The end-of summer tends to be one of the times of year that acts as a dumping ground for studios to release shitty movies. On paper,
Premium Rush sounded like one of those movies. Delayed from January to August, stupid-sounding concept, ridiculous trailer, and pretty minimal advertising in general. I saw
Premium Rush out of boredom and a good amount of positive feedback from critics and audiences (the fact that I didn't pay to see it helped as well) and to my surprise, it was actually an enjoyable movie. It's a low-key, entertaining romp that more than held my attention for ninety minutes. It has a simple yet effective plot (Dirty cop wants to steal an envelope containing a ticket worth a large sum of money that a bike messenger is carrying across New York City) that moves along at the perfect pace and doesn't outstay its welcome. The bike messenger concept also allows for some high-octane and unique action sequences. It's a concept that isn't really explored too much in the world of action movies and the filmmakers completely use that to their advantage. There are some particularly cool sequences where Wiley (Joesph Gordon-Levitt) maps out all the possible routes he can take when he is in a bind and what the results of each one will be. These sequences have a very interesting style behind them and they could not have been executed any better. On top of the cool action scenes, the actors have a lot of fun with their roles. Gordon-Levitt makes for a likeable wise-ass hero and Michael Shannon makes a great, beyond dirty, sleazeball cop.
Premium Rush is a good, simple, fun time at the movies. Think of it as mindless entertainment for those who don't like mindless entertainment. It's always nice to be pleasantly surprised at the movies and
Premium Rush delivered much, much more than I thought it would.
3.5/5 Stars
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