Chelios faces a Chinese mobster who has stolen his nearly indestructible heart and replaced it with a battery-powered ticker that requires regular jolts of electricity to keep working.
Directors:
Mark Neveldine,
Brian Taylor
Stars:
Jason Statham,
Amy Smart,
Clifton Collins Jr.
Mercenary Frank Martin, who specializes moving goods of all kinds, surfaces again this time in Miami, Florida when he's implicated in the kidnapping of the young son of a powerful USA official.
Frank is hired to "transport" packages for unknown clients and has made a very good living doing so. But when asked to move a package that begins moving, complications arise.
Frank Martin puts the driving gloves on to deliver Valentina, the kidnapped daughter of a Ukrainian government official, from Marseilles to Odessa on the Black Sea. En route, he has to contend with thugs who want to intercept Valentina's safe delivery and not let his personal feelings get in the way of his dangerous objective.
Director:
Olivier Megaton
Stars:
Jason Statham,
Robert Knepper,
Natalya Rudakova
Ex-con Jensen Ames is forced by the warden of a notorious prison to compete in our post-industrial world's most popular sport: a car race in which inmates must brutalize and kill one another on the road to victory.
Mei, a young girl whose memory holds a priceless numerical code, finds herself pursued by the Triads, the Russian mob, and corrupt NYC cops. Coming to her aid is an ex-cage fighter whose life was destroyed by the gangsters on Mei's trail.
Director:
Boaz Yakin
Stars:
Jason Statham,
Catherine Chan,
Chris Sarandon
A thief with a unique code of professional ethics is double-crossed by his crew and left for dead. Assuming a new disguise and forming an unlikely alliance with a woman on the inside, he looks to hijack the score of the crew's latest heist.
Director:
Taylor Hackford
Stars:
Jason Statham,
Jennifer Lopez,
Michael Chiklis
Bishop thought he had put his murderous past behind him, until his most formidable foe kidnaps the love of his life. Now he is forced to complete three impossible assassinations, and do what he does best: make them look like accidents.
Director:
Dennis Gansel
Stars:
Jason Statham,
Jessica Alba,
Tommy Lee Jones
Mr. Church reunites the Expendables for what should be an easy paycheck, but when one of their men is murdered on the job, their quest for revenge puts them deep in enemy territory and up against an unexpected threat.
Director:
Simon West
Stars:
Sylvester Stallone,
Liam Hemsworth,
Randy Couture
When the hit-man Chev Chelios is poisoned by the criminal Verona, his friend and doctor Miles advises him that he must keep his adrenaline levels elevated to stay alive. Chev meets his girlfriend Eve and together they look for Verona to kill him.Written by
Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
There are a number of references to 80's arcade games in the film. In the opening credits there are flashes of arcade boot up sequences and the high score table of Robotron: 2084 (1982) is briefly displayed. Verona's sidekick is seen playing Berzerk (1980) in the car. The humanoid graphic of Berzerk is also displayed on the male toilet door Chev enters. See more »
Goofs
When Chev is at Doc Miles' office, he gets the epinephrine via an intravenous infusion. In this scene, the regulation clamp is closed. See more »
At the very end of the credits, we see "Crank" as if it was a retro video game. Chev shoots two henchmen, then he takes a needle containing drugs and goes into RAMPAGE mode and runs fast. He runs into another henchman who injects him with "The Bejing Cocktail", the camera zooms in on Chev's heart which explodes and blood splatters on the screen. And the words "Game Over" appears on the screen. See more »
Alternate Versions
The Indian version is rated A (adults only) with the public sex scene deleted from the film. The DVD also features the TV dub that omits all the profanity. See more »
Crank is a solid action thrill ride that was better than expected powered by a fantastic performance by Jason Statham whose other film credits include Snatch, The Transporter, and Death Race. Statham does a great job in the role of Chev Chelios a hit-man who's poisoned with a Chinese cocktail that cuts off the adrenaline in his body so in order to stay alive he must keep moving at any cost or he's dead. Statham brings a fierce intensity to the character and he's earned this role after everything you see him do in the movie. Major props to Statham because he really shows through his performance the adrenaline boiling up in his character ready to explode at any minute and he stays like that for the majority of the movie. Well done. Statham's co-star Amy Smart plays Eve whose his totally oblivious stoner girlfriend and she does a good job with the role. She might not get a lot screen time but she makes for a believable clueless girlfriend. She's also featured in "spolier" two scenes I can't even write about in this review. For those of you have seen it you know which two scenes I'm talking about. The rest of the cast including Efren Ramirez, Reno Wilson, and Dwighty Yoakam are admirable in their roles but like Smart they're not given much to do. Directors Mark Neveldine and Bryan Taylor show some real talent with this film making it an edgy action thriller that's very different from any other one you've seen before. Overall Crank was better than expected but with some flaws with the dialgoue at times, some of the shaky camera work, and the ending could've been better. Other then that though Crank is packed with plenty of action with is basically non-stop from the start, solid performances from most of the cast especially Statham, and some small does of humor that make for an entertaining action thriller to watch.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful to you?
| Report this
Crank is a solid action thrill ride that was better than expected powered by a fantastic performance by Jason Statham whose other film credits include Snatch, The Transporter, and Death Race. Statham does a great job in the role of Chev Chelios a hit-man who's poisoned with a Chinese cocktail that cuts off the adrenaline in his body so in order to stay alive he must keep moving at any cost or he's dead. Statham brings a fierce intensity to the character and he's earned this role after everything you see him do in the movie. Major props to Statham because he really shows through his performance the adrenaline boiling up in his character ready to explode at any minute and he stays like that for the majority of the movie. Well done. Statham's co-star Amy Smart plays Eve whose his totally oblivious stoner girlfriend and she does a good job with the role. She might not get a lot screen time but she makes for a believable clueless girlfriend. She's also featured in "spolier" two scenes I can't even write about in this review. For those of you have seen it you know which two scenes I'm talking about. The rest of the cast including Efren Ramirez, Reno Wilson, and Dwighty Yoakam are admirable in their roles but like Smart they're not given much to do. Directors Mark Neveldine and Bryan Taylor show some real talent with this film making it an edgy action thriller that's very different from any other one you've seen before. Overall Crank was better than expected but with some flaws with the dialgoue at times, some of the shaky camera work, and the ending could've been better. Other then that though Crank is packed with plenty of action with is basically non-stop from the start, solid performances from most of the cast especially Statham, and some small does of humor that make for an entertaining action thriller to watch.