This is in no way a movie for the faint of heart (heh). Jason Statham (Transporter) plays Chev Chelios, a hit man working for a west coast crime syndicate. When the movie opens he discovers that he's been poisoned by Verona, the man who wants to take his place in the organization. The poison blocks his body's ability to properly use adrenaline. Every time he slows down, his heart grinds to a halt. During the course of the movie he resorts to drugs, sex, rock and roll, and of course a penchant for extreme violence to prevent that from happening. All of this with end of exacting vengeance on Verona before his body gives out.

Crank moves at an incredible pace and only rarely lets you stop and breathe. Even those few breathers give you something interesting. None of the talent on display disappointed, but the real standout (other than Jason) was Doc Miles played by Dwight Yoakam of all people. Miles is Chev's black market doctor. The two carry on a number of absolutely fantastic conversations on the ubiquitous cell phones. Both Miles and Eve, Chev's girlfriend, could have been real ciphers, overshadowed by everything else going on in this busy little film. A number of great decisions by newbie directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor prevent that from happening though.

Speaking of these two, based on the bits of commentary that I caught (I don't ordinarily do the commentary thing), they had a blast making this and it showed. They both worked on Biker Boyz (2003) as "extreme visual sequences creators" and they brought that sensibility to the screen here. There are several great POV shots that put you right in the action. If I recall correctly they said that if they put the camera in actual danger then they felt that it would sell the scene more effectively. That definitely worked. As the writers they also brought a great deal of humor to the work. The fun they had with subtitles and the kinds of scenes (I'm thinking Chinatown here) that would cause just about any other movie to spontaneously combust keep the whole thing from being grim and this is a really grim premise.

It shows the lengths that a human might go through to cling to life. At one point he snorts cocaine from a dirty club floor and later he actually drinks Rockstar *shudder*. Jokes aside, Chev does things that under any other circumstance he would avoid because they might kill him, simply to find another human being and avenge his own death. The unfortunate thing about all of this is that he was about to leave the life to be with Eve and part of the reason that Verona wanted him dead was to have him out of the way. He'd had enough of the killing and the violence and wanted a simpler life. That's actually more than a bit like Frank in The Transporter. The message here is (if message there is) that no matter how hard we might try and escape from who we are, fate won't allow it.

Chev does express regrets in a closing soliloquy to Eve's answering machine. He wished that he had taken time to appreciate the things around him. All of that seems empty though given what Chev says to himself about himself in an elevator hallucination "Bipolar. Sadomasochistic tendencies. Adrenaline junkie. Addicted to violence... probably spends every day of his life looking for the big thrill, the big rush." In the end he gets exactly the sort of death that a man like that would want and it's then that he's most at peace. So for all of his talk about wanting to get out, vengeance, mayhem, and murder rule Chev's life.

So if you like extreme video games (and for proof that this is the "best video game adaptation" check here), no holds barred action, and a plethora of bullets and explosions check this out.