Crank and The Covenant

Last night Jeff and I rented some movies and got pizza from the pizza place by Beefeater's. First we watched The Covenant. Jeff had heard good things about it, and I had heard bad, so I wasn't expecting too much. The movie was somewhere between okay and pretty good. If it was a video game and I was on X-Play, I'd give it a 3 out of 5. The plot was simple, but it had some good special effects. I thought at times they could have done more with the plot and saved a little on their effects budget. Seeing two guys blast each other around is only interesting for so long. Basically it was an action movie, with magic. The main character, Caleb, was very likable. They are all rich kids in this little New England town, but despite driving a BMW and having "The Power", Caleb is a pretty responsible guy. He takes care of his family. He's not cocky and arrogant, and he didn't get the girl by throwing money or magic around. He's obviously completely fictional, since he's both rich and powerful and not a complete asshole.

So as "magical" movies go, I liked it much better than The Craft, but less than Practical Magic. I can see an interesting prequel and possibly sequel coming from this movie. There's a lot of back story they hint at regarding the founding of the Covenant which would be interesting for a prequel set in the 1600's. Also at the end of the movie, we are not entirely certain what happened to the villian, which always makes for a good sequel. I hate sequels where we ended the first movie with the villian definitely dead, and they somehow come back. I think it's why I don't care for the Nightmare on Elm Street movies or really any from that genre. Anyway, I digress, onto the second movie.

We also watched Crank, with Jason Statham. This was a great action movie; very fast paced, with both funny scenes and gory moments of violence. Statham's character, Chev Chelios, is hit with a needle full of an obscure and deadly Chinese drug that causes your heart to stop by blocking your adrenal receptors, or something like that. (it's explained better in the movie, I just can't remember the exact details myself) This is retribution for killing a prominent Chinese gang leader, Don Kim, several days before. He goes after the man who shot him up with this stuff, a low level gang flunky named Ricky Verona. Throughout the movie, Chev has to come up with ways to keep his heart pumping or he'll die. He does drugs, picks fights, raids an ER crash cart for ephenephrine, steals cars, and sticks his hand in a waffle iron. I also enjoyed Chev's girlfriend, Eve, played by Amy Smart. You may remember Amy from Road Trip, or as Tasty Coma Wife from Scrubs. She is clueless that her boyfriend is involved in organized crime for most of the movie, and it's really funny when she finds out.

Merry Part and Blessed Be!

(I posted 3 days in a row, did you notice?)