Kevin Bacon has shared many things throughout his career from fancy dance moves to the angle of his dangle, but the most important has to be the revelation made apparent by his long forgotten 1986 film, Quicksilver. What did that movie teach us you ask? Simple… movies about bike messengers are incredibly boring.
Hollywood heeded that warning for twenty-six long years, but now the writer/director of Ricky Gervais’ Ghost Town thinks he’s figured out how to make bike messengers relevant and interesting again. The secret appears to be a combination of Michael Shannon and bicycle parkour (or bikour if your prefer).
Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays the unfortunately named Wilee, a bike messenger in Manhattan whose latest assignment finds him pursued by a corrupt cop (Shannon) who won’t rest until he gets his hands on Wilee’s package.
Check out the trailer for David Koepp’s Premium Rush starring Gordon-Levitt, Shannon, Dania Ramirez and Jamie Chung below.
So there’s that.
It’s no Breaking Away, but it looks like it could be a pretty entertaining cycling movie. Gordon-Levitt and Shannon are equally charismatic actors who together should make this worth watching, but sadly the trailer makes me think Miss Chung winds up dead in the first act. As long as the action stays within the realm of reality more often than not and there aren’t too many effects-based shots like the one around the :58 second mark this could be a fun ride.
Premium Rush hits theaters on August 24th.