Crank

Crank is a very silly movie, but that's what it's trying to be, and it does quite a good job of it. The idea is simple; Jason Statham has to keep his adrenaline pumping to slow down a poison that was injected into him before he eventually dies, unless he can find a way to stop it. He's also trying to get revenge on the people who did this, and the entire movie consists of him running around and doing anything to stay active, from chugging energy drinks to driving cars through malls to having sex in public. I kept hearing about how it's non-stop action, and while it's true he's always running somewhere, the actual amount of traditional movie "action" is actually pretty moderate, although it gets heavier at the end. The majority of the entertainment comes from humor.

Obviously, there's a lot of laughs from the absurdity of the situation and how he deals with it, but there's also several other quirky things it does to keep it interesting. There's a lot of playing with subtitles and perspective. Going with this is the insertion of cutaways into other shots, like his friend on the phone somewhere else appearing in the rear-view mirror. Despite the focus on insanity, there is a plot to be found, a twisting little mob tale, and it has some good points, although it's largely typical and not that interesting on its own. The movie's quite short, so there isn't much time for character development or subtlety. Statham is pretty used to the action star with an English accent role by now and fills it fine. Amy Smart plays his girlfriend, and while she's not unlikable, she's really not a good actress, although that really only bothered me in one scene. It doesn't really matter though, because despite the ending that seemed ludicrous even for what had already happened, I liked it a lot. Neveldine and Taylor are a new writing/directing duo and I'm interested in what other stuff they have up their sleeves.