>>REVIEW
CRANK
STARRING: Jason Statham, Amy Smart and Jose Pablo Cantillo
DIRECTED BY: Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor
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Crank is kind of like Speed meets Fantastic Voyage, with one of the coolest character names in recent years. Chev Chelios (Jason Statham) is a hitman poisoned with a drug that will kill him when his adrenalin level drops too low. With only hours to live, he must find a way to save himself, kick some serious ass and spend some quality time with his girlfriend.
What follows is approximately 90 minutes of driving, running, jumping, chasing, shooting and everything else first-time feature directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor can throw at Chev to keep his heart-a-pumping. Showing a great comedic side to his action man persona, Statham easily mixes in humour with all the crazy stunts, giving audiences an entertaining range of spectacles from sewing machine wounds to hospital gown hard-ons.
The villains are plain, cookie-cutter bad guys, but that’s all the movie really needs, just a simple reason for Chev to run amok in the city, ranting, raving and being generally pissy about his situation. Dwight Yoakam pops up in a great supporting role, as does Efren Ramirez (or Pedro to all the Napoleon Dynamite fans out there). Amy Smart as Chev’s girlfriend is a naive and generally dim-witted girl being dragged along for the ride and into one of the movie’s more memorable scenes. That particular bit of fun, some blood and guts and a trunk load of F-bombs garners Crank a well-deserved 18A rating, so keep the adrenalin junkie kiddies at home.
About halfway through Crank, it’s discovered that sniffing copious amounts of nasal spray will be helpful in aiding Chev on his cinematic mission and there’s a distinct feeling that this is the same route taken by everyone in the editing suite when cutting the movie together. Its visual style is perfectly suited to Chev’s quest to keep his rush peaked, giving a definite purpose to all the hand-held, quick-cutting flash frames and general visual mayhem, but at some points it’s still a bit overwhelming and distracting.
For those who can mentally balance themselves enough to get through its shooting and editing style, Crank comes out as a fun, streamlined vehicle for Jason Statham, who now definitely holds the title belt for the screen’s best "I’m coming over there to kick your ass" walk. |
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