Geekscape Movie Reviews: Premium Rush
When email won’t cut it, Fedex is too slow, you can’t deliver it yourself, and you really, really need something delivered, a bike messenger is your only option.
These guys are crazy. Weaving in and out of traffic, through busy intersections, seemingly without a care in the world. This is what Wilee (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) lives and breathes for. The adrenaline, the split second decisions, the race against the clock and the race against himself as he speeds towards his destination.
Then someone wants to take his package away.
What a premise! I first heard about Premium Rush a few months back and immediately kept it on my radar. It looked like a ton of fun, and a fantastic, fast-paced action thriller on the streets of NYC. Our hero speeds through the city on a bike with no gears, and insanely, no brakes. Wow.
Also, Joseph Gordon-Levitt! I love this guy. Since the days of Mysterious Skin or Brick, I knew there was something special about him. He has absolutely blown up in the last few years, so I apparently wasn’t alone in that.
So we’ve got a chase through New York City, and we have Joseph Gordon-Levitt on a bike with no brakes. What could go wrong?
Apparently, a lot.
The film starts strongly. A slow motion shot of Wilee flying through the air before crashing hard into the pavement below. A crowd begins to gather. He isn’t getting up. He isn’t even moving.
A big digital clock fades into view before rewinding 90 minutes. I’m in. I’m engaged. What happened to him? Is he dead? Was he successful?
Wilee careens though busy streets, in and out of extremely dangerous situations as fast as you can blink, while explaining why he does what he does, and why he wouldn’t give it up for anything. He’s relatable, he’s likable, he’s dangerous. Everybody wins!
Then things started turning sour for me. After the first five minutes (which was essentially what I explained above) everything seemed to slow to a crawl.
The plot should be established, he should have his MacGuffin and people need to be chasing him already. He should be doing cool bike tricks. Instead we spend ten minutes witnessing his girl troubles (are they together? are they not? were they ever? why did that other bike messenger just kiss her? I don’t care!).
Wilee gets sent to pick up a package. Here we go! Back on track! Wait… he’s calling her. More girl troubles. I sigh.
We finally get back to the action. He’s got his package, and some guy wants it. What is the package? Who is this guy? Why does he want it?
It’s in the answers to these questions that Premium Rush completely loses me. In pursuit of our romantically challenged hero is Bobby Monday (Michael Shannon), an upper-level NYPD officer with money troubles and a stupid name. He’s learned that Wilee’s package is worth a sizable quantity of money. Enough to pay off his debts with some to spare.
This pursuit, this movie, is happening because an asshole cop has a gambling problem. A freaking gambling problem. Nobody could have come up with a better reason than that? The character is made further unlikable by the way that he yells “I’m a cop! You can’t touch me!” seemingly to everyone that crosses him.
The chase continues. Wilee constantly escapes (a joke is made that he can never seem to catch what he’s after a la Wile E Coyote, which has to be an allusion to the fact that he is more of a Road Runner here). Throughout all of this, it seems like Bobby Monday is never more than a moment away.
This really breaks the realism. Wilee is on a bike, weaving through traffic and squeezing through tight spaces that aren’t even on roads. Yet the man in the car seems to always know where he is, and is constantly popping up behind him.
Things pick up for the third act. The action becomes more interesting and varied. The plot actually develops further and explains the purpose of the package. Bobby Monday is defeated while yelling “I’m a cop!”. The pace really picks up here and it’s exponentially more enjoyable than the rest of the film.
Overall, I really didn’t feel the rush I had been expecting. More often than not the film falls flat with inconsistencies and uninteresting dialogue. I loved pieces of the experience (there are some great video game-esque scenes: time slows as Wilee gauges his options: what direction to go, what might the outcome be, before finally choosing the best course of action), and Gordon-Levitts performance was strong as always.
The parts I loved didn’t make it worth the price of admission for me. The oft repeated “Brakes are death” mantra however, was worth that cost, and it is now how I’ll be living my life.
If your expectations are low or you’re simply buying tickets for a movie you know nothing about, you may be pleasantly surprised. Otherwise, I wouldn’t rush into this one.
Score: 2/5
