious and obnoxious Manny (Wolé Parks). This is used mostly to set up a bike race late in
the film, and otherwise Koepp cares only about staging impressive sequences of
Wilee and his fellow messengers sailing through New York City at a dangerously
high velocity. All of Premium Rush
relies on these scenes, and luckily they all turned out terrifically. Koepp has
taken one of the most boring elements of all action movies (car chases) and
made them new again simply by removing the cars. The chase scenes are often
inventive and exciting, even if occasionally silly. One scene later in the film
feels like a level out of Mat Hoffman’s
Pro BMX rather than a real location.
The
chases are all well and good, but the movie also works because it’s just
a lot of fun. Koepp realizes that there’s no serious drama to be found in a
story about bike messengers racing through New York, so instead he just amps up
the cartoon factor. This is a ridiculous movie, but it’s a funny and exciting
one that turns New York City into a glorious playground filled with car
crashes, bike accidents, and authority figures to be avoided.
I’d
be remiss if I did not praise Gordon-Levitt’s work here, and he’s on some kind
of hot streak right now. He gave one of the best performances of last year in 50/50, took over a key role in The Dark Knight Rises, and now is one of
the big reasons Premium Rush works at
such a high level. He also still has Looper
and Spielberg’s Lincoln left to go in
this year alone. He’s been a good actor for a while now, but slowly but surely
he’s becoming one of the best. Premium
Rush may not require a ton of emotional heavy lifting, but the whole movie
would fall apart if we didn’t care about the guy riding the bike. Even in a Looney
Tune like this, audiences need some kind of emotional hook to grab on to.
Grade: B+
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