Crank - like Vanishing Point, well, except when it wasn't

Cafe Society
1

I am stuck in a hotel room and got it on PPV. It was suprisingly engaging - the MTV edit job was ever-changing, they action was pretty good, Jason Statham was a decent lead, Dwight Yoakam is always a nice addition and Amy Smart - well, if she is gonna sell her soul, she might as well get drilled in the middle of Chinatown for doing so.

So it was a goof and left no aftertaste - I just wish that along with the adrenaline (conscious reference, thank you) I wish it just had a bit of the substance that Vanishing Point had - if you’ve seen both, I hope the basic plot similarities evoke the comparison…but if you haven’t seen VP but seen this movie, go get VP…ASAP.

2

I love Statham, so I really wanted to like Crank. Essentially it was Grand Theft Auto: The Movie, with all the ensuing mayhem that an adaptation of the violent video game would require. But I think I would have liked it more if Statham was an actual good guy and not a hitman thug – a righteous, heroic Jack Bauer-type on such an adrenaline rampage would have been a lot easier to cheer on.

3

The GTA reference makes sense, now that I think about it. I guess my point is

If our hero/leading man type guy is racing through the city to keep his adrenaline up to stave off the poison, I assume, as an audience member, that he is doing so to in order to find a cure. There is nothing in this movie that suggests that - if a cure is not possible - at least some form of closure, redemption, awareness, etc. should be sought (as it was in Vanishing Point, hence my reference). So Statham just goes until he can’t anymore, then dies. No cure. No redemption. Nada. Game over…

4

I saw this film in the theater because (a) it was short–something not nearly enough movies are nowadays, (b) Amy Smart, and © its ridiculous premise.

I won’t say it’s particularly good, but it was fun–she’s hot, Statham’s charismatic, and it goes down quickly (taking some surprising, if preposterous, turns along the way).

5

The Video Game reference makes a lot of sense if you consider that

At the very end of the movie’s credits, they show a computer game with 1980s graphics playing. The hero, a bald guy that looks looks suspiciously like Statham, also happens to die, albeit not in the way that Statham gets it in the movie. I guess their point was “This WAS a video game”. Game over now.