Crank

[Stephen]

Anyone seen this? I was reluctant to go after having to put up with 2 hours of Statham's appalling yank accent 3 years ago in The Transporter but this looked too irresistably stupid to stay away from. As a bonus, I was to find he keeps his good old cockernee voice for the duration of this one, though does occasionally spoil it by saying things like 'douche bag'.

Anyway, it's utterly fucking stupid but pretty exciting/funny. For those who don't know, the main premise of the film is this. Jason Statham plays the preposterously named Chev Chelios (I mean, really) who is a hitman for a crime syndicate. One morning he wakes up feeling like shit and finds out he's been poisoned and has about an hour to live. Pretty soon he discovers that the only way to not die is to keep his adrenaline levels - and therefore his heartrate - up through excitement/fear/pain. Cue lots of ridiculous and irresponsible behaviour, bad language and gratuitous violence.

Some interesting production here too, though I'm not sure how much of it really worked. Probably too many ideas in there for them to all be successful but it was certainly innovative.

I recommend, though can't see it winning any oscars. Would probably sit quite well in a double bill along with Snakes on a Plane.