Posted: 09/10/2006

Crank

(2006)

by Tony Liccardello

You’ve been injected with a serum that is slowly poisoning your body, and the only way stay alive is to keep up your adrenaline. Whether it is red bull, cocaine, burning yourself with a waffle iron, or driving a car through a mall, a man has got to do whatever it takes to keep himself alive. A simple plot, yet this story is all about the execution, the style, and the relentless action. Crank should be getting Snakes On A Plane-like buzz because it is one of the more entertaining action flicks you’ll see this year.

Jason Stathm stars at Chev Chelios, a hit-man who’s had enough. But you just don’t go quitting your job if you’re in the profession of ending lives. A group of Chinese baddies

inject him with the cocktail of death and Chelios must keep his adrenaline going or his heart will stop. So Chelios decides to find make his final act a mission to kill the assclowns that did this to him in the first place. Oh, and he will kill anyone that stands in his way.

Once Chelios learns of various ways to keep himself going, he must up the ante each time. Cocaine can only hold you over for so long. Then it becomes packs of energy pills, or multiple cans of redbull. He moves onto ephedrine and eventually the ultimate, a 200 joule shock from a Defibrillator.

The soundtrack, editing techniques, and hand-held camera style all work together to create a purely kinetic action flick. And yes, the film is over the top, sometimes cheesy, and bloody violent as all hell but I loved every minute of it. Limbs get chopped off, heads get blown off, it is an ultra violent fantasy that keeps a dark sense of humor. And sure it is seems a Tony Scott film had sex with a Guy Ritchie one, but the film never really takes itself that seriously to care. This is style over substance, one that you can have fun with and laugh at. Its 87 minute running time is perfect, and feels far shorter. It is a nonstop action flick with a few brief pauses, like to introduce Chelios’s girlfriend (Amy Smart), or the hilarious public sex scene in front of a crowd of people in Chinatown.

Now don’t expect an action masterpiece or a serious one either. This isn’t Michael Mann. It throws in a few clichés (True Romance inspired closure) and has some cheese one-liners. Unlike my reviewing counterpart, I was not expecting a serious flick, which definitely could have changed my experience. But seriously now, when one of the directors last gig was the visual effect creator of the ‘extreme sequences’ of Biker Boyz, what can you really expect. Hell, they used Google Earth in the movie! But if you are looking to for senseless action and some good fun, Crank is a good way to end the summer. You don’t have to think to hard, lots of shit blows up, and an Amy Smart sex scene.

Grade: 4 out of 5 stars

Tony Liccardello is a film critic in the Midwest.

Got a problem? E-mail us at filmmonthly@gmail.com