Before Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s recent onslaught of movies, I knew him as the kid from Angels in the Outfield. I knew he had been in a lot of other movies since Angels in the Outfield, but I didn’t see a movie with him in it until 16 years later when he portrayed Arthur in Inception. When I saw the first trailer for Inception, I thought, ‘Why is the kid from Angels in the Outfield in this serious role?’ I never should have doubted him because he did a spectacular job. He nailed the character while at the same time making himself a very likeable character. He carried that performance into The Dark Knight Rises (With the emotional comedy 50/50 in between). All three of those movies rocked great ratings at Rotten Tomatoes so I’ll go see a Joseph Gordon-Levitt movie as long as the plot seems halfway decent. Gordon-Levitt riding a bike around the busy streets of New York City while being chased by people trying to kill him qualifies as an entertaining plot.

The plot is simple yet entertaining. Gordon-Levitt is a bike messenger in New York City who rides a bike with no breaks. Gordon-Levitt’s character is smart and can get a well-paying job, but he doesn’t like the idea of wearing a suit and sitting at a desk. He would rather live life on the edge because he loves the thrill. Lucky for him, Gordon-Levitt is about to receive a package that will put his life on the line as long as it’s in his hands.

This is one of those movies that keeps flashing back to put all the pieces together, which is cool. It keeps moviegoers on the edge of their seats. It’s also interesting to see Gordon-Levitt go through the routes in his mind. He calculates the safe routes and the routes that would seriously injure or kill him.

Also, the bike riding itself is just awesome. As my friend exited the theatre, he said, “I want to ride a bike right now.” We all rode bikes as a kid and seeing someone do that on the big screen brings you back to your childhood and is just enjoyable. We’ve all played out tricks we’re going to do in our heads or quickly pedaled down the street to our friend’s house at some point in our lives. Premium Rush gives you that thrill that we’ve all experienced and love.

Gordon-Levitt had another solid performance (even though when his character did tricks on his bike it obviously wasn’t Gordon-Levitt on the bike). Everyone else was okay except for the main antagonist. A corrupt cop tries to steal the package from Gordon-Levitt. This character was incredibly annoying and I couldn’t stand him. I don’t know if that’s how he was supposed to act or if he’s a bad actor, but it just didn’t work.

THE BOTTOM LINE: I wouldn’t go buy Premium Rush on DVD when it comes out, but if I saw it on TV or wanted to get a Redbox movie I’d watch it. It provides thrilling entertainment and a strong performance by a solid actor.

I’ll give Premium Rush 3 out of 5 cups.

As of August 30, Premium Rush made a domestic total of approximately $8 million versus a production budget of $35 million, according to Box Office Mojo.

Premium Rush has a rating of 75% at Rotten Tomatoes while users at the Internet Movie Database gave it 7 out of 10 stars.

To see the movie trailer for Premium Rush, click here.