Premium Rush pulls out all the brakes, literally

Premium Rush is completely likeable. And also completely forgettable. Watch it and by the time you’re pulling out of the parking lot you’ll be thinking, “What movie did we see?”

With any other picture this might be a strong reason to avoid it, but here with the bike-themed Premium Rush, an adrenaline-fueled thrill ride on two wheels, that kind of comment is more a term of endearment. Yes, it’s disposable and forgettable, but aren’t summer movies supposed to be?

I have a soft spot in my heart for gutsy little thrillers like Premium Rush. It’s completely implausible and preposterous, but the characters seemed invested so I can suspend disbelief if only for them. Raiders of the Lost Ark tapped into this kind of anything-goes, fly-by-wire spirit, and here it is to a certain degree in the best bike movie since Quicksilver in 1986.

In Manhattan, bike messengers dart through the streets on rag-tag bikes called fixies. These are fixed-gear bikes with no brakes, and being able to maneuver on them around deliver trucks, cabs and other traffic perils is treated like performance art (or suicide) by their die-hard true believers. The messengers — these bohemian spirits tattooed and pierced from head to toe — wear heavy-duty (and thief-proof) bike chains around their waists like belts giving them an intimidating edge. If the Road Warrior rode a Huffy, this is what he’d look like.

Wilee (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a former law student who couldn’t bear to wear a suit to work, so he becomes a bike messenger, naturally. His last package of the day is an envelope that comes with plenty of trouble that Wilee must avoid at all costs as he races from Harlem to Chinatown in 90 minutes or less. Much of the trouble finds him in the form of bona-fide whacko Bobby Monday (Michael Shannon), whose life depends on recovering the hot envelope before it’s delivered.

Premium Rush, which nails the speed and exhilaration of riding through congested New York City traffic, has all the expected thrills and close-calls, including many many chases on bikes. It’s not as taut as it could be with several superfluous segments including a race in Central Park, but it gets the job done with some wild stunts, a likeable hero, an overcooked villain, a resilient female character and all of Manhattan to play in. You will not adore every pore of Premium Rush, but you will admire its tenacity and pluck. You will not regret the price of the ticket.

Gordon-Levitt, a consummate professional at everything he does, is a lot of fun to watch. He plays a twentysomething everyman like a champ even though he’s now 31. He must have had a stunt double for many of these in-traffic bike stunts, but we often see him peddling away like a madman. At one point I’m pretty sure I could hear his calves screaming in the soundtrack. He’s joined by the always-interesting Dania Ramirez, who you will fondly remember as Blanca, A.J.’s Puerto Rican girlfriend on The Sopranos. Michael Shannon, who plays nutty so well I’m starting to worry for his sanity, rounds out the rest of the small cast rather nicely.

Premium Rush is directed impressively by screenwriter David Koepp (Jurassic Park, War of the Worlds). What could have been a by-the-numbers action thriller is turned into something special with some of Koepp’s tricks. In one nifty effect, we peek inside Wilee’s brain as he comes to dangerous intersections. The camera evaluates bike routes as we watch hypothetical versions of Wilee follow Family Circus-style arrows on the ground until he can determine the best course of action, be it over the trash can and around the car, or under the trailer and then over the loading ramp. Some of these imagined scenarios end with him getting crushed by trucks, flipped by open car doors and impaled on light poles. All those years working with Spielberg, De Palma, Raimi and Fincher has made Koepp a clever visual storyteller.

Koepp also weaves cell phone technology, digital maps and what must be a miniature of Manhattan into elaborate transition sequences so the audience knows where the characters are in relation to each other and the ultimate goal in Chinatown. This effect helps move the film along even as it wanders back and forth in time to reveal why the envelope is so important and why Bobby Monday is having such a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

I also liked how there was very little gunplay. For a movie to retain audience attention in this film era there must be a shoot-out in the breakfast nook before the main character changes out of his robe and gulps down his Cheerios. I’m happy to report that only a single bullet was fired in the whole movie.

So, I’ve gushed about Premium Rush. Technically, it’s a stellar film. It’s just instantly forgettable. The mood is very light and the action is low-key compared to a movie like The Avengers, which didn’t just ride its bike down Fifth Avenue but carved the street out of the soil from Central Park to Greenwich Village. I prefer milder action to world-ending calamity, but Premium Rush didn’t take itself as serious as it should. It could have ramped up the thrills and terror just a little more.

Besides, ramps are great set decorations in a movie about bikes and their daredevil riders.