Movie · 2006 · Action, Thriller, Crime · 1h 28m · R · English
Curator score: 3.3/10 (425.4K ratings)
There are a thousand ways to raise your adrenaline. Today, Chev Chelios will need every single one.
Overview
Chev Chelios, a hit man wanting to go straight, lets his latest target slip away. Then he awakes the next morning to a phone call that informs him he has been poisoned and has only an hour to live unless he keeps adrenaline coursing through his body while he searches for an antidote.
Jason Statham, Amy Smart, Jose Pablo Cantillo, Efren Ramirez, Dwight Yoakam, Carlos Sanz, Reno Wilson, Edi Gathegi, Glenn Howerton, Jay Xcala, Keone Young, Valarie Rae Miller, Yousuf Azami, Laurent Schwaar, David Brown, Dorian Kingi, Med Abrous, Daniel Stevens, Wally Lozano, David T. Green
Curator Review
Verdict
A hyperactive, mean, and gleefully trashy action movie that turns a simple ticking-clock premise into a full-body adrenaline joke. Its style is the point: frantic editing, crude humor, and a shamelessly overcaffeinated energy that makes it feel like a cult object rather than a polished studio thriller.
Best for
Viewers who like chaotic, high-concept action movies
Fans of Jason Statham at his most unhinged and game
People who enjoy aggressive editing, digital-era grime, and punkish filmmaking
Audiences in the mood for a deliberately stupid but inventive ride
Skip if
You want clean, coherent action choreography over sensory overload
You dislike crude humor, misogynistic edges, or extreme vulgarity
You prefer grounded thrillers with emotional realism
Fast-cut, headache-inducing filmmaking tends to annoy you
Overview
Crank is the kind of movie that seems designed to offend good taste and then win you over by sheer commitment. It takes a one-hour death sentence premise and pushes it into a fever dream of public humiliation, street-fight absurdity, and chemically unstable momentum. The result is crude, noisy, and often ridiculous, but rarely boring.
Worth noting
What makes it endure is how fully it understands its own trashy identity. The movie weaponizes digital ugliness, frantic cutting, and a nasty sense of humor to create something that feels both disposable and weirdly singular. Jason Statham plays it straight enough to keep the joke alive, which is crucial: the film works because everyone involved acts as if this is the most urgent thing in the world.
Bottom line
It is not a polished action classic so much as a cult artifact of early-2000s excess. If you want elegance, look elsewhere. If you want a movie that feels like it was made by people who thought restraint was for cowards, Crank delivers exactly that.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Carlos (4★) · 2898 likes
This is a better remake of Speed, with Statham being the bus
Robert Franco · 1742 likes
the two most annoying dudes you went to film school with who had the worst taste made a movie... and it turned out to fucking rule.
#1 gizmo fan (5★) · 1133 likes
An actual perfect film.
Brendan Michaels · 1077 likes
This is the best and the worst film ever made.
Josh Lewis (4★) · 1014 likes
The origins of Monster energy drink cinema. The gleeful vulgarity/gruesomeness, filthy textures, anarchic editing patterns, and digital camera moves. Just nauseating front-to-back. Great filmmaking. Somehow always forget about Staham trying to head-bang to 'Achy Breaky Heart'.
1997 · Action, Crime, Science Fiction · 2h 19m · R · Curator 6.2/10 (728.5K ratings) · Where to watch: fuboTV, Paramount Plus Premium, Paramount Plus Essential, MGM Plus
A wildly over-the-top action thriller that embraces operatic absurdity while still delivering serious genre thrills.