Film: Crank
Genre: Action
Release Date: September 1st, 2006
Distributor: Lions Gate
MPAA Rating: R
Running Time: 1 hrs. 23 min.
Review by Dack, Sirus, Kiwi, Thecoojo, Overburn

Starring:
Jason Statham
Amy Smart

Dack's Take;

I walked into crank expecting an 80 minute adrenaline rush. I walked out of the theatre just having experienced an 80 minute adrenaline rush.

Jason Statham. If you hear that name, you know some asskicking is about to happen. This movie is no different. Crank is shot in real time, the movie starting when he wakes up poisoned and ends with him either living or dying, 80 minutes later. Of course, he goes faster then sonic the hedgehog on speed, after finding out that he got poisoned with a beijin cocktail, and if he stops his adrenaline, he dies. And Chev Chilios (Statham) is not messing around. He will drive fast, kill, hurt, fight, and have sex with his beautiful girlfriend (Amy Smart) to keep his adrenaline up, so he can settle the score with the man who poisoned him.

Altough only 80 minutes long, there is alot of story told in the movie, mostly through phone calls, while driving or running. Alot of cool new unique film techneques were used in Crank. One of which is showing random words at random times that people say. Another one that was really cool, is showing the person on the other end of the phone on walls, review mirrors, and other objects. Makes you feel weird, just like Chev feels weird.

The action is top notch, however there are not many martial art fights like statham's previous serious, Transporter. The Martial Art fights are instead replaced with gun fights, and plain brutal beat 'em up brawls. Crank has alot of humor in it too, I laughed on multiple occations, one of which was a graphic (hot) sex scene between Jason Statham and Amy Smart. Crank has one of the coolest endings I've ever scene, I don't want to spoil it, but trust me, it rocks.

Crank Reminded me alot of a Video Game, mostly action but with good story. Crank wasn't quite as perfect as earlier action movie "District B13" (Reviewed 5/5), but it was definatly up there with it. The only problem I had with crank, is that I was hoping for some martial arts type fights, that put you in awe, but most of the fight scenes didn't reinvent the action genre. But let me put this simply, if you want to go see the last good summer movie, do yourself a favor, and crank up the action in your life.

Dack's Rating: 4.5/5 Stars

Sirus's Take;

Crank is the perfect end of summer thrill ride that does everything it sets out to do and leaves you feeling energized. The movie starts you out with a bang. Chev Chelios wakes up feeling like shit and stumbles around for a bit in first person until he sees a DVD standing next to his DVD player that says FUCK YOU in nice bold letters. Chev puts the DVD in and sees Ricky Verona on his TV revealing to him that he only has one hour to live because he was shot up with some synthetic Chinese drug.

Chev goes ballistic with this news, breaks tons of things in his apartment and drives out of the parking garage going as fast as he can. As he gets out on the road, he starts to realize that the drug in him loses some of its effects on him when he experiences adrenaline. Throughout the rest of the movie, Chev doesn’t slow down more then he has to while he goes on his mission of revenge.

The movie totally earns its R rating with a good amount of breasts and a sex scene that doesn’t show much nudity but is still fun. There is also drug use and of course a ton of bloody violence to satisfy everyone’s bloodlust. For what it sets out to do, the movie does it perfectly. Crank makes it clear from the beginning of the movie that Chev is going to die and Chev makes it clear that he is going to take out everyone who screwed him over before he dies. The movie is light on story which gives you plenty of time to focus on what I would consider some of the best action we have seen in a movie recently even better then District B-13. This movie is a must see for adrenaline and violence junkies and people who want a non stop fast moving action flick without all that boring slow stuff in between.

Sirus's Rating: 5/5 Stars

Thecoojo's take;

Ok, lets see here. Crank is it? Oh yeah, I think I’ve heard of that. Isn’t it that one SUPER AWESOMELY COOL MOVIE!! Yes, that’s right, I saw Crank. And I have to say, I want to see it again. I am putting this movie in the category of best action movie of 06 so far. The movie follows the story of Chev Chilious, a mafia hit man that has just been poisoned and has to execute his revenge on the person responsible before the poison takes It effect. The catch is that the poison kills you by screwing up your adrenal receptors, therefor slowing down and eventually stopping the amount of adrenaline you receive. The only way Chev can stay alive is to keep going and keep doing crazy shit to keep the adrenaline pumping. That’s pretty much the gist of the story and many people will say that it sounds like it sucks and its way to simple, but you would be surprised, it is actually really good.

The action in the movie is incredible. As some of you may know Jason Statham does all of his own stunts, and he is damn good at them. They range from fight scenes to car chases to running around a hospital in a hospital gown.

The acting, is also surprisingly good, even I had to admit that I didn’t expect much in this category but I was wrong, of course Jason Statham can act but all of the supporting characters played and fit into their roles extremely well.

So overall, I thought this movie was incredibly good and would recommend it to anyone. If you haven’t seen it yet then STOP READING THIS REVIEW AND GO SEE IT. NOW!!! That is all.

Thecoojo's Rating: 5/5 Stars

Kiwi's take:

What's with R-rated movies of the summer? Snakes on a Plane, Beerfest, and new release Crank... is there any R-rated movie that actually tries to take itself seriously anymore?!

Thankfully not. Oh-so-thankfully not. Crank is one of the best movies of this summer, no joke. If I were to put everything together, I believe Crank is actually classified as an action/comedy/romantic comedy (given one certain well-mentioned sex scene in Chinatown... which is actually funny as hell)... but whatever it is, it's great. I suppose I don't need to recap the storyline again, but what I will mention is the excellent directorial work of Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor... I don't know what else these guys have done, but every moment of Crank, adrenaline rushed or not, looks fantastic. Things start to blur and get distorted and there's a sort of pastel look to the scenes whenever Chev (Statham) is feeling near-death, and yet things get sharp and jumpy whenever he's on a rage/sex/fear-fueled adrenaline rush. It's really genius; they'll also do stuff like have footage of people on the other line (Chev's almost always on his cell phone for assistance from friends and a doctor and whatnot) be put into the walls of what would regularly be a very boring scene - walking around some back alleys of a mall, for example. They'll also throw in little jokes at the bottom, such as spelling out big words or showing their pronounciation at the bottom of the screen if Chev doesn't get it the first time around.

The movie's also got a great sense of playing out like a video game, which the screenwriters must've had in mind when they wrote this: Chev's cover job that he tells his girlfriend is that he's a video game designer, and the opening credits to the film are done a la 80s-style arcade screen. Honestly, it's 86 minutes of arcade style action: robbing convenience stores for energy food to stay alive, getting to "play longer" if you do crazier crap, and stuff like that. Now, as a gamer, I love, well, games, which is why I loved Crank. It's so unserious, and just... everything about it is so unreal and yet so cool... and the ending is fantastic. I'm not talking about like cliched happy ending or anything either. You'll see it coming from a mile away, perhaps, but... well, if I say anymore, I'm going to spoil it, I think, so I'll stop talking about it and just say it's played out really, really well. Better than I was expecting, in any case.

Actling in these kinds of movies isn't exactly necessary, perhaps; some fights, some explosions, some corny dialogue, resolution, fin. I wasn't really looking for much well-thought out dialogue or motivation while I was watching it, and yet the film still delivered above and beyond what I'd've ever thought for. Throughout all of the scenes in the film - comedic, action, and drama - Statham really delivers. He's one of those actors who can make you laugh like a madman one minute as he's doing crazy crap on a bike and then cringe the next as he has fun with a meat cleaver and a certain thug. The Italian Job and The Transporters really only showed him demonstrate awesome kung-fu and badassness in its prime, but Crank is, to me, one of Statham's best films to date. Even the supporting cast and people who show up for roughly five minutes in the film seem to do better than I'd expect for a popcorn flick like this... nothing Oscar-worthy, perhaps, but still some superb acting by just about everyone.

Also, just as a quick note to clear up: Crank doesn't appear to be filmed in real-time, as some were claiming. There's some clocks on the TV channcels that show the actual events progress longer than 86 minutes. However, it -does- all happen in one day, if that helps matters. That's gotta be one hell of a day.

I'd been deliberating about Crank's score for a bit of a while before I wrote this - while I do believe the film is excellent in its video-gamish qualities, the lack of any real martial arts fights had me kinda down from calling it perfect. But after looking back on the film as a whole and all of the great moments in it, I say martial shmartial. Crank's a must-see for anyone who grew up in the video game era.

Kiwi's Rating: 5/5 Stars

Final Rating (Rounded up): 5/5 Stars