Premium Rush - Hidden Gem
Thoughts On: Premium Rush (2012)
A bike courier gets caught in a marked man race with a crooked cop, carrying an expensive package.
Such an underrated movie, Premium Rush is the only film about cycling really worth watching that I know of. The script is sharp and runs at a furious pace. Joseph Gordon Levitt was the epitome of what I thought was cool in cycling as a teenager in the early 2010s. How it hurts to think that that was more than 10 years ago... Michael Shannon is on fire in this movie as well, playing a deranged addict police officer caught in the Chinatown gambling scene. This film is actually from the classic era and, in my opinion, peak period, of Joseph Gordon Levitt's career. It was Premium Rush that then topped off his run of movies around 2010 that included Looper, 500 Days of Summer, Don Jon, 50/50, Batman and Inception. He has been a bit touch and go since The Walk in 2015, but was the guy for a few years there. This film also pre-empted Shannon's biggest role in Superman as Zod. It's easily overlooked but this is such a pristine film for that 2010-2013 era of filmmaking.
The way in which Premium Rush captures cycling in the city is chaotic and thrilling. Anyone who has ever cycled in a busy city could only regard this movie on Fast and Furious levels; the lines through that these cyclists pull and that are so fluidly captured by the frenetic cinematography are all complete death. As inspiring as I found this movie as a teen, I would not recommend anyone try be that guy that Joseph Gordon Levitt is in this movie. With the pacing being great, the movement and montage, the management and play with the plot time line clean, and the feeling of an alive city robust and somehow compacted right into a blazing 90 mins, there's little I could criticize with this film. The climax with the flash mob is a bit cringe looking back 10 years later; there should have been a final scene in traffic where the flash mob appears to get us through to the end of the film. But it kind of feels like the budget on the movie just ran out by that point. That said, the CGI is also pretty good in this film. If you look for it you can notice it, but if you let the movie's pace push you, there's a lot of CGI traffic that looks fresh and doesn't catch your eye as fake at all.
That said, Premium Rush is a great movie. Catch it where you can. Just never remove your brakes; they will save your life for sure. Don't hold onto cars either; wild behaviour.
