This is an uber late review. It came out September this year, but since it's zooming its way to home entertainment (DVD and Blu-Ray), I figured I'd post it anyway. Here's it.
David Koepp's Premium Rush is a shot both premium and clunky. Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Inception, (500) Days of Summer) headlines the movie along with bug-eyed villain Michael Shannon (Take Shelter, Boardwalk Empire) - tell me that's not premium. However in spite of Koepp's stupendously filmed biking chase sequences, the movie eventually felt like one of its zoom-zoom bikers, too little air is left to breathe. Koepp, who co-wrote and directed the film, tells the story Vantage Point-like, springing a couple of story arcs to follow - which are nice, but bugged down with tacky, if tired execution and filmmaking which favors style over substance.
The movie, on a scale of original to formulaic, is approximately stolen. A lot of its underwhelming elements felt in the past, Premium Rush could be lightly be referred to as a muscled-down Transporter. Of course, I'm not generalizing things. Transporter had Jason Statham and Rush has Gordon-Levitt. And if you're smart, you know there are a lot of difference not entirely intent on implying one is better than the other. JGL plays a law school graduate who for some reason ended up whirling up the pedal as a bike messenger, Wile E. Coyote (yep, just like the cartoon). For ultra-fast courier service on pedal, you ought to pick Wile as your delivery man. He's the best in his job, or so colleagues tell us.
A crooked cop with gambling issues had enough "bad" in one day. He's Detective Robert Monday (Shannon) from NYPD and his lark is to gamble, owe a couple of Chinese punks a sh*t load of money, and find him some adventure to resolve the plight he put himself at. In one whole afternoon he begins this cat-and mouse chase that make way for some nemesis resolution, cop comedy and immigration shenanigans.
Premium Rush's treasure is the only two names I've mentioned, Levitt, taking home the score in this one. His charisma is quite infectious that the movie this silly and generic has took a quick turn to a fun, intense and entertaining ride. Shannon deserve a note too. While his comedic prowess does not appeal to me any intensely, his sinister palette appeared to me in the slightest opacity and I still was unnerved by him. Dania Ramirez (Heroes) as JGL's loyal colleague and love interest is just the Spanish spice - to give something more to the movie - but as the "good actress", she still has a couple of routes to get past through.
Koepp's filmography is decent. He penned Jurrasic Park, Spider-Man, Mission: Impossible, War of the Worlds, Panic Room. These are proofs to Koepp's skill as a dude of the scripts, but be reminded that he wrote Stir of Echoes and Ghost Town too. Premium Rush, the fun ride that it is, indeed, brakes for nothing. And among Koepp's works, it only stays in the middle.
VERDICT: B
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