Premium Rush

Premium Rush (2012) follows a bicycle courier in Manhattan. Wilee picks up an envelope at half past five and has to deliver it in Chinatown by seven. A policeman wants the envelope, and the film spends ninety minutes inside that same day. Its structure runs on time. The narrative jumps back and forth, showing the same streets again at different hours, and the best idea in it is the sequences where Wilee runs through possible routes in his head at an intersection. David Koepp directed and wrote it with John Kamps. His stated aim was elaborate chase sequences in the manner of William Friedkin. There was a serious accident during filming. On 1 August 2010 Joseph Gordon-Levitt rode into the back of a taxi and was thrown through the rear windshield, taking 31 stitches in his arm. Footage of the crash was put into the closing credits. It also has a legal history. The author Joe Quirk sued in 2011, claiming the film drew on his 1998 novel The Ultimate Rush and citing similarities of plot, character name and scene. Judge Richard Seeborg dismissed the case in April 2013, finding the two works not substantially similar. It cost 35 million dollars and grossed 31.1 million worldwide. It runs 91 minutes. Good for: short fast action, chases through a city, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Less good for: the villain's motivation is thin and the contents of the envelope only matter at the end. Some of the time jumps are unnecessary. The film's view of bicycle culture is romantic, and most of what happens in traffic is dangerous.