Crank (Widescreen)

This movie isn't meant to have any meaning or even a sensible plot; the one we get is as loose as you can get. It's just a good excuse for some senseless violence, a car chase and some rather quite funny moments, all for the pure pleasure of entertainment. If you like action movies or just wanna spend a few hours having a good time on the couch than this movie is for you.

thought this movie was decent but my husband heavily enjoyed it of course. Its "B" type movie, not a serious, not a critic movie. It is a movie for the people with a simple plot that allows great, heart-pumping action. Crank starts off with superficially appealing opening titles over glass-shattering rock music, and once the movie starts going, it presents itself as an obvious entry in the race-against- time category of movies. Despite points where I would either drastically change a scene or just leave it the hell out, there are some fun moments, such as when Statham tries to evade police by racing his car through a mall and making it up an escalator in it, and when he runs through a hospital desperate for an adrenaline hit.

Honestly, I found Statham's performance in Crank to be possibly one of his best. He continues his career with a lack of versatility the genre of movies he tends to be cast in, with the exception of the romantic comedy London, but his character is unlike any of the other generally wooden, raspy-voiced, earthily cynical characters he's played since his first role. Lock, Stock, Snatch, the Transporter films, and even Cellular showcase him in practically identical roles. In Crank, which involves gangsters, shootouts and other high-over-the-top action sequences, and a character's fatal deadline, themes that you can find in each of the films previously mentioned, he is shown in a role as an aggressive, hasty, impulsive, and highly temperamental person. I mean, when has Statham ever raised his voice or conveyed emotion in any of his films? Here, he does, and that makes it a much more likable role than if it were played by most other action stars.

The film has great momentum and everything mentioned above, but depreciates greatly from the introduction of Amy Smart's token girlfriend character. She plays her role to the fullest, but the Lambourghini ride pace of the movie is severed when her screen time starts. There's also a nonsensical and completely out-of-place sequence where Statham coerces her into having sex with her, impulsively, amidst a large crowd to keep his decreasing heart rate from plundering and thus letting the poison he's been given finally worn out. That scene was a turn off to me, frankly. It and a few other scenes at around this point in the movie. In the Laws and Doctrines of the Race Against Time Movie, it states that you may not slow down. Even when the plot must take expository time, you do it in a clever way where we are still gripping our chair arms.

Crank is not a work of art by any standard, but it doesn't follow formula and it keeps you entertained.

I think the people who said "the movie sucked" have missed the context of the movie. I watched it after finishing Grand Theft Auto: SA. You see how the title is a Old Style Video Game and how the Map shows up like a video game? That's the point, I got a huge kick out of this movie because I watched it at the right time and in the right context. It's GTA on the big screen and I loved it.