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A good movie

Posted : 12 years, 3 months ago on 21 December 2011 08:44

To be honest, nowadays, I don’t care much for Jason Statham’s movies but since I kept hearing some interesting things about this flick, I was quite eager to check it out. Eventually, I have to admit that I wasn't disappointed and that it really deserves its reputation., In fact, I would even go further and say that it is, in my opinion, one of the best action flicks made during the last 10 years. Indeed, at last, after the disappointing 'Transporter' franchise, there was a movie correctly exploiting the acting skills, charisma and humor provided by Jason Statham, easily one of the best action movie stars at work nowadays. Of course, the premise was completely preposterous and it didn't make much sense whatsoever but who cares? Everything, the plot, the action scenes, the dialogues, the weirdest sex scene ever, the characters were completely preposterous, over-the-top and unbelievable. Well, I thought the whole thing was a adrenaline filled riot and they perfectly managed to share with us Chelios’s disturbed state of mine. To conclude, of course, it was not a masterpiece whatsoever, but it was still a very well made and entertaining action flick  and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you want to watch some good old R rated feature.



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Keep your heart pumping

Posted : 12 years, 7 months ago on 8 August 2011 12:05

If ever a movie was made to get one's heart pumping, Crank is it. It takes a marginally believable and undeniably awesome premise, adds one of the brightest up-and-coming action stars around, stirs in some new ingredients that the genre hasn't really seen before, and bakes until the final product rises beyond all expectations. The catch phrase "a thrill a minute" doesn't really go the distance to describe how ridiculously action packed this film is. A thrill every ten to fifteen seconds is more like it. First time directors Mark Nedveldine and Brian Taylor relentlessly bash you over the head with the action hammer. Their cinematography is manic and the style is reminiscent of that used by Tony Scott in Domino. It fits the pace of the film quite well.

Jason Statham delivers to audiences the only thing he knows how to deliver, and that is pure, distilled ass kicking. That is his job, and he is very, very good at it. Make no mistake, the film is very strongly 'R' rated. There is a bounty of flesh, and a strong smattering of violence, and drug use. Don't be thrown off by Amy Smart's name on the poster. Even though she does a fine job as Statham's on screen girlfriend Eve, hers (and every other) part takes a deliberate and distant backseat to Statham's charismatic portrayal of hit-man Chev Chelios. He also manages to wind more than a few threads of pretty solid humor into the performance. All in all, its Statham's most impressive job in a leading role yet.

In a nutshell the plot revolves around Chev Chelios, poisoned by his employer after a hit went sour with a synthetic Chinese compound that blocks his adrenaline receptors. The only way for him to stay alive is to get pumped up and stay pumped up. Anything he can get his hands on to raise his adrenaline is fair game, from drugs to energy drinks to raunchy public sex and more as he tears a path of carnage and mayhem through the streets of L.A. in search of the man who tried to kill him.

Crank is everything you could feasibly ask it to be and more. The filmmakers take an iffy premise, work their magic (read 'good casting and direction') on it, and produce reel after reel of pure adrenaline on film. It packs over the top action in with incredible stunts, clever and biting humor, a decent story and some above average acting. It's one of the most entertaining films of the year and may well be a career highlight for Statham. It's one of those films that you'll definitely want to go see with a bunch of the guys. What it lacks in depth, it makes up for in pure fun and distilled manliness. A high 8 out of 10.



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Crank review

Posted : 13 years, 7 months ago on 20 August 2010 07:46

fast paced top film - quirky and full of fun - to be honest 90minutes flew by - you will be in pieces in places as the comedy element is top notch.


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Explosive, gruesome thrill ride!

Posted : 14 years, 3 months ago on 2 January 2010 01:46

My expectations of Crank were neither high nor low. I guess I was just expecting a typical, entertaining, violent and explosive action film. I did get that but I didn't enjoy it as much as I have done with other entertaining action films. Crank was obviously everything that an action film should technically have but I thought that the story was pretty stupid, it wasn't very well written and the acting was pretty lame. It is a very intense thrill ride that I think could have been improved by a lot.


Jason Statham isn't a very good actor at all, really, but he does fit perfectly within the action genre. His performance as Chev Chelios was pretty crap but he was a very powerful character within action scenes. Chev is a professional hitman who has been poisoned which will kill him. He could go into cardiac arrest if he doesn't keep moving and making his heart move faster. Amy Smart is lame as Eve. She is Chelios' girlfriend who unfortunately gets involved with Chelios path of revenge against Verona who was the man who poisoned him.


Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor did a pretty good job as directors of Crank. There were a lot of action scenes where there were a lot of fast and creative movements with the camera which is absolutely typical within an action film. It was obviously a very explosive action film but I thought the script within this film was pretty lame. There were a few good moments and clever lines in some moments of the film but it was mostly very flawed.


Crank is a slightly enjoyable action film that is typical in its own way. Jason Statham is a good actor in his own way like other action actors like Sylvester Stallone, Dolph Lungdren and Jet Li (co-stars in The Expendables). Overall, Crank is an entertaining film that does have a lot of flawed things within it.


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Hilarious, irresistible, macho fun!

Posted : 14 years, 6 months ago on 29 September 2009 12:15

"I'm going to get that little fucker if it's the last thing I do...It may actually be the last thing I do."


Sometimes movie-goers require a dosage of simple, unadulterated fun in the form of a film that's content with serving up a nourishing dose of action, violence and sex. So thank Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor that the delightful action-comedy Crank exists. Geared towards the dormant 13-year-old in every male, Crank doesn't merely unfold...it explodes onscreen, careening from one chest-thumping scene to the next. It delivers 85 minutes of pure action and hilarity, with minimal encumbrances (like exposition or character development) and with only skeletal fragments of plot. Crank also throttles forward with a glorious tongue-in-cheek approach - the over-the-top action is delivered with a side order of cheese, and plenty of humour accompanies the cocktail of testosterone and adrenaline (emphasis on "adrenaline"). The film is every bit as trashy, vulgar, sexist, brainless, excessive and callow as you'd imagine, but this reviewer enjoyed every delirious minute.


Former professional assassin Chev Chelios (Statham) awakens in his apartment at the beginning of the film after having been poisoned by his rival Verona (Cantillo) with a lethal dose of the "Beijing Cocktail". Chev only has about an hour to live, but learns that he'll be able to slow down the effects of poison and live long enough to exact revenge if he keeps his adrenaline levels high. And thus, Chev begins a citywide crime spree. In order to keep his adrenaline pumping he resorts to barbaric violence, cocaine, shootouts, car chases (usually in stolen cars), epinephrine, caffeinated drinks, nasal spray and a very public display of affection. And during all this chaos, Chev's "doctor" (Yoakam) - you'd use quotation marks too, if you saw how this guy runs his practise - dispenses advice through a phone line, though he insists there's no actual cure for what Chev has been injected with.


Directed and written by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, Crank is an exercise in overblown simplicity. Prior to this movie, Neveldine and Taylor had only worked as cinematographers and camera operators, which probably explains why the visuals overwhelm all narrative requirements. The story is every bit as dumb as it sounds, but who cares? Why watch Crank for incisive dialogue or intelligent plotting? It has a niche audience, and it aims solely to satiate them. Once you suspend your disbelief, respect the film's decision to dispose of all logic by the 10-minute mark, and realise that the creators are only interested in cramming as much action as possible into a tight runtime, you're in for a fun, action-packed ride that's all about the forward momentum.


Neveldine and Taylor employ every stylistic cinematic technique imaginable. In fact, there are times when the movie feels like little more than an opportunity for the two writer-directors to show off. With split screens, distorted images, first-person shots, slow-motion, fast-motion, freeze frames, animated representations of Chev's heart, colour saturation and use of Google maps, the look of the film is frenzied and adrenaline-pumping; replicating the emotions and anxieties of the protagonist. However the style crosses over into tedium from time to time due to sheer repetition. There's so much happening during every single frame and there's so much action that it all feels like a far too generous helping of junk food. After all, at its most basic level, Crank is overstylised junk food. If one removed all the visual tweaks and tongue-in-cheek humour from the equation, one would be left with a story better off in a direct-to-DVD action flick starring Van Damme or Steven Seagal.


British badass Jason Statham (of Transporter fame) carries the whole feature on his well-formed shoulders; pushing the envelope of acceptable antihero boundaries. With his eyes full of fire, Statham turns Chev Chelios into a laser-guided missile of mayhem, unable and unwilling to stop until he finds an antidote and/or slaughters everyone responsible for his corpse-bound state. Thankfully Statham brings a degree of dimension to the role, and his acting is top-notch. Since Crank is mostly a one-man show, the rest of the cast just needs to be present, accounted for, and playing their minor part for the film to succeed. But oddly enough, the supporting players are just as effective. Jose Pablo Cantillo is all teeth and terror as Verona, while Amy Smart is frequently amusing as Chev's girlfriend Eve. There's also Efren Ramirez (probably best known for Napoleon Dynamite) who plays Chev's sidekick Kaylo with subliminal flamboyance.


Some audiences may choose to dismiss Crank as an over-inflated excuse for blood, guts, firepower and fisticuffs...to an extent, that's correct. But it's also hilarious, irresistible, macho fun. It's best described as a live-action video game (some levels even play out like levels of Grand Theft Auto) with an unhinged Jason Statham in the centre of it all. Stuffy, serious critics may dislike Crank due to its contrived story (after all, why couldn't Verona just shoot Chev instead of poisoning him?) and shallow characterisations, but the movie is more geared towards those who'll take it in the intended spirit. Be sure to keep watching 'til the end credits expire for a scene which cements its live-action video game pedigree.


Followed by Crank: High Voltage in 2009.

7.5/10



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Macho Movie

Posted : 15 years, 6 months ago on 10 September 2008 02:34

Filmes de ação, no geral, são sempre só amontoados de corpos perfurados por milhares de tiros e só. Um roteiro pobre, atuações chulas e cenas barulhentas. Mas eis que surge Adrenalina, um filme que prova que este estilo pode sim ser um bom atrativo de cenas rápidas, enlouquecedouras e de boa qualidade.

O filme mescla com respeito ação de competência e comédia segura com direção de Mark Neveldine e Brian Taylo. A trama conta a história de um matador de aluguel que é envenenado e descobre que se a taxa de adrenalina diminuir, seu coração pára. E daí pra frente é tudo muito urgente. Jason Statham corre desesperado o filme todo atrás do tal antídoto para tentar deter o veneno. Tudo é muito urgente: as atuações, as cenas, as camêras.

Como um bom exemplo de filme de macho, o filme mostra cenas eletrizantes com muitos tiros, brigas e para dar uma desestressada, sexo. No quesito ação, a fita dá conta do recado com bastante propriedade. Na parte cômica também. Piadas de puro humor ácido rondam o filme como urubus à carniça. Uma das cenas mais marcantes, citando pelo lado engraçado da obra, é a grande cena de sexo do filme em que o protagonista transa com sua namorada em plena chinatown.

Enfim, este filme é um bom exemplar que consegue provar que além de Michael Mann, Paul Greengrass e Michael Bay existe vida inteligente nos filmes de ação. Nós, homens, agradecemos.


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Crank

Posted : 17 years ago on 15 March 2007 08:27

Almost so bad it was good. Mindless rubbish but enjoyable in the extreme. Prepostorous fun.


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follow-up

Posted : 17 years, 1 month ago on 12 February 2007 03:20

ok, perhaps I was a bit harsh comparing it to 'Jackass number 2', as I did notice the film made fun of itself, making it perhaps more of a comedy then an action film. However, with that said, I guess the main thing that annoyed me and I couldnt get past is the entire plot from the start to the end. Remember all those James Bond flicks, where the bad guy devises a cunning slow painful way to kill Bond, and then walks away, assuming Bond will die? Austin Powers made a good mockery of that concept. I mean, in the end, why not just KILL the guy, or at least stick around and make sure he really suffers, but to put a poison in him that makes his body the equivalent of 'Bus can't go slower than 55mph' from 'Speed', and then leave a DVD for him to know how he will die, and then near the end, when he by miracle catches up to you, instead of FINALLY putting a bullet in his head, you go and stick him with a needle with a bit more dosage of that same poison? I'm sorry, having the entire movie revolve around such an idiotic way to kill someone, thats what really bugged me.


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Crank review

Posted : 17 years, 1 month ago on 11 February 2007 01:51

"My Name is Jason Statham and by the end of this film....you'll be disappointed."

I remember quoting this in his husky voice before I walked into the cinema. I just expected Transporter film but I was wrong mate!

It just rips into itself so much that its more of a comedy than anything else. The action is just an excuse to fit Statham into the mix but I was highly impressed with the entire set-up.

Statham has a new found respect from me now. Let's hope his career steers away from Revolver-type films from now on!


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overhyped

Posted : 17 years, 1 month ago on 8 February 2007 12:30

I've heard 'Children of Men' be described as a 'thinking man's action movie'. Well in that same train of thought, I think 'Crank' itself could best be described as an 'A.D.D.-afflicted man's action movie', or perhaps another way, a 'slow-witted, easily-entertained man's action movie'.

Does it have action? sure it does! is it loud, in-your-face, racist, sexist, piece of hollywood escapism? yup! does it require you to turn off your brain? most definately. but for some of today's kids, who seem to have an attention span of 5 minutes max, and think 'Jackass Number 2' is a cinematic masterpiece, they'll sure find 'Crank' a blast to watch.


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