The bike messenger as action hero: Hollywood has been trying to pull off that trick since 1986's Quicksilver with Kevin Bacon. Didn't work then, and it's not working now. Still, you have to hand it to Premium Rush, which has the kinetic whoosh to keep you spinning. A game-for-anything Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as Wilee, the top daredevil among New York's bike messengers. Hell, his bike has no brakes. And writer-director David Koepp sets us up for a rush in real time as Wilee makes a run from uptown to Chinatown to deliver a life-or-death ticket (don't ask). Wilee hits every obstacle, especially a cartoonish, crooked cop (Michael Shannon, going way over-the-top). Premium Rush features fearless stunt work that shames most computer trickery. Too bad I didn't believe a minute of it.

This review was updated on August 24, 2012.

“I Can See for Miles”

A foreboding accusation of lies and deception, "I Can See for Miles" was given a psychedelic hard-rock veneer by Pete Townshend's whiplash guitar riffs and Keith Moon's thundering drums. The song helped break the Who as stars in the United States, giving them a Top Ten hit in late 1967. "I swoon when I hear the sound," boasted Townshend in Rolling Stone. "The words, which aging senators have called 'drug oriented,' are about a jealous man with exceptionally good eyesight. Honest."