Thrusting the viewer right into the world of New York City bicycle messengers, you wouldn’t be wrong if you assumed that Premium Rush was an adrenaline fueled ride through one of America’s greatest cities by way of two wheels. However, by mixing up too many different plot elements, and not entirely deciding on a deadly serious or tongue in cheek tone, the movie falters, and may just be one of the worst releases of 2012.

Told in a non-chronological style, our movie starts with bicycle messenger and our lead, Wilee (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) crashing into a car and being flung into the street. The movie moves backwards from there to establish how Wilee got into such a crash.  He’s quite the devil-may-care messenger, considered one of the best in the game. Perhaps this is because he rides without brakes?  He gets his deliveries, he gets them to their destinations quick, and wouldn’t you know it, with one unique parcel - everything goes wrong.  To elaborate upon that would illuminate the entire plot from there, so lets just say the final package involves a flamboyant rival named Manny, an NYPD detective with a gambling problem, a love triangle where none of the participants have ANY chemistry at all, a Chinese crime ring, a surprise cameo by Sleigh Bells and another role for Aasif Mandvi where he serves no purpose but to yell at delivery people.

Sure, the movie has its brighter moments - I really enjoyed the on screen maps, and the “messenger vision” moments where Wilee ponders different biking paths were well done, but with a very uneven level of pacing and acting, it’s very hard to completely immerse yourself into them. Levitt seems to take the role very seriously, and isn’t awful as the lead.  His on-screen romance with Vanessa (Dania Ramirez) is hardly believable, and the character seems to have been added via a studio note demanding an insert for any female audience members who are dragged into seeing the film with their boyfriends.  From there, depending on your perspective, either the worst or the best part of the movie is the antagonist, Detective Robert Monday (Michael Shannon). Either he completely blows the film with his over the top acting, or is the only one to realize how much better the movie would have been if it were an 80’s style actioner, versus, well…whatever it ended up being.  At least Michael Shannon looked like he had a good time.

Looking over the resume of writer/director David Koepp, he certainly has had his hits (writing credits on Jurassic Park and Spider-Man) and misses (directoral credits on Secret Window and Ghost Town). I just wish a consistent tone could have been met - had this been taken as seriously as Commando, perhaps Premium Rush would have been a far more enjoyable film. As it stands, the film has its brighter moments, but is an uninvolving mess.  Better luck next time, everyone.