Shoot 'Em Up

This is a little closer to what I was expecting as far as "non-stop action" in Crank. Constant gunfights, tricks in combat that are both clever and hilarious, and a parade of goofy one-liners spewing from Clive Owen's mouth. Clive's something rare, he's distinctly English, but he still pulls of a badass persona, and not a quaint kind of badass with a cockney accent like in Snatch. He's just minding his own business one night, eating a carrot (those things will come up a lot), when he sees a pregnant woman get chased into a warehouse. Being who he is (although it's never actually fully explained who he is), he goes in to help her, getting involved in a large fight during which he ends up helping her give birth. The action really is constant, and a few different scenes will show you what I mean.

In my mind, Clive can do no wrong, and there's some decent talent around him too. Paul Giamatti is a solid character actor, and while I didn't quite buy him as a villain, it's more a fault of his lovable chubby cheeks than his skills at pulling the part off. Monica Bellucci is a hooker with a special talent, and she's fine enough at the damsel in distress role. The character relationships are completely clichéd and the plot, while having some unique bullet points like bone marrow and heavy metal music, is never really well constructed, just an adequate little mystery that completely serves its purpose of allowing for as much mayhem as possible. There's not many films I would recommend solely on its gratuitous action, but if you're in the mood for some, Shoot 'Em Up fits the bill perfectly.