Crank

While the discerning cinema-goer should rightly approach a Jason Statham thriller with a heavy heart, ‘Crank’ is a bit of hoot – if viewed with tongue firmly in cheek. Statham is Chev Chelios, a British hitman living it up in LA – that’s until he’s injected with a lethal poison by gangsters and informed that he has about an hour to live. His doctor (Dwight Yoakam) informs him that in order to stay alive he has to keep the adrenaline flowing, which means America’s favourite British thug is compelled to tear around LA shooting, shagging and snorting as many drugs as he can get his hands on.

The clock-ticking premise keeps the pace going nicely, although a sympathetic hero would make this more compelling. As it is, you don’t care if Chelios lives or dies at the end of the film, as long as he survives for long enough to keep up his yobbish antics. The supporting characters are no less stereotypical, from the mincing gay lookout to the ditsy blonde girlfriend, Eve (Amy Smart). There’s an offensive scene in which Chelios forces Eve into public sex, only for her to submit midway and beg for more. This is the point at which many a liberal viewer’s sense of humour will fail. In general, however, the film is so jubilantly over the top and aware of its own failings, it’s hard not to laugh. After all, you don’t see Jason Statham running around the streets in a hospital gown with a huge erection every day – a fact for which we should be grateful.