Crank

[MacGuffin]

Trailer here.

Release Date: September 1st, 2006 (wide)

Starring: Jason Statham, Amy Smart, Efren Ramirez, Jose Pablo Cantillo, Jay Xcala

Directed by: Mark Neveldine, Brian Taylor 

Premise: Hitman Chev Chelios is about to begin his morning with an unexpected wake-up call. Groggy, practically unable to move and with a heart that's barely beating, he hears the voice of thug Ricky Verona, who reveals Chev has been poisoned in his sleep and only has an hour to live. The only way to prolong the poison from stopping his heart is to keep his adrenaline flowing. As the clock ticks, Chelios cuts a swath through the streets of Los Angeles, wreaking havoc on those who dare stand in his way. He must rescue his girlfriend from danger, stay two steps ahead of his nemeses and search for an antidote to save his own life.

[polkablues]

"Run Lola Run" meets "Speed".  And if the whole movie is based on him only having an hour to live, how long is the movie?  Even if they do it "Nick of Time"-style, they're going to end up with at least half-an-hour of movie left after he's gotten the antidote.  And, perhaps more importantly, how the hell do you pronounce the name "Xcala"?

[Ravi]

how the hell do you pronounce the name "Xcala"?

Same way you pronounce "Xixax."

[edison]

[grand theft sparrow]

Man, Herbst can't come soon enough.

[gob]

Damn right, here's to hoping that it's as ridiculous and violent and goofy as it should be.
Plus Jason Statham is the rightful heir to the action movie throne. (As long as he doesn't do silly American accents).

[pete]

I thought stratham is a cool guy but I hate him as an action hero.  he is so thuggish and always looks 20 years older than his actual age.  I see him and I think "boy it'd be cool to be in his shape when I'm 50" and other middle aged thoughts.  he is thoroughly middle age, which I guess can be good, since most action stars blossom during their middle ages and some old dudes are still playing middle age.

[matt35mm]

I thought stratham is a cool guy but I hate him as an action hero.  he is so thuggish and always looks 20 years older than his actual age.  I see him and I think "boy it'd be cool to be in his shape when I'm 50" and other middle aged thoughts.  he is thoroughly middle age, which I guess can be good, since most action stars blossom during their middle ages and some old dudes are still playing middle age.

The older age adds gravity to the action hero part.  Who cares what a 25-year-old does?  He's still busy trying to figure out who he is and shit, still trying to impress the ladies, and so on.  But those 40-year-olds, man... if they say shit is going down, you know that some real shit is going down.  I mean OMFG, right?

And then when he brings out his fighting skills or whatever he uses to defeat the bad guys, you can believe a little more that he knows what he's doing, compared to, say... Chad Michael Murray or somebody like that.  Plus, when serious things are at stake, I know I'd prefer a more experienced soldier to fight that battle.

Though it's all exactly the opposite in the case of video games.  You can't do Final Fantasy with 40-year-olds main heroes.  And the best game of all time, Earthbound for SNES, had little kids saving the world.

[pete]

I like old and experienced heroes (and ladies too for that matter) but jason stratham is always trying to act young and cool and thuggish.  playing hard is for young dudes.  old dudes should play cool.

[matt35mm]

old dudes should play cool.

But today's the day he dies!

I read a review yesterday of this movie that said that, in order to keep his adrenaline up, Statham forces Amy Smart to have sex, but is interrupted by a phone call.  Later, while Statham is driving a car (I think through a chase scene), Amy Smart, sexually frustrated from the previous incomplete intercourse, goes down on him.

This sounds like the movie we've all been waiting for, folks.

[MacGuffin]

Jason Statham Cranks It Up!

Anyone who enjoyed seeing Jason Statham in action in "The Transporter" movies but were miffed by how stilted they felt with their strict PG-13 rating, should enjoy his new character in Crank. Chev Chelios, a hired assassin, spends a day running around L.A., killing, screwing and shooting up all sorts of substances in an attempt to stay alive after being injected with a lethal poison.

Yes, it's very much like D.O.A. (the original movie, not the video game!) meets Speed with a bit of the ultra-violent dark humor of Park Chan-wook's Old Boy thrown in. Directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, two hot L.A. commercial directors, it's like playing a video game with a broken controller.

After seeing Statham treated like a rock star at Comic-Con in San Diego, ComingSoon.net had a chance to sit down and talk with the British actor about the movie and other things, like the status of sequels to his two most popular movie roles.

ComingSoon.net: How exciting was it to be able to be in a different kind of action movie like "Crank"?
Jason Statham: This film for me was something I wanted to do because it was a no-holds barred kind of action film, undiluted fun, which I never get to do. There's always a censored rating on my action films, and this on the other hand, is a hard-R, for obvious reasons, and therefore, you can have a bit of fun. The violence is violent, I suppose, but it's not supposed to be taken seriously. This is a comical sort of romp, and it's more of a video game or comic strip film than something that's supposed to be too serious. We know it's not going to be everybody's cup of tea, but that doesn't matter, because it's true to itself. We're not trying to offend anybody, we're trying to make something that is an enjoyable romp, and this certainly is that. If you don't like it—I'm sure it's not going to be everyone's taste—but there's also a lot to be said about a film that's really true to itself.

CS: And you get a bit of romance in this one, if you could call it that.
Statham: A romance in Chinatown! Yeah, it was a really sweet relationship we had, me and Amy [Smart].

CS: What were the discussions like in terms of how far you and Amy were going to go in that Chinatown scene?
Statham: Heh heh heh... I think we pushed it as far as we could go. (laughs) How far can you go with that? We kind of rang every bell there was to ring. It's something we were quite nervous about doing in front of 200 extras. It was something I was looking forward to, but to have a sex scene with Amy Smart, I really WAS looking forward to that, but the location I was not.

CS: How was it working with Amy?
Statham: Oh, she's a delight, to say the least. She's just an adorable person that's great company and just tons of fun, and has no reservations about doing anything. She just takes the bull by the horns and knows how to have fun.

CS: What was the craziest thing you had to do in this movie and where was the line for you saying that they had to get a stuntman to do something?
Statham: The line kind of kept dropping and dropping as the more weeks passed. We were having so much fun, and we knew we were getting good material, and we knew that people enjoy this kind of thing. I just kept allowing myself more and more leeway to do more crazy stunts, and luckily, we did the most dangerous things right at the end. (laughs) In case they lost me, they at least had the film. The hanging out of the helicopter was probably the last thing and the dropping to the floor on the Descender Rig prior to the helicopter thing. Those two pieces were the most dangerous and we stuck them on for the last few days.

CS: What was that Descender Rig like? Did you really end up going downwards that fast for such a long distance?
Statham: It's an old type thing that I think Joel Robinson invented, an old stuntman from the U.S. The braking system was more like a handbrake, but now it's all computerized and apparently very safe. It's an elaborate set of spools with high-tensile wire that's computer-controlled, and literally, you can program how many feet you want to freefall, when the braking system has to kick in, it's amazing piece of equipment. Very smooth, but you're still 200 feet up facing the sky, dropping towards the concrete. It's much better looking at the concrete because you can get the sensation of how fast you're traveling, but when you're falling backwards, it just takes your breath away. And you never know how close you are. Is it going to brake? Am I still going to live?

CS: Was there any stunt that was just too crazy and you had to say "no" to it?
Statham: They're always saying no. They're the ones that say "no" because they're the ones that are concerned that you're not going to be able to do it. They didn't want me to do the helicopter stunt. Usually, it's the explosions and the pyrotechnics. There's no point to do those anyway. There's no skill involved. It's just ridiculously dangerous, and I don't see any value in me doing those crazy head-on collision in a car, what's the point? Let the stuntmen do what they're supposed to do.

CS: Did you have any injuries?
Statham: Yeah, you always get a few knocks and bruises and tweaks, but I'm used to that stuff.

CS: Did you find yourself having to keep your own adrenaline going while shooting this movie and what do you do in your own time to get a rush?
Statham: I'm not going to incriminate myself here. I do a lot of active sports. I do a lot of snowboarding when I can. I go every Christmas and New Year with a bunch of friends. You go off to learn a new trick and there's always a rush to that. Scubadiving is another thing that I'm very partial to. [On the movie], we drank a lot of Red Bull and a lot of coffee. Energy levels do lull, but the two directors Mark and Brian had such an energy that you rise to the occasion. You know you have to do it. You become a professional and you can't just say "I'll be in my trailer. Call me when I'm ready." You have to keep your energy levels high and that's what they're paying you to do.

CS: How was it working with two directors like Mark and Brian?
Statham: On the face of it, you usually expect that to be a bad thing, but they worked really well together. They co-wrote the script so they knew what they wanted, which was a great help, but I think it's like going fishing with two nets. You catch more fish. With two directors, you get more opportunity to try something that might work, and this was a very experimental sort of film for me. We shot what we had to shoot, and then they went, "Now do what you want to do." And one of them would come up with an idea to try, and then a different idea to try, so we were improvising a lot. That's what makes it fun.

CS: How did they break down the responsibilities?
Statham: They'd sort of go, "Do you want to shoot this one, Brian?" and Mark would go, "I'll shoot this one." It was pretty much like that. They had no strategy or plan. Apart from the scenes that moved with great velocity, when I'm running, the rollerblading camerawork was all done by Mark because he's so good on a set of skates. They devised this backpack that housed all the "gubbins" for the hi-definition cameras that they were using. Pretty much he'd be following me on a set of rollerblades as much as he could. He'd be traveling backwards while I was on the motorbike, he'd be on the blades skidding around. That stuff was all Mark Neveldine; he's a lunatic, believe me! I've had to run before with a Stedicam operator, and they can never get the pace that you want them to get. For me, to have Mark on a set of skates was a great asset. I loved that he was able to catch me at full pace... but you can't run faster than a guy on skates.

CS: What are your thoughts on being a European action star crossing over into Hollywood?
Statham: It's great, because we don't make action movies in the UK. All we have is the old James Bond franchise, and that is it. Obviously, I'm not a part of that, so I'm very happy to come to Hollywood and have a bit of fun over there. They've made great action films for decades, and I've been very fond of some of the action films they've made. Luc Besson is the person that gave me my big start as an action star, so apart from going to work for Luc in France, I've no other chances pushed in front of my nose, only in Hollywood, so I'm very happy to be in Hollywood.

CS: Are you still based in London?
Statham: No, I go between the two. I wouldn't say I spend most of my time in London, that would be a lie. I go home to see my friends and kick around for a couple of weeks, and then I'm back over in L.A.

CS: Do you think being trained in the martial arts makes you a more aggressive person or less?
Statham: Much less, because you have a certain inner sense of control, and most of the idiots that are out there causing trouble are the ones that don't have a release for their anger. We all have an internal anger, but it's just a great release to involve yourself in any kind of training. It releases all the endorphins, makes you feel good. You know that you have a sort of control. A lot of people that are out there causing trouble have something to prove because they're insecure, and their ego is trying to get out. They're just idiots. They should take up a martial art. If they wanna go and fight, you only have to go to the UFC and see how many people are game there if you want to start picking fights with people. Just go to Vegas and step in the Octagon!

CS: A lot of British actors come from a classical background, whether it be university or theatre. What was your background before doing Guy Ritchie's movie, did you always want to be an actor?
Statham: No, I just used to work for myself. I used to train during the day to be an athlete and then I'd work weekends on Wembley Market and various times of the year when I wasn't competing, I'd work in the streets. I'd go up Oxford Street and sell fake jewelry and occasionally perfume.

CS: Are you surprised how far you've come as an actor without training and have you thought at all about going to classes or training more?
Statham: I don't want to jinx it, I suppose. There's always room to expand your skills. I've said this before, but it was the advice of Guy Ritchie, he said, "There's a fine line between technique and intuition, and intuition serves you well. It keeps you fresh and for what you're doing right now, it works rather well." Some of my favorite actors of all time have come from the traditional school of training, like Robert De Niro is one of my heroes. So I've kept with the advice of Mr. Ritchie, and I haven't had time to pursue any formal training really. There's a lot of time and hopefully, I'll be able to keep going for many years and find myself some training if I need it.

CS: Do you still keep in touch with Mr. Ritchie?
Statham: I go and visit him and strangle him on his mats. We share a great passion of mixed martial arts and Brazilian ju-jitsu is something he's really fond of, so it's like playing chess, but physically. We do that a lot, and we have great conversations. We have similar taste in movies. He's a great friend of mine and always will be. I have a lot of time for Guy Ritchie.

CS: Do you have any favorite action stars you'd like to make a movie with?
Statham: I just like them doing what they're doing. I don't know if you saw "District 13," there's a free-runner on there called David Bell. I'd love to work with him and Cyril Raffaele, they're great French actors/stuntmen, they're brilliant. Tony Jaa I'm a big fan of. Jet Li I'm also a big fan of. I just did a movie with him up in Canada called "Rogue." I did a movie with him a few years ago that I wasn't too crazy about, but this one is really good.

CS: Any update on the status of "The Italian Job 2" (AKA "The Brazilian Job")?
Statham: What do I know about it? It's looming, it's out there. There's nothing locked down.

CS: Is everyone signed on for the sequel?
Statham: Can't tell you that, I don't know. I would definitely say that I'd love to be a part of that. It's a great crowd. Mark's a good friend of mine, Charlize, Mos Def I don't see much, I know he lives over here, but every time I see him it's a pleasure. Seth Green is a funny ol' bastard, can't get enough of him.

CS: Why has it been so hard to get a sequel off the ground, as it's now been over three years since the original?
Statham: Yeah, so many moving parts, so many actors that are busy. How do you nail everyone down to the gate? I don't know. Maybe that's one of the reasons.

CS: Have you and Luc Besson talked at all about doing another "Transporter" movie?
Statham: Yes, we have talked about it, and we've talked about it. (laughs) I mean, people like the "Transporter" movies. I get a lot of good feedback from it. We don't want to do one next week, but give us a bit of time and we'll stick another one in the bag. I'd like to and he said he would, too.

CS: How would improve on the franchise or character with a third movie?
Statham: I'm not a writer, but I know how many mistakes... I don't want to be too negative and say what I did and didn't like from that last film, but we have so much room to make a better film. We were up against all kinds of things, shooting schedules, hurricanes, different things, no prep time... and we still made a decent film. I know that [if you] give us the things we need, and we'll do something really special.

CS: Do you know what you're doing next?
Statham: I have a film that I'm ready to do, but I'll know in the next week if that's a "yes" or a "no." It's something that's going to be restful on my joints; there's no action involved. It's a drama that's set in London, and that's all I can tell you in case it doesn't happen.

[Split Infinitive]

Crank (2006)

I just about walked out of Crank on three separate occasions.  The only thing that stopped me was probably the fact that I'm not Joel Siegel.  (Thank Christ.)  It wasn't so much the fault of any particular scene as it was that I was bored and bemused by my ill-advised decision to purchase a ticket to a film devoid of any redeeming value.  I hesitate to even call it a "film."  Writer/directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor ventured out of their way to assure the audience that they were watching a video game.  They sure seem to have had lotsa fun playing their game.  I'm not sure Crank is an authentic revenge flick so much as an 87 minute calling card announcing the filmmakers' candidacy for helming the inevitable big screen adaptation of Grand Theft Auto, of which Crank may be considered the unofficial dry run.

Jason Statham is always watchable.  He's really made himself into a brand name in the proud tradition of tough guys like Bogart, McQueen, and Schwarzenegger.  When you strap in for a Jason Statham flick, you generally know what you're going to get.  Arch sarcasm, loads of thuggish swagger, a hint of a soft, nougat center dripping through the gravelly British accent.  He's the bad guy audiences love to root for because he's too much of a badass to not cheer him on.  Statham's directors surround him with ritalin-dosed kineticism, explosions, svelte babes, and flashy camera glares, all thudding along to some white noise and funked-up electro-metal music.  Watching Crank (or the Transporter flicks, or Statham's Guy Ritchie pictures) is like watching a 21st game of Pong, with all the trappings a modest multimillion dollar budget money can buy, and Statham's nigh-hairless head careening from bloody beating to bloody beating.

Sometimes it's purely stupid.  Sometimes it's fun.  Sometimes it's just too much.

Neveldine and Taylor tossed in a few genuinely cool flourishes.  I loved the cast's retro wardrobe.  The film also elicited my only belly laugh when Statham shows up at a hospital pharmacy looking for something that begins with the letter "e" (epinephrine), and the pharmacist drolly retorts, "England?"  I also loved the one sincere moment that the film earns. Chev Chelios (Statham, as if you couldn't guess), a just-retired hitman, is injected with the "Bejing Cocktail," a chemical inhibitor that will kill him unless he keeps his adrenaline flowing.  There's no cure.  He will inevitably die, and soon.  He ducks into a hospital room, and for a few seconds, the camera slows down, and Chev contemplates a sick, comatose old man lying alone in a bed.  The look on Statham's face says it all -- "I hope I die before I get old" is bullshit.  Empathy is a drag, but it almost grounds the film before it flies off the handle in a dozen different directions, none of which are interesting or coherent.  Bouncing merrily along, the film proceeds to delve back into the masculine mythologization of the "blaze of glory" in which Chev wants to go out, taking the twerps who poisoned him along for the Big Final Ride.

Dwight Yoakam is in the film.  Barely.  So is Amy Smart.  I hated her character, and I hated what they did with it.  Her blonde bimbo serves the divine purpose of being around for Chev to buttfuck in the middle of Chinatown and to suck his cock during a high-speed car chase.  (You know, to keep his adrenaline going.  Remember, chickadees, servicing your brawny ubermensch whenever he demands it could very well save his life.)  Efren "Vote for Pedro" Ramirez is here, too.  I thought it was pretty novel just to see him in something other than Napoleon Dynamite, so props for that!

Crank possesses the dubious virtue of its singlemindedness, the raucous celebration of raw stimulation.  Speed, drugs, sex, violence, rock 'n roll.  Its tongue-in-cheek approach is appropriately video-gamey and inestimably annoying.  Are Neveldine/Taylor really racist, doped-up, chauvinist, antisocial homophobes?  Probably not.  Crank is not meant to be taken seriously.  Yet they make a lame stab at pathos by giving Chev the backstory of having just given up "the life" for love.  Cheap, guys.  With all the ludricrously, self-consciously X-Box touches thrown into the stew, you want us to root for a rampaging psychopath with a heart of gold?  If there's one thing to Neveldine/Taylor's credit, it's that they have made me appreciate Tony Scott's restraint a whole lot more than I thought I ever would.

Irony of ironies, the most pathetic part of Crank is that it simply did not stimulate me, sensationally or otherwise.  Crank will probably draw a lot of comparisons to Running Scared, Wayne Kramer's aesthetically kindred crime caper from earlier this year.  Both attempt to be "hardcore" explotation fare, and in different ways, they succeed.  Whereas Running Scared was at least aware of its cinematic lineage, Crank is purely ignorant.  It's postmodern -- or, rather, post-Tarantino -- without realizing that it has roots, or managing to capitalize on them.  I'd call it post-whatever, since it doesn't have a clue.  Despite all its dizzying freneticism, Running Scared does play its games for the benefit of the audience, and it's actually possible to tell what's going on in the majority of the scenes.  With Crank, the jumbled collage of orange-ish jump cuts and gimmicky "body shots" just dogpiles to no cumulative effect (besides mild nausea).

The action rests on Statham's shoulders alone, and as a brand name, his shelf life is looking dramatically shorter than expected.  If he continues attaching himself to scripts whose dialogue consists primarily of idiotic gangsters spitting four-letter words at each other and moments of spectacular bloodshed, he'll be in Collateral Damage territory far sooner than he'd expect.  Mindless fans of mindless trash are likely going to enjoy this steady diet of cine-junk flushed through the projector directly into their melting brains.  Shameless in its irrelevance, there may be a future yet for Crank in the American pop culture wasteland that devours with relish anything sleek, gaudy and unsubstanial enough to perceived as parodic.  Neveldine and Taylor have certainly earned one distinction with their debut feature: they've etched their names alongside the high priest of inexplicably profitable video game crapfests, Dr. Uwe Boll.

But at least I didn't walk out.  I'll leave it up to you to decide whether that's due to the film or to the fact that after shelling out $6.25, I was simply more interested in getting my money's worth than spending my time more judiciously.

[clerkguy23]

everyone go see crank!

[pete]

crankguy23

[Gamblour.]

Damn, Split Infintive, you make me want to see this, or never see it. I'm not sure which. But your writing is like a delicious food.