Reviews by Matt

“My name is Chev Chelios and today is the day I die.” Thus begins the trailer for “Crank.” Chev Chelios (Jason Statham) is a hit man who, after a hit, is injected by Verona (Jose Pablo Cantillo,) with a substance that will kill him, if his heart rate drops. The only way to slow the effect is to keep his adrenaline up. Now he is on a mission to find Verona and kill him before the poison gets to him. He must find ways to keep his adrenaline up so that he can complete one last task.

“Crank” is non-stop action. From the moment he smashes a television, until the moment of his death, this movie does not stop for more then a few seconds. One of the major plot points is his need to keep his adrenaline up. He steals Red Bull (an energy drink) from a store, gets zapped with a defibrillator, slams his hand in a hot waffle iron, just to name a few. The entire movie is just him keeping up his heart rate and then getting to Verona before he dies. Its not a strong plot, but it manages to keep up it’s energy until the end credits.

This movie is basically a video game. The opening title looks like it would be in an old-school video game. Taking that into consideration I can see how it is. If you look at is as a video game, him needing to keep his adrenaline up is just like getting extra lives in a game.
Many people talk about “the movie going experience,” but never have I seen it as much as I did in this movie. The audience was laughing, wincing, cheering, oooing and awing through the entire movie. Much like SoaP, it’s a fun movie to see

6 out of 10
Rated R for strong violence, pervasive language, sexuality, nudity and drug use.
Runtime: 87 min