A couple of bicycle movies are showing on the big screen this weekend. One, Premium Rush, is an action thriller featuring bike messengers tearing around the streets of Manhattan. It opens in theaters nationwide on Friday.
The other, Rad, is the 1986 BMX classic featured Saturday night at the 7th annual Northwest Film Forum Bike-In at Cal Anderson Park.
As you can see from the trailer above, Premium Rush relies on chase scenes for its action, something pretty commonplace in movies today.
But several early reviews give it good marks, such as Chicago Tribune’s Michael Phillips who calls it “the thinking person’s mindless entertainment.” There are plenty of stunts, he writes, but instead of performed with computer-generated graphics, “Most of the insanity looks vaguely humanly possible. An impressive cadre of stunt riders earned their keep on the film… .
Film reviewer Randy Myers at the San Jose Mercury News admits to being a bicycle enthusiast and thus a member of the audience at whom this “cyclist porn” is directed. He continues:
“That said, I’m also well-acquainted with the rules of the road for good filmmaking. And “Rush” cycles through all the B-movie essentials expertly, sprinting ahead late in the summer movie race to deliver one of the season’s best surprises.”
I was worried this might be more in the realm of the 1986 dud, “Quicksilver,” another bike messenger movie set in San Francisco but filmed mostly in New York City. Although they both feature lots of chase scenes, I suppose the resemblance ends with the addition of a quality script for rush.
While “Premium Rush” is opening in theaters, the 1986 BMX movie “Rad” will be shown on Saturday night at an outdoor screen at Cal Anderson Park in Seattle.
This is the seventh year that the Northwest Film Forum has celebrated sustainable transportation at the park. The event features live music and DJs, the film and a fair with booths from local cycling organizations and merchants.
The fair opens at 5 p.m. followed by music from Space Needles, Vox Mod and Glitterbang starting at 7 p.m. The film starts at 9:30.
Here’s a trailer from the film. It’s refreshing to know that this movie also was created before computers became a mainstay of action films; all the stunts were performed by real people.
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