Adrenaline drops with ‘Crank’ special features
Skip the extras on this action packed, heart-racing DVD
By Will Fawley, contributing writer
Posted on January 16, 2007

“Crank” provides an entertaining twist on the offbeat action movie genre. The cinematography is very creative and the film is full of unbelievably ridiculous scenes. Crank tries to break the boundaries of the action genre by employing the freedom obtained by being a high-budget independent film. This allows the movie to have crazy action sequences as well as a strange sense of humor, that more often than not is very entertaining.

Just like the film, the special features are about what you would expect — but with a slightly humorous twist. They include a music video, “Adrenalina,” featuring rapper David Rolas. The music video contains clips from “Crank” and is accompanied by sexy girls and the band members acting out scenes from the movie.

Other special features include family-friendly audio, which allows the audience to enjoy the film without expletives. This censored version of the film is really pointless since most of the scenes are filled with so much gore anyway. 

But the bulk of the special features can be found in “Cranked Out Mode.”  This feature is basically a glorified commentary, but it’s an interesting twist on the usual DVD commentary because there is a box in the corner of the screen throughout the film, showing the directors or actors, as they provide comments. The section contains all the behind-the-scenes footage and allows the audience to watch it along with the movie for a sense of continuity and as a reference for where specific scenes and effects occur. While it is an interesting concept, “Cranked Out Mode” seems to offer a fair amount of special features in itself, but it unfortunately turns out to be just as boring as any other actor or director commentary.

Overall, the special features fall short, providing the bare minimum we’ve come to expect from DVDs. Hopefully a special edition will come out soon and offer some in-depth special features for the hardcore fans. Until then however, the film itself provides a very entertaining 87 minutes, full of unexpected laughs. Just skip the special features.