Premium Rush Is A Good Kind Of Rush

Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Wilee in Premium Rush.

The summer movie season is almost over, but it still has some fight in it as Premium Rush hits the theatres. Premium Rush features Joseph Gordon-Levitt in his first movie to star in after The Dark Knight Rises and Inception. Despite being compared to movies like Transporter, there is just something intense about a bike chase through the city of New York, and this makes Premium Rush even more of a treat. Although to those who dislike crude language and violence, Premium Rush is not your movie.

 Premium Rush is about a New York city bike messenger named Wilee (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who lives his life on edge by riding a bike at high speeds through New York city traffic with no brakes. As Wilee says, "brakes are death." Just as the day is about to finish, Wilee gets a premium rush order for a pick up at a university. Wilee heads to the university to meet Nima (Jamie Chung) to pick up an envelope. It was supposed to be a regular delivery until Wilee begins to be chased by Bobby Monday (Michael Shannon), a cop with a gambling problem. This causes Wilee to be chased all over the city and nearly killed several times. Wilee begins to wonder what exactly is he carrying.

I found Premium Rush to be a very enjoyable movie to watch and it has many good things going for it. First and foremost is Joseph Gordon-Levitt, as he is given his moment to shine and he nails it. He knows his character well and makes us love Wilee himself. Which is another thing Premium Rush does well is that it gives us enough information at the right time about each character. This keeps the movie interesting and fresh. Premium Rush also introduces us to the world of the bike messengers, something that has been around, but isn't looked on much. We get a peak of the tight nit world of the bike messenger and how they stick together and help each other. Along side that there is a humorous side to Premium Rush as it goes along. Whether its Wilee yelling "douchebag" at Bobby, or many of the other dialogue lines that come up through the movie.

What makes Premium Rush really work is the fact that its basically an action movie on a bike and we can all understand how dangerous it is to ride a bike in the city. We all probably don't ride like Wilee but we all have at one point ridden on a road or sidewalk and understand how many things can go wrong. Unlike movies like Transporter, Premium Rush doesn't have explosions, hand to hand combat scenes, gun battles and car chases to make it any more less intense. Premium Rush proves that a simple concept as riding a bike can be just as intense as any good action movie.

Despite the fact that I loved Premium Rush, there re some flaws that I just hate to point out. For those who want a really complex storyline, Premium Rush is just not that kind of movie. The storyline is basically picked up package and keep it away from the bad guy with some other additions to give it more purpose. The story was not terrible though, in fact it was great for the kind of movie that Premium Rush wanted to be. I would like to also mention that the bike flash mob was a bit disappointing since I felt it should have been more epic than it was. Other than that, nothing else about this movie I did not like.

Premium Rush is an great movie as Joseph Gordon-Levitt leads it to success. This is only the beginning of his soon to be big name career. Premium Rush entertains the audience with chases through New York city traffic, bike stunts no one other a professional should pull off, and humour to keep the movie fresh. Premium Rush is a very lighthearted movie and you will leave the theatre with smile on your face. Keep in mind though that this movie is rated (well Canadian rated) 14A for a reason. Our rating for this movie is:

Trailer below.