The Walk

Philippe Petit is a French high-wire artist who gained fame in the year 1974 for his high-wire walk between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. “The Walk” revolves around his tentative beginning and his eventual love affair with the Twin Towers.

A French accented Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Philippe Petit with earnest. With a well sketched out character at hand, he manages to resonate the emotions fittingly. His chemistry with Charlotte Le Bon (as Annie) was charming while his interaction with Ben Kingsley (as Papa Rudy) were brilliant. Kingsley as expected was a scene stealer while Charlotte Le Bon was rather substandard.

Premium Rush

Fifteen hundred bike couriers populate Manhattan making deliveries on a daily basis. Among them, an ex-law student Wilee (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who works for a delivery company named Security Courier finds himself more at home on a brakeless fixed-gear steel-frame bike than behind a desk doing a 9-to-5 job. For his last job for the day, Wilee picks up an extremely important package that brings him face to face with a twisted NYC cop, Detective Bobby Monday (Michael Shannon) ensuing a game of cat and mouse.

A refreshing change from big budget sequels or remakes, Premium Rush may run short on a meagre script but rides high on adrenaline. Director and co-writer, David Koepp films the scenes on the streets of NYC with a lot of in-your-face camera work, putting you in the thick of the action or in this case, the seat of the rider. Even though CGI seemed to be on a shoe-string budget, the way it is used doesn’t detract us from the action but adds a nice twist to proceedings and even sometimes leading to some comical conclusions.