The skeleton of “Premium Rush” is as old as the movies: a chase. It’s how the skeleton is fleshed out that makes the movie such loopy, crazed, dangerous fun.

Writer/ director David Koepp mixes sharp dialog, a hip tone and top-flight actors to create a nail-biting, seat-squirming thriller about a bike messenger. It’s an escapist blast.

The film stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, whose presence these days is almost a guarantee of a great movie. He plays Wilee, nicknamed after the tenacious coyote in the Road Runner cartoons. He’s plenty smart, a Columbia Law School grad, but he’s addicted to the parkour-on-wheels adrenaline surge of dodging death on Manhattan’s chaotic streets.