“For the past 8 months or so that Premium Rush has been on my radar, I have been referring to it as “”Speed on a Bicycle””. Turns out, I was mistaken. It’s more “”The Fast and the Furious on a Bicycle””. The Fast and the Fixed Gear?
Speed was just a bunch of people thrown together on a bus that had to go really fast. Nothing more than commuters with bad luck. Whereas with Fast and Furious, these people lived for their cars. They were misunderstood by others but had their community and their passion. That’s what we had going here. Our hipster bike messengers bleed for their bikes. They ride hard, and they ride fast.
This movie was pure adrenaline. Fast bikes, stellar tricks, chases, crashes, just non-stop for 90 minutes. I really liked the stylized map that would show their routes. I’ve been going to NYC enough lately that I’m starting to recognize a lot of Manhattan, so that was a bonus. The other thing that I really liked was the non-linear storytelling. Every so often, it would back up Memento-style and give you some backstory that wove into a previously played scene. Nice way of changing things up.
This is shaping up to be a pretty big year for Joseph Gordon-Levitt. First he’s the talk of Dark Knight Rises, and then Looper’s coming out later this year. Fantastic leading man, such charm, charisma, and chutzpah (I meant to say energy, but I wanted to keep the alliteration going). And such a treat having an actor of Michael Shannon’s caliber for the baddie. I got the sense he wanted to just let go and chew scenery, but something held him back. Either way, so much fun to watch.
Points for the rocking soundtrack as well. My Chemical Romance, Rancoteurs, all of which upped the energy. The finer points of the storyline may have been a lil simple and bland, but the ride was a blast!
Premium Rush – \m/ \m/ \m/ \n