Movie Review: ‘Crank’ is Speed on speed

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Perhaps the highest-adrenaline action movie ever made: a man (Jason Statham) is injected with a slow-acting poison that will kill him if his heart rate drops below a certain level.

It´s Speed on, well, speed, as Statham injects himself with adrenaline boosters, raids convenience stores for Red Bulls and pep pills, and constantly bursts into periods of total rage in an attempt to stay alive long enough to take revenge on those who poisoned him.

Preposterous, ridiculous, but also incredibly fun; suspension of belief is required throughout, but film is so fast-paced that you´ll barely have time to think about it until after it´s over.

Debut writing & directing team Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor have an absolute flair for this fluff, with a machismo attitude, video game effects, and the best use of Google Earth I´ve seen yet.

Statham is excellent – films like this and The Transporter are turning him into a solid B-movie star – though the film moves so fast that the supporting cast barely manages to register.

Like its hero, Crank inevitably runs out of steam at the end with a predictable finale, but it´s a wild ride until then.

Crank

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Jason Pirodsky

Jason Pirodsky

Jason Pirodsky has been writing about the Prague film scene and reviewing films in print and online media since 2005. A member of the Online Film Critics Society, you can also catch his musings on life in Prague at expats.cz and tips on mindfulness sourced from ancient principles at MaArtial.com.

2 Responses

  1. This movie is so over-the-top it comes back up from the bottom. The sequal is also fun but doesn’t match the first one.

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