yesterday, i finally got the privilege of watching one of the fall lineups grandest movies: Crank. Crank stars action-star Jason Statham as a double-crossed hitman. He's been poisoned and must keep his adrenaline up, or else his heart stops. The first time i heard of such a movie i thought it was one of the greatest movie concepts i had ever heard. Over-the-top Action after over-the-top action after over-the-top action.
And that's exactly what this movie is. Statham just beats the shit out of so many people, it's ridiculous. Almost every scene he is in has some element of violence or drugs which fuels the over all adrenaline rush of the movie. There's a few scenes where he's going through the hospital looking for epinephrine, and randomly pushing over patients for no reason..
This movie has a sense of humor in that way, but it also knows when it's being retarded. The first action sequence of the movie features Statham driving through a mall, which is COMPLETE RIPOFF of Blues Brothers, which we just so happened to watch the other day. The writers knew they were ripping it off, and made sure the audience knew this by adding in the line from Statham, "there sure are a lot shops in this mall."
It's also rather funny how there is no sense of boundaries at all. Statham does drug after drug after drug, steals police cars, breaks things. It's like they put everything bad that some irrate mother would complain about, they put it in and flaunted it. It's kinda like Grand Theft Auto the movie, but not a movie about the story of GTA, just when you go around killing people and stealing cars for no reason.
This movie has everything i could've hoped for, but i find difficulty liking it. It's so fricken Spike TV... but that's what makes the movie so kickass. Action, Action, Action for those with no attention span. this attitude lends itself so well to the movie, since the main characters can't stop at all to figure out what's going on. He's gotta get revenge before he dies, and if he stops.... Game Over.
The movie also has no shame when it comes to product placement. Need Adrenaline? Red Bull, Rockstar, and plenty other energy drinks and in there. You could also say Cocaine, Pot and Nasal Spray fall under the category of product placement too.
Anywho... i suppose if you haven't seen Crank, you should definately give it a go. Especially if you think over-the-top action movies are hilarious because the movie does go out of its way several times for a gimmick. But as for owning it?.. eh.. maybe for the purposes of showing it to others.
Unfortunately i haven't seen either Transporter movies, so i can't really compare it to those. For some reason, i have the feeling they are pretty similar to this.