I almost walked out. (I watched others walk out.)
Now, you gotta understand that I am not one to walk out of a movie. Ever. Although, I was extremely compelled to get out of my seat many times throughout the Crank: High Voltage and felt somewhat gross for staying, I persevered. I figure I really can't complain about a movie unless I give it a full chance and watch it from beginning to end.
I was really looking forward to a fun-filled action ride, going to this movie. I love the Tarantino films, the Guy Ritchie movies, the gratuitous special effects shows and extreme camera angles and stylings. Agreed, there are some pretty impressive visuals and high speed action. That's where the fun ends. It's what's going on within all these visuals and action that's quite disturbing.
The rant: I don't know if the theatre I was in had their volume turned up and extra notch or if this movie has it's levels higher than it should, but I was glad I had my headphones with me, so I could stick them in my ears while I watched. Otherwise, my ears would be ringing and in pain today. It makes sense that Crank would have it's levels higher because this is in keeping with the commercials on television (a little louder than everything else and definitely louder than necessary), especially since the movie seemed like one big commercial for sexism, violence, poor taste, and sensationalism.
From cutting own's own nipples off to cutting another's elbows off and calling it "sushi", from shoving rifles covered in tar up asses to obliterating someone's face with a 6-pack cooler, I've seen some hard-core films with insane violence in it, but Crank doesn't care. It jumps from one sensational image to the next, a big fricken festival and no one seems to give a second glance or asks "why". The violence really doesn't matter, it just keeps happening, almost without reason or result. You want a little overstimulation with your violence? How bout extreme close-ups, fast-paced rhythm editing, and gratuitous "which indie film camera trick have we not used, cuz I wanna make sure and use them all?"
Okay, okay, the number of close-up crotch, tits, and ass shots is quite impressive as well. I've never seen so many shots of impressively focused angles on butt flesh in all it's forms. You can see every dimple and peach fuzz hair on the hundreds of girls' featured butts (and man ass too). And it's not enough to just focus in, they somehow managed to get all of their actresses to spread their legs or bend over to get that nice "up in between the legs" shot. Not once, not twice, over and over, the whole film seemed a montage of sluts parading behind gunfire and commercialism. Even the sex scene on the horse track; it was like "I get it, I get it, funny, ha ha" and then it just kept going and going, going from bad to just stupid.
Which brings me to the real trouble with this flick, it is everything wrong with the media today, yelling and screaming at you with disregard to taste or creativity or narrative (speaking of which, it is quite clear they really don't care whether or not you know what's going on or if there is a story to all the madness) in a big shiny box with sparkles, ribbons, bows, glitter, and and... They took EVERYTHING cool in action movies and indie films and whatnot and smashed it together and got a clown in a car salesman suit to hit you over the head with it while screaming death metal songs in your ear. (I LOVE Jason Statham, I don't think of him as the clown in the least. Loved watching him, just disappointed with the packaging.) Removed the class, cut the taste. They stole the appearance of creativity and "cool" the way an ad agency steals a great photo on Flickr and sells millions of dollars worth of shampoo with it after a nice Photoshop job. It did have the pacing of a commercial or MTV video and I kinda felt like I was watching one long, loud, bad, commercial for sexism and violence and "don't give a f*ck".
Just ugly.
It makes me really disappointed with the direction of the media today. I was disappointed when I came to IMDb and saw what high ratings it got. I know people love this film and I can see why. I guess that's the sad part.
Now, you gotta understand that I am not one to walk out of a movie. Ever. Although, I was extremely compelled to get out of my seat many times throughout the Crank: High Voltage and felt somewhat gross for staying, I persevered. I figure I really can't complain about a movie unless I give it a full chance and watch it from beginning to end.
I was really looking forward to a fun-filled action ride, going to this movie. I love the Tarantino films, the Guy Ritchie movies, the gratuitous special effects shows and extreme camera angles and stylings. Agreed, there are some pretty impressive visuals and high speed action. That's where the fun ends. It's what's going on within all these visuals and action that's quite disturbing.
The rant: I don't know if the theatre I was in had their volume turned up and extra notch or if this movie has it's levels higher than it should, but I was glad I had my headphones with me, so I could stick them in my ears while I watched. Otherwise, my ears would be ringing and in pain today. It makes sense that Crank would have it's levels higher because this is in keeping with the commercials on television (a little louder than everything else and definitely louder than necessary), especially since the movie seemed like one big commercial for sexism, violence, poor taste, and sensationalism.
From cutting own's own nipples off to cutting another's elbows off and calling it "sushi", from shoving rifles covered in tar up asses to obliterating someone's face with a 6-pack cooler, I've seen some hard-core films with insane violence in it, but Crank doesn't care. It jumps from one sensational image to the next, a big fricken festival and no one seems to give a second glance or asks "why". The violence really doesn't matter, it just keeps happening, almost without reason or result. You want a little overstimulation with your violence? How bout extreme close-ups, fast-paced rhythm editing, and gratuitous "which indie film camera trick have we not used, cuz I wanna make sure and use them all?"
Okay, okay, the number of close-up crotch, tits, and ass shots is quite impressive as well. I've never seen so many shots of impressively focused angles on butt flesh in all it's forms. You can see every dimple and peach fuzz hair on the hundreds of girls' featured butts (and man ass too). And it's not enough to just focus in, they somehow managed to get all of their actresses to spread their legs or bend over to get that nice "up in between the legs" shot. Not once, not twice, over and over, the whole film seemed a montage of sluts parading behind gunfire and commercialism. Even the sex scene on the horse track; it was like "I get it, I get it, funny, ha ha" and then it just kept going and going, going from bad to just stupid.
Which brings me to the real trouble with this flick, it is everything wrong with the media today, yelling and screaming at you with disregard to taste or creativity or narrative (speaking of which, it is quite clear they really don't care whether or not you know what's going on or if there is a story to all the madness) in a big shiny box with sparkles, ribbons, bows, glitter, and and... They took EVERYTHING cool in action movies and indie films and whatnot and smashed it together and got a clown in a car salesman suit to hit you over the head with it while screaming death metal songs in your ear. (I LOVE Jason Statham, I don't think of him as the clown in the least. Loved watching him, just disappointed with the packaging.) Removed the class, cut the taste. They stole the appearance of creativity and "cool" the way an ad agency steals a great photo on Flickr and sells millions of dollars worth of shampoo with it after a nice Photoshop job. It did have the pacing of a commercial or MTV video and I kinda felt like I was watching one long, loud, bad, commercial for sexism and violence and "don't give a f*ck".
Just ugly.
It makes me really disappointed with the direction of the media today. I was disappointed when I came to IMDb and saw what high ratings it got. I know people love this film and I can see why. I guess that's the sad part.