Succinct Film Reviews

CRANK

For a film, it makes a good video game.


Less succinct take on the same film.

Crank, is an interesting picture. It's inventive, quick, and well put together. But it has a gaping soulless void in the center of this picture that keeps it from either being as dark or as light as it should have been. Its wildly uneven tone works for it and against it. Its quick-cut, get on to the next moment pacing also works for and against it. It borrows elements from a variety of genre styles of the past 3 decades. It's got heavy doses of 80s Hong Kong, a dash of 90s QT-worship, and quite a bit of seedy 70s anti-hero picture thrown into the mix.

It is as good and as bad as you'd expect with that mish-mash of influences. With all those influences working on it, the writer/director pair of Neveldine/Taylor (both credited for both), have created something that feels original and unique, yet at the same time kind of tired and derivative. It's hard to point out what doesn't quite work, or what does work, for that matter. Everyone really gives a top-notch performance, and this film is very 'cinematic' and very well made. Yet, it still feels less than it might have been. Relentlessness on screen, can actually become a touch tedious for the audience.

Bottom line, it's entertaining, just not always in an enjoyable way.