Crank is Still a Fun Time

as I discovered last night: 

A review done because the original I wrote was from the first days I was on Letterboxd 12 (!) years ago when I tried to add various films viewed in the several years prior and those not redone at a later date were only a few sentences long. They won’t all eventually get redone but as this is a famous (or perhaps infamous) action picture from the early 2000’s, more details are needed & that might appeal to those that either like the movie or think they would like a picture new to them based on my description.

To address the automobile in the mall, yes I still enjoy Crank despite the comments I’ve made in the past year to several years about vulgarity in movies. Sometimes, older films are grandfathered in where
I am still fine with some Scorsese or Tarantino films despite the excessive amounts of F-bombs they have. And sometimes I’m fine with it in terms of context. In an absurd flashy OOT picture where Jason Statham portrayed a hitman named Chev Chelios who is injected w/ a synthetic drug by a double-crosser and he needs to have his adrenaline at an extreme high—and this is done via snorting coke, fighting people, slamming cans of Red Bull, public sex… of course a movie starring an actor who probably has dropped F-bombs in many of his flicks would be a lot. 

The movie doesn’t have what I’d call “a positive portrayal of women.” Other things date the film. That said, Crank is all about adrenaline rushes and the duo of Neveldine & Taylor deliver what you’d want for something designed to be a bold motion picture with a breakneck pace full of gaudy, gauche, startling moments. Despite her character, I enjoyed Amy Smart’s character although except for Statham, the highlight was Dwight Yoakam in his small yet critical supporting part. I remembered all that; completely escaping my memory banks was hearing tunes from Quiet Riot, Jefferson Starship and Loverboy.

Importantly, Crank (shot on digital videotape back when not shooting on 35mm was a rarity) was not SO much that the contemptable movie became too much and was just gross, irritating, a middle finger to the viewer. That-IMO-was Crank: Danger Danger High Voltage-to steal a joke from the time and apologies for those that know the song, now stuck in your head. One day I’ll deliver a better review of the sequel to explain why it seemed that tried WAY too hard. The original Crank, on the other hand, is still a swell time whenever I’m in the mood for a pile of trash.

As for Neveldine & Taylor, Jonah Hex went horribly awry for reasons unknown to me and they suddenly broke up their partnership. Their subsequent output has been rather minimal-either the film is lousy (Taylor’s Hellboy from last year; yes, there was a Hellboy film that flew under the radar) or terrible, like Neveldine’s Panama, a pile of crap featuring a slumming Cole Hauser (RIP to his dad Wings Hauser, which I’ll discuss tomorrow evening) and Mel Gibson.