As much as I like Jason Statham, the thing that intrigued me most about Crank was its silly concept. Speed was anchored by a great cheesy action movie notion, but Crank has a more unique take with its own “slow down and die” twist that definitively outrivals the earlier Keanu Reeves film. In case you don't know, the idea is that Chev Chelios (Statham) must keep his adrenaline going, or he dies. Cinematically, that should translate into constant, unrelenting action that keeps the audience's adrenaline up, but my fear going into this picture is that the filmmakers would water down the action into a Cellular volume, and that I would walk away disappointed. Cellular was a good film in its own right, but such a tone would not a fit a concept such as this one.

Surprisingly, however, Crank takes a vastly different approach than I had expected, and not only does its action sequences come at you non-stop, the film's style is also rampant and crazy, and highly entertaining. As Running Scared went over the top with its visuals, Crank goes even a step further than that, with multiple split-screens, literally writing words on the screen, and frantic camera movement and color changes. If you think Oliver Stone was crazy with his editing, and kinetic camera, Crank goes even beyond him. It is as though the people who made Crank went into its production thinking that this was perhaps their only chance to make a film together, so they may as well go full out and not hold anything back that they would regret later in life. The result of this is admirable, as while not all the efforts pay off, more than enough of them do, in order to create an unmistakably enjoyable experience. While it may claim on some movie cases that the film inside is “wall-to-wall action,” Crank is the closest I've seen to actually literally achieving that goal. While normally, I do not appreciate such an ambition, normally that ambition isn't handled with near as much skill and vigor as this.

I have to say that I don't know where the mediocre reviews for Crank came from. It is a guy movie, to be sure. And it is totally without depth. But to say that it “isn't that great” makes me think that most critics were bored by it. I don't see how. I can see not liking it completely, if you're not into this type of thing, but shaking your shoulders in a “whatever” kind of attitude makes no sense to me. You like Crank, or you don't; for the film does not know the meaning of the word “mediocrity.” It is funny, balls-out intense, and not disappointing in the slightest. Good action movies are few and far between, so relish the good couple that occasionally come out, and go see Crank.