Bike messengers. Not exactly the most beloved members of our city streets, are they? Whizzing in and out of traffic, mounting pavements and generally being a nuisance as they literally stop at nothing to deliver a package, I literally can’t think of a job less suited to being the employment of an action hero. However, with all due respect to the people who do this thankless job, it seems like after years of penning hit blockbuster movies, David Koepp was desperate to give himself a nigh-impossible challenge as he settled into the director’s chair for his fifth feature.
Could the man who penned Jurassic Park for Spielberg and Spider-Man for Marvel work the same magic for people in a profession that see the violation of every traffic law not just a thrill, but a necessity? It’s a mad dash across New York against the clock as Koepp attempts to deliver urban thrills and speedy spills. Peddle Hard With A Vengeance, anyone?
Terrified of the thought of an office job dulling his freedom-seeking edge, Wilee (like the coyote) has been compulsively avoiding put off taking the bar exam in favour of tearing around congested streets as a New York City bicycle messenger. While the majority of the public despise him and his kind as they weave in-between traffic and ignore even the most basic of road signs, there isn’t anything else Wilee would rather be doing as his bike lacks even the most rudimentary of braking systems.
However, while he may be doing the “perfect” job, Wilee is experiencing a certain amount of pushback in his life chiefly due to the fact that he’s recently had a massive spat with his girlfriend, fellow messenger Vanessa, and his rival, Manny, wants to best him in both speed and his woman. But all of this takes a back seat when Wilee accepts a job to pick up an envelope from the university that happens to be from Vanessa’s roommate, Nima, which gets him an unwanted amount of attention.
Having racked up some impressive gambling debts to Chinese gangsters, swaggering police detective Robert Monday gets himself in even deeper hot water when he accidently kills one of the guys sent to collect. Desperate to clear a potentially lethal tab, he discovers that the letter that Nima is delivering will magically make his debt dissappear if he were to intercept it, Wilee soon finds that he’s got a pissed and very corrupt New York detective on his tail when all he wants to do is just do his job and go home.
However, aiding him in this frantic chase is that Wilee has the ability to accurately judge multiple decisions instantly as his lightning fast synapses register all the available threats, which allows him to float past trouble before it can make him violently kiss the pavement. Will this skill aid him as he tries to outrun his pursuer and what’s in that envelope anyway to cause all this kerfuffle?
Anyone looking for end of the world stakes and blazing setpieces may find the meddlesome peddling of Premium Rush a bit lightweight in comparison, but if you can contend with the speed and employment choice, there’s some endearing surprises to be found. To start with, Koepp attempts to get us to warm to the main characters by immersing us in their worldview and day to day lives in order to get us to understand the mindset of doing such a high pressure and fairly dangerous job. Helping greatly is the fact that the ludicrously named Wilee is played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt who, despite being the sort of guy who wears his bike chain as a belt and bangs on endlessly about hating offices, ends up being quite the likable protagonist. Kitting him out with an everyman sensibility and the ability to freeze time and pick optimal routes like a sat nav powered by the Matrix, Koepp manages to fashion a convincing, yet reluctant hero who, thanks to all that leg pumping, is constantly covered in a thin sheen of sweat. Hell, even the fact that he unironically announces things like “Runnin’ reds and killin’ peds” when asked how he’s doing isn’t enough to make us roll our eyes into oblivion, which proves that Koepp and Levitt have found that vital sweet spot.
Working even better is the fact that the sleazy, bug-eyed villain is played by a sleazy looking, eye-bugging Michael Shannon, who refuses to waste a single opportunity when he could be intimidating someone, conning someone or just simply ranting at thin air as his shitty life collapses around him. In fact it’s wonderfully fitting that such a low stakes actioner employ such a small time villain, even if the spectre of Chinese smugglers looms large in the rear view mirrors; but it all ties up neatly as it also ensnares Dania Ramirez’s similarly sweaty girlfriend, Jamie Chung’s murky past, Wolé Parks’ egotistical rival and Aasif Mandvi, who seems to have the exclusive privilege of yelling at on-sceen delivery staff after famously firing Peter Parker from delivering pizza in Spider-Man 2.
The plot is nicely compact with minimal characters and maximum use of the bustling streets of New York and Koepp – wearing both his writer and director caps – manages to keep the energy levels high mostly due to countless sequences of Levitt risking his life and some neat reshuffling of the timeline as the script keeps it’s cards close to its perspiring chest only to deploy them in nonlinear form once the story demands it. In fact, Premium Rush is one of those movies that comfortably slots in among other, under the radar fare such as Cellular or Phone Booth? that hang their entire existence on a tight, intimate tone that constantly keeps you on your toes.
Also, the movie is wise enough to allow enough space between the furious peddling to let the movie breathe and let it’s quirks naturally settle. But at the same time, it never breaks its own perimeter of bullshit and throws in an unnecessarily ridiculous action sequence just to curry favour with an audience. That New York vibe is impressively strong too as the movie fully takes advantage of the famously surly nature of the Big Apple as it’s players manage to piss virtually everyone in Manhatten at regular intervals. Koepp has a strong grasp on this world he’s created and while credulity is excitingly strained, the film doesn’t suddenly get lazy and start breaking physics just for a cheap pop, but at the same time, there’s enough running jokes (the progressively more frustrated and battered bike cop), cool bike skids by Levitt and manic eyeball rolling by Shannon to deliver some surprising thrills.
While it may not match some of the bigger action/thrillers when it comes to scale, this two wheeled scale-down of Die Hard With A Vengeance has enough chases, twists and quirks to keep you locked in all the way to the end of its smartly zippy runtime. Premium Rush is damn good fun – minimal back-peddling required.
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