Chelios faces a Chinese mobster who has stolen his nearly indestructible heart and replaced it with a battery-powered ticker which requires regular jolts of electricity to keep working.
Directors:
Mark Neveldine,
Brian Taylor
Stars:
Jason Statham,
Amy Smart,
Clifton Collins Jr.
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
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
Bishop's most formidable foe kidnaps the love of his life in order to make him complete three impossible assassinations and make them look like accidents.
Director:
Dennis Gansel
Stars:
Jason Statham,
Jessica Alba,
Tommy Lee Jones
Barney augments his team with new blood for a personal battle: to take down Conrad Stonebanks, the Expendables co-founder and notorious arms trader who is hell bent on wiping out Barney and every single one of his associates.
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
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 Chelios is driving the police motorbike on the bridge/freeway, you can clearly see a bright sky with shiny weather, moments later it's very cloudy. The change is visible several times. See more »
Quotes
Chev Chelios:
[after chopping off the arm of a bad guy and telling him]
How'd you like that one, tough guy? How fricking awesome was that, huh?
See more »
Crazy Credits
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
German FSK-16 version is cut for violence (97 seconds). Uncut version is rated "Not under 18". See more »
Adrenalina
Written by David Perez, Jimmie Montoya, Moses Ramirez, Robert Castillo
Performed by David Rolas featuring 10 West and Jimi Barrz
Courtesy of Fonovisa Records, a division of Univision Music LLC See more »
User Reviews
"Crank" a fast paced, clever, and cool-as-Hell adrenaline rush of a film!!
I walked into "Crank" with low expectations, as I do with many films. The previews made it look like it had a clever story, but I was worried that with Jason Statham playing lead, I might just get a re-hash of his "Transporter" films.
I got a pleasant surprise. From the very beginning, the film moves. And moves damn fast. Not in an obnoxious way either. In the first minutes of the film we are set up with a possible story of corruption between hit men, a botched job, and the set-up for the whole movie-- Statham's Chev Chelios being fatally poisoned with a Chinese-made serum that slows his heart rate, and will eventually literally make his heart stop, killing him. The only solution-- get the adrenaline pumping and keep his heart rate up! The whole movie is like one long action sequence, with pauses for story elements. This is the common thing now in films, but in other movies, it generally doesn't work so well. But, with the premise of "Crank" being the need for speed (Literally), the idea of all-action, little-plot actually works. And works well.
However, don't be mistaken, there is genuine plot in the film. Clever stories about the pasts and workings of crime-lords and their cronies, and how they all relate to Chelios. Some of it went over my head because of the constant action, but I was able to understand everything enough to enjoy the film.
The direction and editing is something I want to talk about briefly before I wrap this up. For a film like this, one would expect flashy camera work and crazy fast cutting, but I must say, the director/writer and the editor went beyond the call of duty. The film is shot as though the cameraman himself was the one who was poisoned, with the camera flashing and moving around nearly constantly, only settling during the slow scenes. Quite a genius use of camera-work to emulate the story. And the editing certainly adds a lot to the already excellent camera work. We get cutting when necessary and when not necessary, to further illustrate the needs of the main character.
Overall, I would say "Crank" was the coolest movie I've seen in the last several years, leaps and bounds beyond the standard Hollywood action flick. I would recommend to any action-fan or adrenaline junkie, because take it from me, this film is the ultimate rush!
343 of 460 people found this review helpful.
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I walked into "Crank" with low expectations, as I do with many films. The previews made it look like it had a clever story, but I was worried that with Jason Statham playing lead, I might just get a re-hash of his "Transporter" films.
I got a pleasant surprise. From the very beginning, the film moves. And moves damn fast. Not in an obnoxious way either. In the first minutes of the film we are set up with a possible story of corruption between hit men, a botched job, and the set-up for the whole movie-- Statham's Chev Chelios being fatally poisoned with a Chinese-made serum that slows his heart rate, and will eventually literally make his heart stop, killing him. The only solution-- get the adrenaline pumping and keep his heart rate up! The whole movie is like one long action sequence, with pauses for story elements. This is the common thing now in films, but in other movies, it generally doesn't work so well. But, with the premise of "Crank" being the need for speed (Literally), the idea of all-action, little-plot actually works. And works well.
However, don't be mistaken, there is genuine plot in the film. Clever stories about the pasts and workings of crime-lords and their cronies, and how they all relate to Chelios. Some of it went over my head because of the constant action, but I was able to understand everything enough to enjoy the film.
The direction and editing is something I want to talk about briefly before I wrap this up. For a film like this, one would expect flashy camera work and crazy fast cutting, but I must say, the director/writer and the editor went beyond the call of duty. The film is shot as though the cameraman himself was the one who was poisoned, with the camera flashing and moving around nearly constantly, only settling during the slow scenes. Quite a genius use of camera-work to emulate the story. And the editing certainly adds a lot to the already excellent camera work. We get cutting when necessary and when not necessary, to further illustrate the needs of the main character.
Overall, I would say "Crank" was the coolest movie I've seen in the last several years, leaps and bounds beyond the standard Hollywood action flick. I would recommend to any action-fan or adrenaline junkie, because take it from me, this film is the ultimate rush!