Premium Rush (2012)

Wilee is a bicycle messenger in New York City and he loves every second of it. He uses a fixed-gear bike because, in his words, brakes are death. He is so good at what he does that he is able to mentally freeze his situations to perceive every possible outcome, sort of like Sherlock Holmes has been doing, and sometimes must accept the fact that the only outcome is a collision. That's how dangerous his job can get, and it's even worse when he's being chased by a corrupt cop who desperately needs one of Wilee's packages to pay off a gambling debt. The movie mostly consists of a string of chase sequences, sometimes between the hero and the cop, sometimes between the hero and a rival biker who has his eyes on the girl in the picture, and sometimes just between the hero and all that pesky traffic.

The movie was directed by David Koepp, who has had a long career of writing Hollywood action, but has had his name attached as director only a handful of times. This is probably his best effort, an action thriller that relies heavily on formula and circumstance, but somehow manages to be very entertaining. The movie gets itself into some ridiculous situations, but makes them fun and even believable. This is partly due to the tough guy lead performance from the likeable Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Even more amusing is Michael Shannon in the scenery-chewing supporting role as the bad guy, a character I envision being similarly played by Ray Liotta. It does get a little out of control. Possibly the most interesting aspect of the movie is its taking place in real time. It is a little over 90 minutes and almost never stops for a breath. The movie is, oddly enough, at its worst when it slows down, revealing more logical holes than we should be able to notice. It tries to offer more complexity than it requires, and only manages to self-destructively confuse in the flashbacks scattered intermittantly throughout. I think the movie would have worked even better if it had operated entirely on one level. It is technically a very simple movie, and a more straight-forward approach would have worked wonders.

Premium Rush is a flawed, but enjoyable experience. The people who made it were very devoted. Gordon-Levitt did a lot of his own riding, even severley injuring himself when he actually crashed into a taxi. Koepp keeps the movie brisk and interesting, even if he tried too hard to avoid the inevitably stale aspects of the cut-out characters and familiar story. What surprised me the most is how much fun I had watching it. So many action movies, especially the kind that have little reason to exist, bore me to death with their predictability and mindlessness. Technically, this is also a clumsy film, but one with a lot of drive. I admire a movie that overcomes its own foolishness and entertains in spite of itself.

7/10