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90Stuffed with zingers and zippy stunts, it comes with pretty young things of all hues and hair types - few prettier than its lead, Joseph Gordon-Levitt - and start-to-finish clever special effects, none more clever or special than Michael Shannon.
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88The simple, utterly satisfying Premium Rush delivers just what the title promises.
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88Premium Rush is great fun - nimble, quick, the thinking person's mindless entertainment.
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88You're looking for depth and profundity, this is the wrong movie. But under the direction of David Koepp ("Secret Window," the screenplays for "Mission: Impossible" and "Spider-Man"), this is an expert and spellbinding adventure.
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83Working in tandem they (Gordon-Levitt/Shannon) make Premium Rush a movie that's off the chain, as the kids say.
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83He's Premium Rush's villain, but Shannon doesn't attempt anything like the austere derangement of a Hans Gruber type, even though he specializes in playing terrifying nutjobs. Instead, he's a buffoon of the first order, and his hapless tomfoolery sets the tone for a light, fast, frequently hilarious 90 minutes.
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80There is a lot of silly bike-is-life philosophy, including Wilee's personal credo of "Fixed gear, steel frame, no brakes," none of which I can speak to because I don't care a tinker's damn about bikes, but I do have an abiding fondness for compact and coherent action movies, and this is surely one.
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80Premium Rush is that rare bird: a chase picture that's just a chase picture - and a dandy one.
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80The action is inventive, extensive and exciting, a bang-up job by cinematographer Mitchell Amundsen, one of the town's hot new shooters.
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80The actors click into high gear, and Premium Rush delivers.
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75This one delivers.
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75What makes this whole thing work is, first of all, Wilee's ride, an elegant machine that lacks any gears or brakes.
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75Despite far-fetched plot points - such as a flash mob of bike messengers ready to rumble and thwart evil - it's easy to get caught up in this life-or-death two-wheeled slalom.
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75Premium Rush earns its place as end-of-the-summer escapism, but I can't say that it's more than a well-done formula flick. At this point, it's just one more movie-as-ride. But this one at least lives up to its title.
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75Proves how invigorating genre filmmaking can be in the hands of a savvy, perpetually inventive director.
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70A quick pace and always-enjoyable lead Joseph Gordon-Levitt will please moviegoers, even if the picture's ticking-clock approach isn't as invigoratingly pulpy here as in the Koepp-penned "Snake Eyes" and "Panic Room."
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70So appealing is Gordon-Levitt that, for great stretches of his new movie, I suspended my disapproval of his character and just went with the nonstop flow. He almost persuaded me that the film is, if not a premium rush, then an economy high.
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Aug 23, 201270The lovably ridiculous bike-messenger thriller Premium Rush is a welcome throwback.
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67A rather routine thriller that's got two things going for it: the ticking of a clock and the clickety-click of bicycle wheels. Both impart a sense of exhilaration to a thin and even silly story, engaging you when, really, you ought to know better.
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67Just as the film is about to deliver it's package, it sends the viewer an I.O.U. instead, botching two-thirds of what may be Koepp's most entertaining film as a director.
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Aug 23, 201265Premium Rush is a half-entertaining, half-exasperating movie.
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Aug 23, 201263The summertime diversion will give audiences a little jolt of nervous energy along with a few laughs. A rush is about making the most of the present, not creating lasting memories.
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63Unfortunately, David Koepp - the A-list Hollywood screenwriter (Jurassic Park, War of the Worlds) and decidedly less-successful director (Ghost Town, Secret Window) - can't find the right Looney Tunes-ish tone for his immersion into bike-messenger culture.
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63Premium Rush features fearless stunt work that shames most computer trickery. Too bad I didn't believe a minute of it.
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60A movie that while thin and silly, moves with such joyous speed that you almost want to throw your arms in the air and scream.
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Sep 1, 201260It's definitely the 'other' Gordon-Levitt film out this month, but this silly cycler whizzes by amiably. Star charm helps: JGL's enjoyment in his job adds welcome levels of Levitt-y.
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60Is Premium Rush a two-wheeled "French Connection"? No, not by a long shot. (Although it does include a racing-beneath-the-el-train homage.) But when it comes to lightweight, synapse-free action fare, Premium Rush delivers.
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60After the story takes a cloyingly sentimental turn, this lean-and-mean thriller becomes bathetically bloated. Just a few spokes short of a wheel, guys.
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60Premium Rush has a rewarding relentlessness and a payoff that suggests that whirring city that surrounds us in is full of supporters who see past the system.
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50On the byways of any bustling metropolis, here is what the combination of bicycles + cars + pedestrians is certain to produce: (1) nasty accidents and (2) ferocious debates. More surprisingly, on the silver screen in Premium Rush, here is what the same combination fails to produce: a good action movie.
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50The delivery pouch for Premium Rush promises a white-hot thriller from the bike-messenger subculture. But what's inside the package seems like a lukewarm action-comedy from the pile of scripts that Matthew Broderick rejected after "Ferris Bueller's Day Off."
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50Premium Rush has a lot of energy - too much, it's kind of exhausting.
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Aug 23, 201250The film is a live-action cartoon down to its main character's name -- Wilee, "like the coyote." It's just a few sticks of dynamite and a 10-ton anvil short of going full Looney Tunes, and is all the worse for that restraint.
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40The action is neither cathartic nor supremely exhilarating. "Bullitt" on a bike this film is not.
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25The best moments in director David Koepp's slight, dull movie are the scenes in which bike messenger Wilee pauses at busy intersections to figure out the path of least obstruction.
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25Stakes aren't the only problem with this sloppy thriller, which combines careening images with turgid storytelling.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 31 out of 46
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Mixed: 8 out of 46
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Negative: 7 out of 46
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10Cool, funny, fresh and original. Premium Rush is a great movie.
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6This review contains spoilers, click full review link to view.