Yesterday my husband and I wanted to go out for drinks and a movie.  However, we didn’t know what to watch because nothing seemed of the caliber of blockbuster films we’ve been watching all summer.  We looked at the reviews and finally decided on ‘Premium Rush‘ over ‘The Bourne Legacy’ or ‘Lawless’.  I figured Joseph Gordon-Levitt has done good work in his previous movies but wasn’t sure how he would fare without a Christopher Nolan and a big name actor beside him.  Still, the concept seemed interesting so we were on for a Premium Rush.

Levitt plays a bike messenger in NYC who, despite having a law degree, chooses the rush of zipping fearlessly through traffic on a gear-less, brake-less bike over sitting in an office.  The story follows Levitt’s character, Wilee, as he attempts to deliver a mystery package that attracts the interest of a dirty cop.  This cop is played by Michael Shannon who does a brilliant job playing this relentless villain.  The action is intense as the camera is often on the bike and the audience experiences the near-misses and traffic nightmares.  Anyone who has experienced crazy Manhattan traffic would cringe during many of the scenes.  The movie was done in an interesting way with a lot of rewinding to explain the back story.  There are snippets of Wilee’s love life thrown in to help us get to know the character better.  It also doesn’t hurt that his love interest is an attractive bike messenger played by Dania Ramirez.

All in all, it was a good movie with a fast pace and a decent story.  I definitely enjoyed it.  Sadly though, in these times of overpriced movie tickets, many good movies like this one are relegated to the DVD category for people like me (limited time and money for entertainment).  When I mentioned to my brother that I was trying to choose a movie for the evening, he said “I’m sure it will be good but since the last movie you watched was ‘The Dark Knight Rises’, nothing will impress you too much”.  I guess that is what happened.  It was a very good movie but lately we’ve only been watching the big blockbuster movies in the theaters.  We wait for the movies with the proven Directors and all the A-list actors and then we’ll pay the overpriced tickets and even splurge for 3D or IMAX.

I feel for the newer actors and the smaller budget films because they don’t get much of a chance against these juggernauts.  Going to the  theater to watch a flick still has it’s own charm and makes the movie itself more likable than watching it at home.   Hopefully people continue to go to the movies for the independent movies, rom-coms, and smaller films because sometimes they surprise you and end up being amazing.  Hopefully the trend of only going to theater for the superhero movies is just a symptom of our bad economy.  Maybe in our difficult times, people just want to pay to watch a super-someone save our world.  When things improve, maybe then we’ll give the regular human characters a bigger chance.  Anyway, we enjoyed our movie night even if it wasn’t a blockbuster!