Full Throttle

PREMIUM RUSH

DIRECTOR: David Koepp

CAST: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Shannon, Dania Ramirez

**1/2

There's a truth about cycling that anybody who has ever ridden a bicycle knows. It's the easiest to cycle when you are at speed than when it is a crawl. Premium Rush, about the daredevil New York "bike messengers", fits the same mould — smoothest at full rush, and wobbly every time it slows down.

That is, when you are not cringing at all the death zones that the bikers are dodging, zipping in and out of NY traffic at breakneck speed, which Koepp isn't shy of showing in graphic replays. Broken bones are literally shrugged off.

Still, it is interesting to see the proficient Gordon-Levitt pull off a road chase involving a bike and a car, and a bike and a bike in equal measure.

That's more than you can say about the script that involves goons in Chinatown, a Chinese woman and her son back home, hawala transactions (yes, they have made it to Hollywood) and an article on Tibet that's at the centre of it all. SL

ALSO READ

The Enemy Strikes From Within

Review: 'Go Goa Gone' aims to make us laugh

The Storytellers’ Tales

Review Shootout At Wadala: Gives us a bunch of gangsters and cops