Movie review: 'Premium Rush'

Joseph Gordon-Levitt (“50/50, “The Dark Knight Rises”) gives us a likable young daredevil to root for as Wilee (nickname: the Coyote Man), the best of the Big Apple's agile, steel-nerved bicycle messengers, dodging and darting around speeding cars, combative cabbies and eight million peeved pedestrians on his “fixie” — a super lightweight, single-gear bike with no brakes — doggedly committed to delivering urgent packages and messages to their designated recipients in a minimum amount of time. Nothing stays this courier from the swift completion of his appointed rounds.

Nothing, that is, except maybe a dirty cop with impulse control issues.

Enter Michael Shannon (“Boardwalk Empire,” “Take Shelter,” “Revolutionary Road”) intense and electric as ever as Bobby Monday, a police detective who's desperate to get his hands on an envelope Wilee's been assigned to deliver to a certain party by 7 p.m. It's a package that could rid gambling addict Bobby of a debt owed to some very rough players who run a high-stakes Pai Gow game in Chinatown.

When Bobby first confronts Wilee, claiming the sender wants the envelope back, Wilee responds: “Yeah, the thing is, once it goes in the bag, it's gotta stay in the bag.”