Crank
| Year: | 2006 |
| Production Co: | Lakeshore |
| Director: | Neveldine/Taylor |
| Writer: | Neveldine/Taylor |
| Cast: | Jason Statham, Amy Smart, Dwight Yoakam |
It looked like a bad out-of-blockbuster-season action movie in the vein of Torque and similar lesser efforts, and for the most part it was, but directors Neveldine and Taylor (whatever that means) give it just enough rough edges in the film stock, visuals and style so that it forcibly wrings some credibility out of a completely incredible concept.
Chev (Statham) is a mobster's minion in LA who wakes up to find an enemy of his boss has broken into his house, knocked him unconscious and injected him with a poison that will kill him if he doesn't keep his heart rate up.
A producer of action movies must have seen dollars signs when they gave the pitch; everything dumb teen audiences love about movies, and every cliché of the genre comes hard-wired into the script; sex scenes, driving too fast, chases and shootouts. And they all come handily packaged in a variety of cinematic LA locales; the mobsters pool deck crawling with bikini babes, the downtown titty bar full of gangbangers; they're all here.
Statham builds upon his loud but less-than dramatic reputation and does a fine job of it, and the movie gives you everything it promises in a fairly unexpected way.
Chev (Statham) is a mobster's minion in LA who wakes up to find an enemy of his boss has broken into his house, knocked him unconscious and injected him with a poison that will kill him if he doesn't keep his heart rate up.
A producer of action movies must have seen dollars signs when they gave the pitch; everything dumb teen audiences love about movies, and every cliché of the genre comes hard-wired into the script; sex scenes, driving too fast, chases and shootouts. And they all come handily packaged in a variety of cinematic LA locales; the mobsters pool deck crawling with bikini babes, the downtown titty bar full of gangbangers; they're all here.
Statham builds upon his loud but less-than dramatic reputation and does a fine job of it, and the movie gives you everything it promises in a fairly unexpected way.