DVD Movie Review :: Crank :: Entertainment.WebWorlds-One.com ::

The mindless action movie has evolved a lot since its first inception way back in the 60s and 70s. Back then it was almost as if the film makers were trying to do something special with their films…almost. The Smokey and the Bandits, Bullets, and Bruce Lee Kung Fu flicks were not entirely campy, but at the same time had just enough tongue in cheek to make them wholly enjoyable, and after a while venerable classics.

The years passed and the actioner evolved…kind of. It became bigger, more explosive and much much cooler, taking the slick tactics of true action films and mixing in a little bit of comedy and completely over the top premises. Die Hard was a perfect example of what mindless action could do when it tried to be mindless action.

In recent years, the genre has become something different. The film makers are so incredibly aware of what they’re doing that they either make an action film with an immense amount of time and energy put into it with a decent story and good actors – Spiderman for example – or they go completely over the top, to the point of absolute mindlessness and ridiculous premises, designed solely to entertain and not stimulate in any way intellectually. In the case of the latter, we have films like Crank.

Crank is something wholly special and different, born of that 1970s exploitation film mentality and the slick, genre aware sensibilities of this new millennium’s action directors. The film is so explosively over the top, so free of any conscience or intelligence that it’s free to do whatever it wants with whomever it wants in the course of the film’s “story” if you must refer to it as such.

The film opens with Chevy, a hit man for the local drug cartel, waking up sick and groggy to find a DVD with a message from one of his rivals telling him his body has just been pumped full of the “Beijing Cocktail” a high tech Chinese synthetic that blocks the adrenal gland and slowly kills the heart by slowing it down. Chevy immediately runs from his house, things start to break and he starts driving like a madman. Shortly after he realizes that the only way to counteract the effect of the drug is to force as much adrenaline through his body as possible and keep his heart moving.

The next hour of film is essentially one giant snuff film, in which Chevy tears apart Los Angeles trying to find new and exciting ways to keep him alive. Those include everything from snorting cocaine off a men’s room floor to having sex with his girlfriend in the middle of a Chinatown public market.
The film doesn’t stop for anything. When it slows down, he almost dies and it immediately kicks back into gear. With such a built in action premise, the film has no reason to apologize for its excesses and barrels head first into the finale and inevitable ending. Chevy’s attitude, one of some twisted remorse mixed with the undying desire to keep himself alive, doesn’t wholly fit the film though. There are the makings of a true cult classic, something so ridiculous and exploitative as to bring back 20-somethings and high school film initiates for years to come, but the film makers stumble a bit in the execution, trying to make too many excuses and forgive the protagonist some of his excess.

Chevy should have been left alone with his destructive tear through Los Angeles, an Eastern Revenge flick meets Western car chase and gun battle. The result would have been Tarantino-esque in its disregard for human life and practical conventions of life on the streets. Instead, we’re left with a man who for whatever reason tries, at the mid-point of the film, decides to make up for his wicked ways and save his oblivious girlfriend (a ridiculously flat character played by Amy Smart).

Don’t get me wrong, this was an entertaining film, completely devoid of any intellectual attachment or reasoning and perfect for sitting back at the end of a long day and zoning out to. Unfortunately it wasn’t nearly as good as it could have been due to the smallest bit of credibility the writers tried to instill in its hokey plot. It should have been left as it was designed, without redeeming qualities.

[ Back to top ]

About The Author

I'm a self avowed unemployed writer, working on semi-constant basis to try and overcome the need to go and work a real job. I've written more than 200 articles and reviews and am constantly scouring the internet for any and all excuses and methods to make myself less dependent on corporate pay days. Visit my website at TheChatfield.com