In the grand pantheon of bicycle chase movies [1], 'Premium Rush' will surely rank highly for decades to come. It's a bizarre hybrid of a movie that was held back for some time due to legal difficulties apparently and suffers from a mix of over realism and abortive emotional arcs. Ultimately, if you nickname your lead character Wiley Coyote you expect something a little more in the 'Wacky Races' category than what we get. Yet, and this is a genuine 'yet', in the shadow of 'Looper' this silly bicycle chase movie seems so much better. For, you see, I am the one person in a thousand that didn't like 'Looper'. 'Premium Rush' has an element of dopey fun to it, a seam that could have been so much richer, that 'Looper' could have had and exploited to the hilt and didn't.
There'll be more on 'Looper' later but for now we'll think about a bicycle courier in New York who has unknowingly been entrusted with the underground Chinese version of a credit slip for fifty thousand dollars and is delivering it to ensure a woman son is smuggled into the country to be with her. He's being chased by a crooked cop out to get the slip and repay his gambling debts or be offed, and Wiley is having troubles with his wavering girlfriend and a dopey rival courier. This is what unfolds as the movie goes on in its non-linear time structure, which is done very well, and we learn as he learns and tries to cut through the plot tangles. Oh, and there's a bike cop too, but he knows when to throw in the towel.
Maybe a good movie needs to have subtext, even the dopey cheesy ones, unless that's something I need more than I used to. Looking back on some of my favourite movies they do have subtext, something to make a nonlinear plot work on several levels instead of one. The times when 'Premium Rush' and indeed 'Looper' too worked best were when several layers were kicking on at once, and those were rare. On the whole though, the lightness of 'Premium Rush' makes it a far more enjoyable movie than 'Looper' with its po-faced seriousness and occasional gore. But oh, it could have been a much better movie if he pulled out the bike tricks earlier and Coyoted it a bit more, and if the cavalry rescue at the end were more exhilarating, and if we cared just a little more. Just a little more. Wilee emotional arc, such as it is, is coming to a realisation that one day he will have to suit up and use his law degree, eschewing the bike courier thrills. His love interest's arc is the reverse, that maybe she should enjoy things more, and the rival doesn't learn anything. Oh, and the bad guy ends up badder and then dead.
But why review these movies together? What is the unifying factor? Joseph Gordon-Levitt (JGL), the modern everyman, ties them together with solid and believable performances in each which never transcent into charismatic turns. This is the year of JGL, as we can put 'The Dark Knight Rises' on his roll too, and he deserves it but he almost needs to bring back some of the hamminess of '3rd Rock From The Sun'. He's solid and remarkable in his steadiness.
'Looper' is a funny film, rather gun-happy and bloody, and really not as complex a time travel movie as I'd like. In fact, there were many times where I was anticipating turns and tricks which the movie was too simple for. It seems as if we're in an era of po-faced serious movies and ridiculous comedies with nothing imbetween, as if everyday humour has been phased out of everyday films. It's as if the 70s came back and sucked out everything everything colourful from the 60s all over again.
Perhaps I was expecting too much from a movie about a hitman in a crime-governed future who kills people sent back in time from the even further future until the person sent back is himself and then it all goes splat. Guns, Bruce Willis, swearing and blood then ensue and the essential zaniness of a time travel movie is neglected. This is very much a Bruce Willis movie in spirit and it shows. It actually starts wonderfully as we see scenes from the different points of view and experiences of Young Joe (JGL) and Older Joe (Bruce Willis) and then it careens off the rails with its lack of heart. Again, and I harp on this too much, where's the heart! In lots of contemporary blockbusters where is the heart! In this movie, JGL's character starts off as a junkie jerk and ends up sacrificing himself to save the future and a small boy and yet we don't care about him. We actually care more about Older Joe in many ways, and that reflects on the charisma of Bruce Willis and I think on how we connect more to people who display humour. Perhaps that is what holds JGL back, in that he never gets to display humour. Thinking back on 'Inception', 'Dark Knight Rises' and these two movies he plays it straight and we don't care as much as we ought to.
I don't want to be too hard on 'Looper' though, as it's a technically excellent movie, with a really neat concept that just wasn't made in line with my sensibilities. That doesn't make it a bad movie, only one I don't like so much. The prosthetics applied to make JGL resemble Willis are kind of annoying and cut into his performance, the kid is pretty creepy, the story has a lot of potential for multiple levels which don't materialise, and it's all pretty glossy. In a way the detachment is due to Joe starting off as a selfish junkie but as he recovers we don't grow close to him as he humanises and instead remain distant. Hence any progress he makes doesn't feel real, and his final sacrifice doesn't really make sense. Old Joe's journey isn't a journey as he doesn't change his path at all and ultimately has to be wiped out. In a way, Future Joe could have had a brilliant arc, sacrificing his life and love, showing the watch to Present Joe, and sacrificing for the greater good. It could have been the final act of redemption for a selfish selfish person, and it didn't happen. Instead he's erased. Future Joe's erasure brings us to temporal mechanics.
Time travel in movies never makes sense and the paradox here is so enormous that it's really hard to explain away. JGL kills himself so BW doesn't come back in time to commit the act that wrecks the future. If BW doesn't come back then there's no reason for most of the film's events to happen and Joe continues on his original path and then BW comes back. This is the paradox. The easy way out is normally to say that future Joe has jumped into a new timeline and all his history is there in a separate universe. So future Joe is an extra-dimensional artefact and he's saving a universe not his own and that's why his own motivations and history and mission remains intact. That can't be though as present Joe is changing future Joe's memories and history and kills himself and himself. And that makse no sense. Neither an alternate timeline/universe not a pre-destined time loop and so nonsense. If future Joe is connected to present Joe then these monumental changes will totally alter his 30 years of interim life!
Time to sum up: 'Looper' is technically excellent with a cool concept but rather grim and glossy and will be popular with a lot of people. 'Premium Rush' is technically flawed, sillier, has dopey subplots but is slightly more fun for me personally. On the whole, go see 'Looper', but don't expect temporal coherence.
<Crikey, mammoth post>
[1]: Of which this is presumably the first. Subsequent note: There may be a movie called 'Quicksilver' featuring Kevin Bacon.
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