Jason Statham's Most Gonzo Sci-Fi Action Movie Is Streaming For Free

Filmmakers Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor peaked early in their careers. The eclectic American duo (also responsible for the disastrous yet commercially successful comic book adaptation, "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance") has made more than a half dozen movies together and separately. Try as they might, they never came close to repeating the highs (pun intended) of their chaotic low-budget feature debut that was "Crank." Starring a rapidly rising Jason Statham (after a brief career in competitive diving), the 2006 action flick — now streaming for free on Prime Video — had that extra oomph the British actor needed to turn him into a Hollywood legend. 

"Crank" brazenly defined what "out there" filmmaking meant when it came to B-movie lunacy, with such an outrageous plot and breakneck pacing that no other flick has been able to replicate ever since. Put simply, there's "Crank," and then there's everything else.

The plot follows Chev Chelios (Statham), a Cockney hitman living in Los Angeles, employed by the local crime boss Don Carlito (Carlos Sanz), who tasks him with killing his rival, Don Kim (Keone Young), the head of the Triads. Chelios completes the job, only to wake up the next day and find a video recording telling him that he's been injected with a Chinese drug (the Beijing Cocktail) that will kill him if his heartbeat drops too low. Panicked, Chelios calls his friend Doc Miles (Dwight Yoakam), who informs him that the substance is cutting off his body's adrenaline supply, meaning, if he stops, he dies — and with that, he's off to the races.

Neveldine and Taylor wrote "Crank" at a time when such wild scripts could still get greenlit regardless of how nonsensical, offensive, or foul they were. From stylized brutality to rampant drug abuse to blatant racism and even a full-blown public sex scene with Amy Smart (one that Millennials will never forget), their movie was a beautiful abomination that somehow managed to write itself into the zeitgeist of the mid-aughts.

Made on a $12 million budget with a hard R rating that felt rather like a status symbol of boldness, "Crank" spread through cinemas like wildfire and made nearly $43 million worldwide at the box office. It was a phenomenon that only got bigger once it hit the DVD market, quickly turning the film into a beloved cult classic among B-movie enthusiasts. For what it's worth, critics weren't necessarily that impressed by it at the time (unsurprisingly), but the majority of them admitted that "Crank" was the kind of stupid and boisterous fun that's hard to resist.

Naturally, there were attempts over the years to evoke its bonkers concept and vibe, such as 2008's "Shoot 'Em Up" (in which Clive Owen delivers a not-too-shabby Statham impression), 2015's POV experiment "Hardcore Henry," and 2019's "Guns Akimbo," a ridiculous action-comedy that saw Harry Potter with guns attached to his hands run amok with carnage. Still, none of those managed to truly measure up to the riveting insanity that "Crank" gave us 20 years ago (not even its straight-up sequel, sadly). So, if you're a fan of frantic concepts and preposterous action flicks, and for some reason still haven't seen it, now it's the perfect time to fill that gap.