I didn't know if this should go here, or in mainstream, but anyone reading this section should take a look at this film.

What an insane movie. The basic plot, for those not knowing is that hitman Chev Chelios (Statham) is injected with a poison with no cure. It's much more colorfully described in the film then I'm allowed to here. The only thing that can keep him alive is adrenalin. And so ensues 85 min. of Staham going completely ape$@!# all over town, and on those responsible. Even taking time out to grab his girlfriend and... well, better you see the movie not to spoil the fun.

It does lose it's focus about 2/3 of the way through, and director's Mark Neveldine and
Brian Taylor seem to think that jerky editing, crash zooms and odd flashes are still the happening thing today, but overall, this is one of the nuttiest, over the top films I've seen in a mainstream release in a very long time. Completely lunatic, and very fun. And funny, too.

D.O.A. meets SPEED! It probably sold itself.

You know, I hadn't thought of that, but that's an excellent way to describe it.

I guess we had it coming.

This is easily the most fun I've had at a movie all summer. With movies like SUPERMAN RETURNS and PIRATES 2 (both of which I enjoyed) taking themselves a might too seriously, it's nice to have a good bit of pure, morally reprehensible id like this.

I mean, why not? Pure exploitation for the ADD generation served up with a huge helping of style.

What's nice about it is how it manages little nuggets of cleverness in the service of an intentionally ridiculous plot.

I've always believed that Oliver Stoner wanted to deliver a pure, shallow bit of exploitation in the NATURAL BORN KILLERS style with U-TURN and to my mind, he failed. I've always hated that movie.

CRANK is the movie he might've been going for.

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Addendum:

I went in totally sober this morning and left the theater with a funny look in my eye (I'm sure).

I was explaining it to the guys at the comic book shop and accidentally elbowed a card game display.

Later, when I was at Record & Tape Traders, trying to buy the soundtrack from the smarmy, pompous stoner chick who insisted on confiscating my comic books while a middle aged woman was trying to butt in front of me...

...I had a moment where I realized that the movie had induced a kind of flashback to my own chemically fueled past.

Irritably, I tried to buy the cd, get my comics back and leave the store in as polite a fashion as possible (although the woman trying to butt in front of me and the stoner cashier's smarmy comment about my comics made it difficult) and get out into the fresh air.

CRANK is a dangerous movie.

I loved it.

POSSIBLE MILD SPOILERS


This would make a great double feature with this year's earlier RUNNING SCARED. CRANK is completely bonkers and over-the-top in every conceivable way. This is one of those rare instances where the garish camera tricks didn't bother me--it seemed logical in the context of what's going on in Statham's mind and body, unlike say, Tony Scott's MAN ON FIRE, where the hyperkinetic camerawork was just pointless.

CRANK was obviously made with the intent of being a prefab cult movie, but hey, so what? I had a great time. Favorite sights included the public sex, the car on the escalator, not one, but the TWO best uses of the "dead body as shield" move since TOTAL RECALL, Statham pointing a gun at a guy having a heart attack in the hospital ("I'm not gonna tell you again! Shut up!"), the back-alley bloodbath set to Loverboy's "Turn Me Loose," and a brilliant use of Jefferson Starship's "Miracles." Memorable lines: "Thanks, boss!" (during the big shootout, with the grendade), and Statham's soon-to-be-legendary "Bonjour, douchebag!"

I can't recall the last film I've seen that had such little regard for human life and simple standards of decency. In other words, a must-see!

Wow! That should be the DVD blurb!

Awesome from start to finish. Mind-boggingly awesome, in fact.

I was gonna say more, but really, words fail me. A must-see movie.

doug

Doug, you summed it up perfectly. This was possibly the best time I had at a movie theater all year.

Statham's really filled a much-needed void. He has become, literally, The Last Action Hero. No one else is headlining action flicks that go to theaters. Sure, Van Damme, Snipes, Seagal, and Seagal's double are finding plenty of work in UK/Romanian co-productions that go straight to DVD, but Statham's the only one doing the stuff Schwarzenegger and Stallone, and to a lesser extent, Norris and Bronson used to do. He's got a great screen presence, can deliver a one-liner like the best of them, and I've thoroughly enjoyed both TRANSPORTER flicks and now, CRANK. I look forward to his next headlining action outing.

Statham's next flick ROGUE also promises to be keeper because it teams him up with Jet Li! That is scheduled to come out in the spring.

ROGUE should be good. Unfortunately, I just remembered that Statham is starring in the next Uwe Boll opus IN THE NAME OF THE KING: A DUNGEON SIEGE TALE or something to that effect. Ugh.

ARGH! I completely blocked that film from my memory. Here is the "amazing" trailer for anyone who wants to feel the pain.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U17xyWru6To

Well, I guess Jason Statham is the new last action hero in the same way that Pat Boone and The Crew Cuts were the new rhythm and blues sensation in the 1950s and Vanilla Ice was the new voice in rap in the 1990s and Donny Osmond was the new funky and charismatic kid pop idol with the older brothers backing him up in the 1970s.

Although his movies are fun, they still look to me like retreads in white face of much superior movies from Hong Kong in the 80s and 90s - Yuen Biao, Sammo Hung, stunt driver Blackie Ko, and many other artists far exceeded the artistry and spectacle of any movies featuring Statham's work, and on the current scene, I do not believe Statham is worthy of carrying Tony Jaa's coat and opening the door for him when Jaa goes out to a restaurant which serves Tomyungong.

Still, I'll see CRANK and I bet I'll have a nice time.

Wow, thanks for that link. What a cast. This reminds me of all those Italian spectacles I saw as a kid where you had Hollywood stars like Stewart Granger, Alan Ladd, Victor Mature, Jack Palance, Guy Madison, Cameron Mitchell...you name them, dressed in outlandish costumes and cavorting around Cinecitta's Ancient Rome backlot or the wilds of Yugoslavia or Spain, or wherever they filmed the battle scenes. So instead of Palance, we get Jason Statham; instead of Mitchell, we get Ray Liotta, and instead of Alan Ladd, we get Burt Reynolds. And instead of Rossana Podesta or Sylva Koscina, we get Kristanna Loken. Is that such a bad thing? Why not a return to those kinds of films in our local theaters? (Provided they're not 150 minutes long as this one threatens to be, according to IMDB. 90 minutes will be just fine.)

Thanks to everyone for bringing CRANK to my attention. I've not enjoyed a movie this much for years. Statham is perfect, all the supporting cast are good (Dwight Yoakam is carving out a niche in crazy supporting turns) and all the jokes work. I particularly liked the subtitle gag.

The BBFC warning says 'Contains strong violence, language and drug use', which is a considerable understatement. Perhaps they ran out of words.

There is no better way to describe it. I caught it this afternoon and it is an insanely fun film. This is the kinda film where Tsui Hark would shake his head and say, "Too much! Too much!" It reminded me a bit of RUN LOLA RUN (although not nearly as good as that) and a lot of this year's earlier RUNNING SCARED. In fact, this delivered more on RUNNING SCARED's potential than that film did. I say that because

MAJOR SPOILERS

CRANK wasn't afraid to have the lead be a bad guy who does bad things (as opposed to SCARED's he really is a good guy twist) and had the guts to have him die in the end. And what a way to die!

END SPOILERS

My only gripe is the editing and some photography. The film had to have that action shakey cam and hyper editing that I hate so much. I believe it would have been possible to convey his frenzied state while still maintaining a film that didn't need a cut every 1/2 second.

I've read several articles over the years stating that, for some reason, action movies tend to do better in Canada than in the U.S. The success of CRANK in Canada certainly backs this up as it has been the #1 movie in this country for two weekends in a row! On top of that, THE PROTECTOR finished second last weekend. Images of Big Jim McBob and Billy Sol Hurok come to mind. ;-)

I saw Crank yesterday and completely loved it. It's everything I'd hoped Running Scared would be but wasn't (& for some of the reasons mentioned above) - just completely over-the-top, beyond-human-decency action. Like discovering Hong Kong films in the late 80s. Made me both laugh out loud (the tossed-off subtitle gag, deliberately ludicrous mall car chase) and cringe. Solid music plus the premise was played out completely as given.