Runtime: 1 hour, 31 minutes
Rating: PG-13
Director: David Koepp
Quick Impressions:
Full Disclosure: Before seeing Premium Rush, I spent the afternoon shopping for a reasonably priced 24 X 36 inch poster frame, so that I can display the new giant London Underground map I recently purchased.
Why? Am I planning a trip to London? No. Am I from London? No. I just like studying the map and imagining places I’ve been and would enjoy going
in the future (emphatically less vivid). I’m a terrible driver, you see, and never feel comfortable behind the wheel of a car. In fact, the first time I visited London, I was twenty-one and still didn’t have a driver’s license. Imagine a magical place where no matter how horribly you drive, you can still get around the entire city just by taking a few minutes to make sense of an incredibly clearly drawn map!
With that bit of trivia about me in mind, you can see why I would enjoy a chase movie featuring a bike messenger pedaling quick and complicated routes through numerous areas of New York (a city I have yet to tackle in person. When I was in college, my entire family went without me because my parents were chaperoning my sister’s high school choir trip. I’m still bitter.)
To be honest, I went to Premium Rush with the kind of low expectations that should accompany any film released at the end of August (traditionally a dumping ground for the year’s weakest features. In recent years, though, I’ve seen enough decent films both in late January and late August to suspect that studios may be slowing changing their strategies.)
Why did I choose Premium Rush over other end-of-summer fare? Well, Joseph Gordon-Levitt doesn’t usually star in bad movies. His excellent track record shows he’s far more likely to choose a small but solid film than a glitzy, failed blockbuster. (I loved him in The Lookout, and even G.I. Joe entertained my then six-year-old stepson.) And who doesn’t want to get one last peek at Michael Shannon before his career really takes off after people actually see him in next summer’s Man of Steel? (At least, I hope his turn as General Zod makes the general, movie-going public more aware of him.) Actually I would guess that in time, Premium Rush will become a much viewed and much loved movie simply because it stars Gordon-Levitt (who has a solid fan base) and Shannon (a good actor whose star is on the rise).
Anyway, Premium Rush blew past my expectations. In some ways, it was a formulaic chase movie, but the elements plugged into the formula were pretty original. Not only have I never seen a movie starring bike messengers in New York City, but I had no idea that there were so many bike messengers in New York City. That’s an entire microcosm full of vibrant eccentricity that I never even knew existed. The stakes are high, the chases are elaborate, and the performances are more than solid.
The Good:
Premium Rush really feels like someone’s passion project. I don’t know much about writer/director David Koepp (though he’s written a very mixed group of scripts, I see). But I did just discover that he and the other writer John Kamps previously collaborated on the screenplay for Zathura a really entertaining and highly underrated kids’ adventure movie that my stepson used to watch all the time.
This movie really feels like a beleaguered law student’s daydream. I know. Instead of taking the Bar, I’ll become a bike messenger and spend my day having races through Central Park. I’ll get paid to cycle around the streets of New York, and if anything bad ever goes down, I know I would have the courage to be a hero.
This movie definitely wasn’t slapped together passionlessly. It has a captivating, quirky aesthetic. Gordon-Levitt’s Wilee imagines the probable outcomes of taking potential routes much like a champion chess player. (Of course, chess prodigies don’t wind up smashed against the windshield of a taxi or under the wheels of a bus if they make a bad move.) The sounds of the movie seem perfectly paired to the sights. Not only is the soundtrack solid, but the background noises of the city really pop.
The chase scenes are well choreographed and definitely supply a visceral adrenaline rush. (It’s like watching BMX racing at the Olympics—if the race got diverted onto the city streets and lasted for over an hour.) I’m pretty sure that Joseph Gordon-Levitt did most (if not all) of his own stunts. At the very least, he did some of them. I remember reading an article about it earlier in the summer, and at the end of the movie, you see the footage of Gordon-Levitt’s dramatically wounded and bleeding arm in the wake of a glassy crash.
Strong performances by Gordon-Levitt and Shannon and solid turns by a talented but largely unknown supporting cast make even the most formulaic elements of the story addictively compelling.
Really, as scripted, the antagonist, Bobby Monday, is a very formulaic contrivance. He works because of the power of Shannon’s riveting performance. I’m starting to think that nobody delivers creepy intensity better than Michael Shannon. On paper, the guy seems a little thin, but Shannon makes him very real and incredibly scary. He’s so scary that the fact that he’s over-the-top and larger-than-life just makes him seem scarier.
The movie succeeds because it makes the wise choice of placing the burden of our concern on hoping that the protagonist will triumph not on wondering whether the antagonist will fail (because there’s no suspense there. A guy like that is doomed. He’s like one of those Disney villains who through his own relentless and basically illogical machinations eventually throws himself off a cliff, so the virtuous hero doesn’t have to dirty his hands.) In Premium Rush, the protagonists’ success and the antagonist’s failure are really not two sides of the same coin. The inevitable long-term failure of the villain in no way guarantees the short term success of those the film shamelessly ensures are dear to our hearts.
Emotionally, the stakes eventually become so high that at moments I found myself wanting to look away from the screen, worrying that something would go wrong. The scene in the impound lot, in particular, had me squirming on the edge of my seat.
The film’s success in making me overwrought with genuine concern is really an astonishing achievement considering how blatantly (and with what careless transparency) Premium Rush attempts to manipulate the audience emotionally. It’s almost as bad as Old Yeller or Pollyanna. It won’t stop barraging you with its broad strokes of pathos until tears are streaming down your cheeks and you’re reciting that old postal carriers’ creed about how “the mail must go through,” and praying that Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s character will man up and follow a similar code tailored for bike messengers.
Premium Rush has a way of converting its glaring weaknesses into surprising strengths. The general nature of the conflict is unquestionably formulaic, making use of a stock cinematic dilemma—when the cops are dirty and the law is unjust, what must an honest man do? Chase movies work best when the pursuant has power to abuse and as few scruples as humanly possible, so it’s no surprise to see a dirty cop or a demented psycho, or (as in this case) a dirty cop who is a demented psycho chasing the unwitting hero. Still, the chasing doesn’t usually happen on bicycles. This makes it all feel strangely fresh. Meanwhile, the use of an almost stock villain guarantees that the audience knows who to root against and feels genuinely satisfied by the triumph of good over the character who is essentially easily recognized shorthand for evil.
The message of the movie is also pretty strong, so strong that we forgive the delivery for sometimes being a bit ham-fisted. Not since Huckleberry
Finn have I seen such a pointed example of what is legal being at odds with what is moral. This is a movie about visceral thrills, with more heart than head. Rational arguments do not matter. Pathos trumps everything.
What is somewhat astonishing is that when the film hits its stride, when so many principal characters have so many differing agendas, absolutely NOBODY is doing what’s legal. None of these people represents the justice of the law. Even the bicycle cop stops pursuing Wilee and company eventually. He wasn’t actually chasing them because they were lawbreakers. He was really chasing them because he’s mad. The movie doesn’t pull any punches. The law has failed.
Premium Rush pointedly tells us that justice and legality are two different things and that human beings matter more than any arbitrary set of rules put in
place to govern them. Going further, the law probably won’t protect you, but if people work together and refuse to give up, triumph is possible. Every person counts, and together, people can form an unstoppable force for justice.
Best Scene:
For me, the movie’s most essential moment comes when Michael Shannon’s creepy Bobby Monday pulls Jamie Chung’s Nima into an otherwise empty room to terrorize her. Until this moment, Monday’s character seems odd and unrealistic. But in the way he approaches Nima, he suddenly starts to make sense. We learn that his bizarre behavior has not escaped notice. We also realize the full threat of his menace because of Shannon’s chillingly intense performance.
A close second comes in the scene in the back of the ambulance when Gordon-Levitt and Shannon have their lip-twistingly intense showdown. (They don’t do the lip twisting. That was me, grimacing and squirming in my seat.)
Best Action Sequence:
The other really intense sequence of the movie occurs when Vanessa (Dania Ramirez) attempts to navigate the impound lot, desperate and running out of time. At this point, I was starting to get really nervous. The story had totally sucked me in with its out of control emotional appeals. (In general, I really liked Ramirez’s performance. I’m not very familiar with her work, but thanks to her performance here, I plan to be in the future.)
The tense moments with Vanessa culminate in Wilee’s nerve-wracking and thrilling attempt to escape. How he tries to get out of the impound lot when pursued on all sides provided the most exciting bicycle racing scene of the movie for me.
Honestly, though, all scenes on the bike are great. Manny (played by Wolé Parks) and Wilee’s chase through Central Park is thrilling to watch (though perhaps a bit unnecessary to the story).
Best Scene Visually:
The most effective use of visuals is the scene on the boat, when English speaking audiences don’t understand the dialogue but definitely get the point.
The numerous aerial map shots of routes through the city combined with Wilee’s imagined routes through traffic definitely give the movie a unique visual style.
The Negatives:
As I said earlier, some of the movie’s strengths come out of its weaknesses. Michael Shannon’s character does not behave rationally. The movie explains the reason for this, but it’s still sometimes frustrating. Why bother to chase Wilee at all? Why not go straight to plan B (which he tries mid-feature) or plan C (at the end)? Obviously the answer is that Monday doesn’t think that way, but it’s still a bit annoying.
I also thought it was strange that Manny couldn’t be turned into a willing ally instead of an accidental asset. Wolé Parks is a handsome guy and his Manny (though at times annoying, self-focused, vain, etc.) has definite skills and a lot to offer. (I realize his handsomeness doesn’t make him a hero, but his athleticism would have made him a great help. Why make the handsome guy an unwitting accomplice to evil just because of his vanity?
Seems a clichéd choice if you ask me.)
Plus, though undoubtedly motivated by self-interest, Manny’s criticisms of Wilee are valid, and he gives every indication of being oriented toward
justice. So why did the movie use him as an accidental source of conflict instead of a deliberate ally? I understand that he’s a poor listener, but
the whole bike race through the park was so unnecessary and felt like a waste of time and effort. (On the flip side, of course, real life is like that. Much
of what we do is unnecessary and inefficient because of accidents, misunderstandings, and random stuff that always happens.)
But here’s the thing that really gets me—how did Wilee recognize Sister Chen the second he saw her? What made him so sure that woman was the woman he needed to find?
I thought Jamie Chung was quite good as Nima, and generally the performances of the characters in China Town were very solid, but I have no idea what the Chinese American community in general would think of how this whole subculture was represented. The movie definitely seems to make a political statement that would annoy the Chinese government. I know nothing about this. People who do might find more to criticize or to praise in Premium Rush than I (with my limited knowledge) am able to do.
Overall:
Premium Rush is good. I can see why it got its late-August release date. Audiences craving explosive summer blockbusters might not choose a movie
about a guy riding around town on his bicycle, particularly when the only stars are Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Michael Shannon. The movie is extremely entertaining, however, and quite innovative in its use of formulaic characters and situations. I know my stepson would like it. The divide between good and evil is pronounced, the stakes are high, and the momentum never relents. The bike chases are truly exhilarating to watch, and the film does a good job of giving audiences a compelling, deeply human reason to cheer for Wilee as he attempts to do what is right in the face of numerous obstacles and unrelenting menace.