Premium Rush

Rating : 7/10
Release Date : 19th October, 2012
Time : 91 minutes
Director : David Koepp; Writers : David Koepp, John Camps; Music : David Sardy
Starring : Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Dania Ramirez, Michael Shannon, Jamie Chung, Wole Parks, Christopher Place, Aasif Mandvi

This is a high adrenalin, high speed bike ride, in the middle of Manhattan, on a sports bike without any brakes. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, our main protagonist, does this for a living, working as a courier, breaking every traffic law, actually, doing exactly all the things most two-wheeler riders or autos do in India, riding on the wrong side of the road, jumping red lights, changing lanes at wont, swerving in and out etc.

One particular delivery, though, runs into trouble. There is this mean, ill-tempered guy, Michael, who wants it at any cost, a pretty Chinese immigrant, Jamie, who wants it delivered safely and as if that was not enough, an NYPD bicycle cop, Christopher, who wants to have a word or two, Joseph’s now on, now off girl-friend, Dania, is also involved and his competition in both the courier and the girl-friend department, Wole Parks, wants a piece of the action. And it all unfolds at a very brisk pace, on the streets of New York.

The non-linear narrative really works here, else the sameness of the biking sequences would’ve got monotonous. The background score, the trick bike shots, the plot slowly unfolding, corrupt cops, the snakeheads, the doors within doors of Chinatown, honest cops, the frenetic pace of the film, all help make it an edge of the seat watch.

Gordon-Levitt is rapidly becoming the new, young chameleon of Hollywood. Switching identities between romantic, action films almost at will. He is a daredevil here, likes to live life fearlessly, gave up a law career because he never wanted to wear a suit or do a nine-to-five, gave up trick cycling because of some broken collar bones. He loves what he does and the fact that someone pays him to ride through the streets of the Big Apple, fast...

This is not one, which is meant to make a lasting impression on your mind, has no messages or crazy concept or theme, apart from giving you a good, vicarious, cardio-vascular workout. And in that, it succeeds and how…