"Crank" is a high concept action movie aimed at boys for whom Bruckheimer movies aren't manic enough. The concept: A hit-man is inserted with a drug that slowly kills him, and the poison can only be slowed down by adrenalin. The hit-man: B-movie action star Jason Stratham. That's all you need to know, really.
This is the kind of movie which makes The Transporter and Taxi look like feminist fare, it's so drowned in female extras / decorations that can't be called characters because really, they're just figments of teenage male imaginations. Attempt to rape them in a public busy shopping street and within 20 seconds they'll shout "take me, take me", but other than that their dialogue is pretty much limited to "aaah!" and other noises of distress.
The action is nicely ludicrous, and the pace of the movie doesn't let up because the protagonist would die if it did. In the end, I wasn't sure who hired who to do what, and the intrigues of different mobsters were confusing enough to be safely ignored.
The movie has been compared to Running Scared - a comparison which is justified by the pacing, but not so much by the on screen drama. Running Scared took itself seriously (perhaps too much so), Crank doesn't. In fact, watching this film, you begin to realize how the scriptwriting process must have worked. Imagine two young dudes, high on some substance or other, planning an action film that's like a rap music video but with all the characters white instead of black. "Dude, how could we cool it up?" one asks. "Let's get him to self-defibrillate. Dude, juice him. Even have him say 'juice me'. That's so cool. Dude." The entire film is a series of setpieces designed around ways to make the hero appear more cool to young boys. By the time he's in the middle of a car chase / drive by shootout while receiving oral sex, if you are in the cinema and having a reasonably good time, you must be male and in touch with your inner teenager.
6/10
This is the kind of movie which makes The Transporter and Taxi look like feminist fare, it's so drowned in female extras / decorations that can't be called characters because really, they're just figments of teenage male imaginations. Attempt to rape them in a public busy shopping street and within 20 seconds they'll shout "take me, take me", but other than that their dialogue is pretty much limited to "aaah!" and other noises of distress.
The action is nicely ludicrous, and the pace of the movie doesn't let up because the protagonist would die if it did. In the end, I wasn't sure who hired who to do what, and the intrigues of different mobsters were confusing enough to be safely ignored.
The movie has been compared to Running Scared - a comparison which is justified by the pacing, but not so much by the on screen drama. Running Scared took itself seriously (perhaps too much so), Crank doesn't. In fact, watching this film, you begin to realize how the scriptwriting process must have worked. Imagine two young dudes, high on some substance or other, planning an action film that's like a rap music video but with all the characters white instead of black. "Dude, how could we cool it up?" one asks. "Let's get him to self-defibrillate. Dude, juice him. Even have him say 'juice me'. That's so cool. Dude." The entire film is a series of setpieces designed around ways to make the hero appear more cool to young boys. By the time he's in the middle of a car chase / drive by shootout while receiving oral sex, if you are in the cinema and having a reasonably good time, you must be male and in touch with your inner teenager.
6/10