Movie Review: Premium Rush

Premium Rush is about a bicycle messenger named Wilee (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) in New York City who receives an envelope with a ticket inside worth $50,000. The ticket, given to Wilee by a woman named Nima, is the only thing standing between Nima and her son, who is in China and must be smuggled out by Sister Chen with the help of a Chinese money launderer. Wilee, who must deliver the envelope safely to Sister Chen, encounters not only dangerous New York City traffic and NYPD, but also a dirty cop named Bobby Monday (Michael Shannon) who owes money to a local loan shark who also wants the ticket. With the help of his ex-girlfriend, Vanessa (Dania Ramirez) and his rival, Manny (Wolé Parks), Wilee travels across the city dodging cabs, outrunning cops, and racing against time to get to Chinatown before 7:00.

This movie turned out way better than I had expected. I don't really know what I expected, but what I do know is that this movie was excellent. It had a great cast, some awesome chase scenes, and also some good comedy along the way. I've always been a fan of car chases ever since I saw The Fast and the Furious, but when do you ever see a bicycle chase through the streets of New York? This movie had enough of those to make me fall in love with it in the first half hour. Another thing this movie had a lot of was suspense. You never really knew when somebody was gonna get railed by a cab or hit by a truck. I really liked how they made this movie because they really showed how dangerous (and also quite fun) it is being a bicycle messenger in NYC.

The cast in this movie was also excellent. My favorite character was obviously the main character, Wilee, played by the talented Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Last time I saw him on the big screen was about a month ago in one of my top summer movies The Dark Knight Rises as John Blake (aka "Robin"). He did such an outstanding job in that movie, that I knew he wouldn't disappoint in this one either. Hopefully, he'll once again blow my mind in his next film, Looper, another futuristic movie I'm dieing to see in September. The other cast members seemed to also fit their roles excellently in this movie, especially the dirty cop Bobby Monday (Michael Shannon) who made a pretty good villain of sorts with his angry attitude throughout the movie.

If you like awesome chase scenes, angry cab drivers, and incredible bike stunts, you'll love this bicycle mounted thriller-ride full of angry drivers, speedy bike messengers, and one ticked-off cop :)

I gave this movie a 7 out of 10 because it had some incredible stunts and some gripping suspense. The cast was excellent, along with the action and story. After seeing this, I'll think twice about riding my bike in the streets of New York.