Crank

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Crank is the popcorn movie that dictates so hysterically fast of a pace that it has no time whatsoever to commit any mistakes. It offers as much of the good old bucket-oriented action as we could possibly keep up to, and does that with a very interesting design choice that is quite akin to the mere dramaturgial fabric of the Grand Theft Auto videogame series. In fact, we could certainly regard Crank as the one and only GTA movie to date, since it's sheer vividness and the evident lack of intention to slow down causes the funny experience as you would watch someone rocking out in one of the aforementioned games, only this time the virtual gameplay - SOME noise there now, huh? - quickly unravels a coherent, linear story buildup to start the action flowing - and to guarantee that it will have no chance to stop, as well.

Featuring a usually quite good Jason Statham in a role that feels like quite the tailor-made for him, this vivid gangster showdown conforms to previous year's Shoot'em Up on certain aspects, yet with it's wise directional choices as far as it's mere ambitions go, it emerges as the more intense, and quite likely, the more memorable of the two. The tagline is effective enough to catch the interest, and also we can take it quite literally.

Poison in his veins, vengeance in his heart.

As the movie would exhibit an urge to cement our first observation about the videogame parallel, we start out in Statham's personal perspective, in quite a similar fashion to what you would find yourself in when playing a First Person Shooter game. The pace is already mounted on with a series of rockets impatiently waiting to be ignited, and the ignition process takes place in the 4th or 5th minute or so, indeed.

Our synopsis this time is very clean and easy: Statham's character, Chev Chelios got a shot of the Beijing Coctail, an unfortunate solution that causes one to slowly fade away, granted one is unwilling to produce massive release streams of adrenaline in the system. Once adrenaline is released though, the Beijing Coctail starts to feel itself satisfied, and decides not to shut down it's unfortunate host. This switchblade-compassion on the solution's part is guaranteed only as long as adrenaline release is occurring though, the moment one starts to slow down, the mixture gets angry again and threatens the victim by imminent, close death. Chelios is safe only as far as he can produce immense adrenaline streams, and, of course, until his system is capable to keep up to all the insane pace and events he needs to force himself through.

A gangster film we are talking about, therefore all the recent gangster elements you could anticipate - guns, guns, boobs, testosterone talk, guns, guns, boobs, testosterone talk, guns, guns, boobs, testo... I think you are starting to grab it - are offered, though through that hilarious, almost cartoonish fashion the entire movie is keen to present itself in. An interesting design choice of skipping every 2nd or so frame of a sequence have been frequently utilized, giving an improbably intense and clearly humorous flow to the pictures, a visual experience you are likely to remember from the burlesque genre. The camera perspectives are solidifying the videogame parallels even further by choosing angles used by Third Person Shooters, like the Max Payne series. What we are up to is Statham's quite convincing, rampant action-run through the city to find means to negate the Beijing Coctail, and while at it: to kick some asses responsible for his radical condition.

As far as the story buildup goes, giving away any key elements would be quite redundant, as the entire playtime originates and firmly ties itself to-and from the starting point, finding and appropriately exploiting quite coherent scenic and situational elements, with nothing in mind on the directional part saved the fluent delivery of action that has no option to stop, anyway. A defendable agenda, realized via strong and cunning determination, also that 84 minutes of playtime is very wisely and sanely chosen. The focal circumstance that keeps things running fluently is the mere opening statement concerning the Beijing Coctail indeed, as this simple, yet quite clever motivational factor proves more than capable to coherently sew both an operable vengeance story and a series of superhectic events to itself. One truly can't pick up flaws, as the movie avoids them all via the furious tempo. As of today, there is little if any doubt that Jason Statham is The Gangster Dude. I would even give him that:



Yer Za Gangzta Dudette, Dudette!
(even if ye evidently mizz on zizz' pizz')

He is still quite young and possesses naturally strong canvas presence and a personal charisma that feels akin to Bruce Willis's to me, yet Statham communicates this particular nature they seem to share on authentic British registers, including his quite cool voice and his general composure as a human being. The man - sorry, Za Dudette - is no joke, been around for a while now, and definitely seems to be an actor capable to pull off even more serious roles.

Please don't misunderstand me though: the role he plays in this film is definitely superserious here in a quite significant sense, demanding a special degree of the aforementioned canvas presence. Believe me, there are tons and tons of actors out there you wouldn't believe a vibration of if to trying to act as Za BadazZ Dudette, something Statham renders without any flaws whatsoever. What I mean by more serious of a role is but the lettering of my opinion how interesting it would, and probably will be to see him rendering a more complex character. Chances are though that we will have to wait for this, as a sequel to Crank is already in preproduction and Statham's upcoming titles are likely to feature him as the vigilante character he is masterful at giving. I think there is even more in him though, as of today, let us see if my assumption will gain justification in the future.

Massive credits though go to the directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor right away, since with their stable, integral effort of Crank, maybe a new general direction of action driven storytelling was born, and firmly established. The flick clearly reigns as premier pioneer of a method that recognizes no stops in it's fabric and chooses instead to run amok without any points to longly dwell or particularly elaborate upon. Crank conducts endless, intense action-fireworks on a rock solid narrative basis, pointing all it's fingers at a very logical and sane method that action could told about in. Since one can't possibly end up being disappointed with it, I would recommend to check this nice GTA flick out just before the Beijing Coctail starts to kick in.



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