24 August 2012 (USA)
91 min - Action | Thriller
Rated: PG-13
Foul Language
Director: David Koepp
Writers: David Koepp, John Kamps
Stars: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Shannon and Dania Ramirez | See full cast and crew
Grade: C+
In Manhattan, a bike messenger picks up an envelope that attracts the interest of a dirty cop, who pursues the cyclist throughout the city.
The tag line on the poster gives and indication of what is most important, gutter language or the title of the film (Of course Ride like Hell is mild as compared to the unnecessary use of foul and profane language that permeates the film's dialogue). It would have been a much more enjoyable film without the trash talk.
Dodging speeding cars, crazed cabbies, open doors, and eight million cranky pedestrians is all in a day's work for Wilee (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), the best of New York's agile and aggressive bicycle messengers. It takes a special breed to ride the fixie - super lightweight, single-gear bikes with no brakes and riders who are equal part skilled cyclists and suicidal nutcases who risk becoming a smear on the pavement every time they head into traffic. But a guy who's used to putting his life on the line is about to get more than even he is used to when a routine delivery turns into a life or death chase through the streets of Manhattan. When Wilee picks up his last envelope of the day on a premium rush run, he discovers this package is different. This time, someone is actually trying to kill him. -- (C) Sony
Judging from the trailer this looks like a fast paced, cool, story about a hip bike messenger in the Big Apple innocently caught up in a dangerous web criminal intrigue. Well, that assumption is at least partly right, but if you have ever had to navigate the streets of New York (either driving or on foot) you have almost certainly had a brush with one of these haughty, sweaty, smelly, obnoxious bikers who arrogantly claim the streets of Manhattan as there own expecting absolute impunity for their utter disdain for traffic laws and the safety of anyone else on the street.
Certainly the bike riding is amazing and exciting for about 30 minutes or so, but it gets old pretty fast and with a paper thin formulaic plot it runs out of steam as the events get more and more unbelievable. The best moments of the Premium Rush are the 'stop time' moments where Wilee (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) in a split second must decide his course through a congested intersection...with his eyes squinted in close-up, he decides whether to peel
to the right (nope, he'd hit a baby in it's carriage), peel to the left (nope, he'd get flattened by a UPS truck) or find some alternate crazy route
kinked with twists and turns (yep, by the skin of his teeth he squeaks through with his life intact).
Sadly, Detective Monday (Michael Shannon) is like a caricature from a Roadrunner cartoon, totally unbelievable. Wilee's girlfriend Vanessa (Dania Ramirez) also gives a paper-doll performance. The frustrated Bike Cop (Christopher Place) turns in a decent comic relief cameo performance but there aren't really any good performances in the film aside from Joseph Gordon-Levitt and that simply isn't enough.
Then we get to one of my pet peeves. Gutter language. If I must be subjected to trashy profanity on a daily basis in real life...I certainly don't want to pay good money to be subjected to more of it. What ever happened to the idea/art of 'creative writing'? Are real-life bike messengers going to use trashy language...in New York? Are you kidding? As they say in the Big Apple, "Forget about it!", still, motion pictures are fictional. They don't have to use constantly use the 'F bomb' in order to relate an intriguing story.
One other thing I'll give the writers credit for is that they chose to make the bad cop just that 'a bad cop', for once at least there isn't some contagion of corruption in the police department, it's just one bad cop. I am so tired of the Hollywood morality that dictates that all authority figures must be on the take. Just because Hollywood has the morals of alley cats (with my apologies to alley cats everywhere) it doesn't mean the rest of the world subscribes to 'Moviland's' cesspool standards.
Cast
Joseph Gordon-Levitt Dania Ramirez
Michael Shannon Christopher Place
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