Review of Crank (2006) by Tino R — 02 Oct 2010

The adrenaline pumping action film Crank is directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor and stars Jason Statham and Amy Smart. The film takes place in modern day New York city.

The films starts off with Chev Chelios (Statham) waking up and finding a DVD. On this DVD he finds out that a man known as Verona has injected him with a drug that is going to kill him. The reason he did this is because of the hit Chelios pulled where he killed a very powerful man named Don Kim. After speaking with his doctor he finds out that he has been injected with a drug that will kill him unless he is able to keep his adrenaline up. The rest of the film is him trying to achieve revenge with the help of his girlfriend Eve (Smart) and his gay friend Kaylo.

The plot for this film is very thin. It is basically a revenge film filled with violence and sex. At some points it is funny how over the top it is and the writers Neveldine and Taylor know that so they keep going for it. If their goal was to make up a straight up action movie that is trying to make fun of itself at the same time then they achieved their goal. Not as complex as most action movies plot wise but still an enjoyably entertaining script.

The direction of this film is by far the best part of it. Extremely stylistic that makes you feel what Chelios is feeling. The direction made me feel like an adrenaline junkie who just did a lot of cocaine who is on a killing spree. It is absolutely crazy, just great. Neveldine and Taylor I think have the potential to be great directors. If they write a really solid script I think they could be nominated for an Oscar. These two are definitely directors to keep an eye on.

The acting in this film by the leads was quite good. Statham truly is a great action star, one of the best out today. He is just so cool and his accent really works. He is just terrific as the adrenaline junkie lead. Smart was very good as Eve, the girlfriend. She was over the top which brought some laughs to the film. Obviously it is not really a part for an actress to show off her acting abilities but she gave as good of a performance that one could give to that part. The rest of the cast was over the top, no one was really great. Overall a decent acted film.

I would give this film a strong 6/10 just because the direction was so unique and great as was Statham as the lead. I would definitely recommend this film to anyone who likes a pure action film.