Crank
[4K/Blu-ray combo]
One of the great things about the How Did This Get Made podcast is that on occasion they discuss a movie so great and underrated that it changes the game for you. For me, Crank was definitely one of those movies. Having dismissed it as a ridiculous cashgrab at first (like the stupid Hurricane Heist or Geostorm movies), I’ve since come to appreciate it as an incredibly punk rock effort. After watching Crank I was forced to admit that the Neveldine/Taylor team are a force to be reckoned with.
To truly appreciate Crank, you have to be strapped in for an hour and half of visual and conceptual pushing of boundaries. It’s like Neveldine and Taylor wanted an excuse to play around with new ideas for shooting a movie. The plot is simple enough: Chev Chelios is a hitman who has been injected with some drug that will kill him if he calms down and he has to keep his adrenaline up in order to kill the people who wronged him. Of course this is just a backdrop to the visual stimuli that unfolds during this absurd scenario. One thing I will say about Neveldine and Taylor is that their style is highly original and very welcome. It has that fast-paced, colorful and overexposed, fun and unusual aspect to it that you just don’t find anywhere else. It’s definitely a movie where you need to pay attention to what’s going on the screen, otherwise you’re going to miss those subtle cool shots, the crazy one-off jokes, the non-sequiturs, and insane plot twists. Keep in mind, Crank is 88 minutes including credits. It swings for the fences and does so in a highly original if not slightly-offensive way. It’s like Neveldine and Taylor were full of these great ideas, knew exactly how to do them, and had almost no time to do it in. The urgency if the movie can be fully felt onscreen and its underdog qualities truly make it unlike any action movie you’ll ever see.
It’s great that Crank is one of the movies Lionsgate is starting to crank out (ha!) in its exploration of the 4K medium. Like we said, this is a very visual movie and as such it should be viewed in the most cutting edge way possible. The discs are also loaded with extras like behind the scenes making ofs, how they went about promoting the movie, a directors’ commentary, and a comicon Q & A session. It’s a full package that’s impressive to say the least.
Crank changes the game and needs to be seen to be believed. And that goes double for its sequel (which we hope will see the light of day very soon). In fact, one can only hope that Chev Chelios’ story will be told in a trilogy. Until then, this movie belongs in every collection.
