Review: ‘Premium Rush’

By James A. Molnar
TGK Editor

Riding through the streets of Manhattan on a bike is dangerous.

Just ask Wilee, who is a bike messenger who’s had his collarbone broken twice. (He’s also taken the brakes off his bike for his safety.)

Luckily for audiences, they can live vicariously through these daredevils.

“Premium Rush” features the antics of these extreme bikers and follows Wilee, played well by Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

The timeline for the 90-minute film is pretty much in real time. Wilee has to deliver an envelope across town and he only has 90 minutes from the time he picks up the important package to when it need to be delivered.

This package is critical — financially and otherwise — to the sender and Wilee finds this out quickly because one crooked NYPD detective Bobby Monday (Michael Shannon) is trying to intercept this delivery.

And here come the chase scenes. About 95 percent of this movie features extreme riding with bikers dashing between cars, riding on sidewalks and avoiding pedestrians.

The graphics and visual effects are used to the perfect complement to the action. Audiences are shown a map of Manhattan and the routes bikers will take from points A to B.

They are also shown how Wilee thinks through sticky situations when on his bike.

These bikers are nuts and by the end of the movie audiences are rooting for all of them.

While the story may not be the most compelling, the action and cinematography are top notch and make “Premium Run” worth seeing on the big screen.

/ 5

Official trailer:

Rated PG-13 for some violence, intense action sequences and language.