Crank (2006) August 22, 2007
Posted by gproject in : Recently Viewed , trackbackDirected by: Mark Neveldine & Brian Taylor
Some would say that action movies have gone soft in recent years, but the financial pressure to appeal to a mass audience (usually teenagers) means studios are often more concerned with securing an age-appropriate certificate. Look at the furore over the recent PG-13 rated Die Hard 4.0 (Live Free or Die Hard) – since when did John McClane need censoring? But every so often we get a filmmaker (or two) willing to buck the trend and fill a much needed gap in modern cinema: the 18-rated action flick.
In this story, Jason Statham plays Chev Chelios, a professional assassin who’s thinking about giving up the life of killing and retiring to normality with his current girlfriend, Eve (Amy Smart). But before he can, rival gang member Verona injects him with ‘the Beijing Cocktail’: a vicious poison that gradually slows your heart rate down until you die. Under advice from a doctor friend, Chev is forced to go to any length to keep his heart rate up and his adrenalin pumping, while he hunts down those who have sentenced him, and violently enacts his revenge.
Crank is no work of high art, but it never professes to be as it spends its compact 87-minute running time speeding through the streets of New York, dodging bullets, crashing cars, and getting into numerous bloody fist-fights. It’s the literal translation of ‘adrenaline-fuelled’, as Chev races around doing any amount of drugs and leaving a giant path of destruction in his wake.
The film works hard to keep its energy up and while fast-cutting, blur effects and music video influenced editing and may seem like obvious techniques to use in a relentless action piece such as this, they actually have real meaning here; giving the audience a chance to experience how Chev is feeling. The cinematography can be a little jarring at first, with the constant ‘skipping’ effects and hand-held camera work, but you quickly settle into it and go along for the ride. Meanwhile, the whole adventure is set to a near-constant rock soundtrack which acts as a blaring background to a movie that is already pretty in-your-face.
Directors Mark Neveldine & Brian Taylor also wrote the film, although their script isn’t going to win any awards – a mixture of swearing and “I’m gonna get you” dialogue – it certainly fits the bill of mindless entertainment. Same goes for the performances: where bad guys act nasty, girls act clueless and Jason Statham acts tough which, let’s face it, is the reason you hire Jason Statham in the first place.
There’s an unabashed side to this movie whereby it knows exactly what it is and what it’s here to do. Just like Joe Carnahan’s Smokin’ Aces [review], as long as the audience escape into the film’s ridiculous concepts and over the top action sequences, then it has done its job. And maybe that’s something to commend rather than condemn – the explicit mixture of drugs, violence and shouting that cumulates in the hard 18 rating. As long as you’re aware of the content, then there’s no reason why you can’t enjoy it. After all, it’s only a movie.
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