Premium Rush – review

The gears are fixed and there's no brakes and Joseph Gordon-Levitt couldn't stop, even if he wanted to in this breathless chase movie, set in the punky, preachy sub-culture of New York's bike messenger scene. Gordon-Levitt plays Wilee (as in the coyote), a daredevil rider swishing through red lights and hopping the pavement to make his next drop-off in time. Michael Shannon, hammy as a butcher's shop, is the dirty cop using a nasty old car to intercept the message. Wilee has an on-off girlfriend (Dania Ramirez) and a rival on the road (Wolé Parks), but the film spins past them pretty swiftly. This is about the bike, the road and the compulsion to go, go, go. Cycling proficiency teachers will hate it.