945. Crank (2006)

Starring: Jason Statham, Amy Smart, Carlos Sanz

Director: Mark Neveldine, Brian Taylor

Running Time: 93 mins

Crank is an American film about a man who discovers that he has been injected with a poison by a rival criminal that will kill him if his heart rate drops too low, forcing him to frantically find a way of staying alive.

This film has got a mad concept, and initially, it’s a hell of a lot of fun, with complete chaos, great action and good humour abound. Despite that, this is an extremely repetitive film that isn’t as exciting as it appears at first glance, whilst it also has the strange tinge of a B-movie, with odd cinematography and a few pretentiously surreal sequences thrown in there, despite starring an A-list actor in Jason Statham.

Let’s start with the opening stages of this film. As soon as this begins, it feels exactly like Speed, based around a concept that requires constant high-octane thrills and fast pacing, and seeing as Speed managed to pull that off so well, it provides high hopes for this film.

And for the first twenty minutes or so, this is an absolute riot to watch, with insane action at every turn, a desperate Jason Statham going completely mad in and around the streets of LA, and a great sense of humour that doesn’t take this too seriously as a crime film, more so as a crazy thriller.

Despite that, those first twenty minutes, although they are stunning, are really the only good thing about this film. It’s after that first period that you realise that this is all you’re going to be given for over an hour and a half, making for a very repetitive story that involves Statham going as mad as possible, but loses the shock value seeing as it’s happening on a constant basis.

What’s more is that the humour also wears off after a while, and this film turns into a more generic crime-action thriller. Again, the shock value is reduced significantly, and that’s why there’s very little to laugh at throughout the rest of the film, meaning that this loses its main source of distinctiveness from a normal action movie.

Strangely, this film also has the feel of a B-movie. Despite the big-budget action and the main star, the visual effects here aren’t very convincing, the cinematography always looks a little bit off, and, really weirdly, this dives into some very strange sequences of surrealist humour that just don’t fit in with the overall action-packed atmosphere of this film.

Overall, this gets a 6.8, because despite having a brilliant first twenty minutes, it really wears off as the film goes along, turning back into a more generic crime-action thriller.