Premium Content

Though it looked on the surface like pretty standard "dumb action flick" fare, I heard some good things about last year's Premium Rush. Nudging it farther into the "could be good" column was the fact that the film stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, whose performances have been solid in everything from blockbusters to indie darlings. But sometimes, what you see is exactly what you get.

The movie stars JGL as a bike messenger in Manhattan, drawn unwittingly into an adventure when he's hired to transport a mysterious letter across town. A no-good police detective is hot on his trail, as he also has to deal with beat cops, a rival messenger, and other obstacles.

It's certainly fun in places. The movie does strike a nice tone of not taking itself too seriously, most exemplified by some hilarious canned off-dialogue ("My baby!") and a well-deployed Wilhelm scream. Think Grand Theft Bicycle. JGL is is charming enough to keep the on-paper (and paper-thin) hero from being too smarmy to like. And Michael Shannon chews the scenery in a fun way as the corrupt cop hot on his tail.

But I do think the film could have been "not serious" without also being stupid. Even as shallow as the characters are, you can reasonably ascribe certain actions to them. And yet they pretty much never do the thing that would make sense, always opting instead for the thing that will keep push resolution a few more minutes down the road and keep the plot moving. At literally a dozen places in the brief 90 minutes, you'll see situations where you think "well, he should do this!" or "wouldn't she have just tried that first?" But if they did, the movie would be over.

I've seen worse, and ultimately it was probably my mistake to listen too much to the flattering reviews and build up an unreasonable expectation for what was here. I'm here to tell you, put those expectations back in check. Premium Rush is a middle of the road C. If you like action movies (but don't necessarily need graphic violence; this is strictly PG-13), you might enjoy it. Otherwise, it's probably one to skip.