Crank Duology

Overall Rating: 5.5 /10

Genre: Action

Overall value for money and time: 4.5 /10

The first installment is about a professional assasin who was injected with a deadly chinese poison that would kill him if his heart rate drops. The sequel shows him being a lab rat and having his heart replaced by an artificial heart, which needs constant electrivity boosts to keep him alive.

The overall rating is highly contributed from the sequel. When I first heard of the sypnosis, I leaped at the opportunity to finally catch Crank. I mean, what could go wrong with such a novel concept and with Jason Statham in it? I found my answer... the directing. It didn't work for me. Both movies almost felt like I was watching another House of the Dead, where there's abrupt scenes of video games popping up throughout the movie. Made it feel cheesy, cheap, and unprofessional. Almost also feels like The Forbidden Kingdom, a "kiddo" director trying to live his dream by directing a movie...

Fortunately, I was able to convince myself to complete both movies and the sequel, though equally irritating with the video games scenes, was slightly better in terms of creativity - the sources by which Jason Statham would recharge himself. The ending was lame... expectedly, and assured a 3rd installment, which I might finally give it a pass....