PREMIUM RUSH
PG-13
91 Minutes
Director: David Koepp
Writers: David Koepp, John Kamps
Stars: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael
CAST
Joseph Gordon-Levitt … Wilee
Dania Ramirez … Vanessa
Sean Kennedy … Marco
Kym Perfetto … Polo
Michael Shannon … Bobby Monday
Life is a highway
I wanna ride it all night long
If you’re going my way
I wanna drive it all night long .
-Biking Montage on BAYWATCH, Season 3, Episode 12 ‘A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH’
There’s nothing more exciting than cyclists. So if you liked PACIFIC BLUE, then you’re mentally handicapped.
Like newspaper columnists, couriers only exist in movies because people find them to be boring.
Like Warwick Davis, little Tommy Solomon is in no hurry to grow up. You think he’s past that phase of perpetual adolescence for good this time. But bam! Here is playing a paper boy. There are only two types of people that deliver papers on bikes: 12-year old boys, and complete failures.
‘I like to ride. Fixed gear. No brakes. Can’t stop. Don’t want to, either.’
-Wilee
Wilee is personification of both Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner. He never takes breaks or uses brakes. Wilee is the best bike courier in Manhattan. Oh, and he’s not riding a bike solely because of that DUI.
Big Trouble in Little China
Sharon Stone: …word is you are the best.
Stallone: Whose word?
-Dialogue from THE SPECIALIST (1994)
Polo went into the US on a student visa. Her little boy is stuck in China because his mom upset some Chinese authorities with her pro-Tibetan literature. She’s bribing mob guys so he can be imported in a container ship. Wilee is delivering this bribe (kind of).
I’m the guy you don’t fuck with.’
-Bobby Monday (Shannon)
The grace period on 9/11 has passed, now it’s officially funny. Crooked cops do exist in Manhattan, and they are all after bike messengers.You might recognize John Shannon he starred in KANGAROO JACK. I’m just kidding that movie doesn’t actually exist.
There’s nothing funnier than people on mountain bikes pretending to be hardcore. Especially one’s that make $15,000 dollars a year, and somehow live in Manhattan. In this film, bike couriers look like a tight-knit group of people who all like each other. As someone who delivered a few things myself, I can definitively attest that any semblance of camaraderie, or kind behavior, is nonexistent among delivery people.
I’m not saying this movie is unenjoyable. This film is fun, but I’m going to have to recommend watching this only when you’re incapable of rational judgment. Like after crashing a bicycle into a semi truck, while not wearing a helmet.
Final Verdict: 70 out of 100