15 Best Action Movies Of The Last 10 Years

The only bicycle-based film on this list, Premium Rush turns the bicycle courier business into a life or death operation. Joseph Gordon Levitt plays Wilee, a reckless delivery boy with a need for speed and two wheels with which to achieve it. Tasked with delivering a mysterious package, he is pursued across New York City by a crooked cop (Michael Shannon) who’ll stop at nothing to intercept the drop off.

Bicycling hasn’t seemed this dramatic since E.T, with Wilee risking his neck dodging in and out of traffic for the sheer thrill of it. The breakneck chase sequences are the high spots of the film, successfully elevating the courier job to a position of high drama. The whiplash camerawork turns it into a noble profession.

Better still are the performances, best of all Michael Shannon as the snarling villain. There are few actors who give you more bang for your buck than Shannon, and this is a typically livewire performance from the rangy thespian.

Premium Rush sank somewhat without a trace on release, but it’s the sort of film which is destined for cult revaluation in years to come.