Premium Rush

 

David Koepp has made his name, and no doubt most of his money, as a screenwriter of many successful though unchallenging films -- Panic Room, Carlito's Way, The Paper, Death Becomes Her, Spider-Man. The films he's directed have been mainly good and interesting thrillers -- Secret Window, Stir of Echoes -- but nothing remarkable. So it is not a surprise to me that Premium Rush, written and directed by Koepp, is a generally entertaining but unremarkable movie. It stars the ever-reliable Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a New York bicycle messenger who is carting a mysterious ticket given to him by a young Asian woman with a big secret.The ticket is coveted by a maniacal cop with the cartoonish name of Bobby Monday, played by one of my favorite little know actors, Boardwalk Empire's Michael Shannon (rent Bug tonight!). Gordon-Levitt's Wilee (pronounced like the Coyote) sets off from Columbia University Law School to deliver the ticket to Chinatown while chased by Monday, another cop on a bike, his spunky and fairly clueless girlfriend (Dania Ramirez) and his boastful rival (Wole Parks). The film contains some thrilling footage of bike vs. vehicle maneuvering and a few scary spills but in the main is harmless.