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Although Crank can't quite sustain its high-concept premise for the entirety of its 83 minutes, the film is nevertheless an engaging and thoroughly over-the-top thriller that almost feels like a throwback to the ultra-violent action flicks of yore (ie there's a sequence in which the hero uses a dead body as a human shield). Jason Statham stars as Chev Chelios, a tough-as-nails hitman who wakes up one morning to discover that he's been injected with a deadly poison by a bitter rival (Jose Pablo Cantillo). After discovering that he can slow the poison's progress by keeping his heart rate elevated, Chev engages in one outrageous activity after another (ie he drives a car through a crowded mall). Directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor - who also wrote the movie's screenplay - infuse the proceedings with a jittery, wildly overcranked (no pun intended) sensibility that admittedly takes a while to get used to but certainly reflects the mindset of the central character. Crank establishes itself as an in-your-face, gleefully mindless popcorn flick right from the get-go, as Neveldine and Taylor consistently emphasize extreme style over substance and pepper the movie with a whole host of distinctly cartoonish elements (ie the outside of a building pulses as Chev takes on a dozen gangbangers within). Statham's energetic, go-for-broke performance proves impossible to resist, with the actor effectively avoiding the temptation to turn his character into a flat-out cartoon. And although the exceedingly thin storyline eventually becomes slightly more noticeable than one might've liked, there are certainly more than enough elements within Crank to warrant a hearty recommendation (the film's absurd conclusion has to be seen to be believed).

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Coming seven long years after the release of Office Space, Mike Judge's beloved 1999 comedy, Idiocracy can't help but come off as something of a disappointment. Though it's consistently entertaining and sporadically hilarious, the film's increasingly uneven structure and overall vibe of silliness becomes more of a hindrance than anything else. The storyline revolves around an average American (played by Luke Wilson) who is propelled more than 500 years into the future, where he discovers that the population has grown stupid to such an extent that he's now considered the smartest man alive. As expected, Judge has infused Idiocracy with a bundle of satirical elements - ie the most popular film in the country is Ass (which, true to its title, consists solely of a 90-minute static shot of a guy's ass) - and generally pokes fun at the dumbing down of popular culture in America. Wilson effectively steps into the shoes of a befuddled everyman, while a cavalcade of familiar faces pop up in fun cameo roles (Stephen Root, who played Office Space's relentlessly put-upon Milton, has a brief but memorable role as a hillbilly judge). But the inclusion of an overly action-oriented third act leaves the film with a fairly bitter aftertaste, and the whole thing just never quite becomes anything more than a passable time-waster (albeit one with tremendous cult potential). That being said, Idiocracy is certainly no worse than most of the comedies that have emerged as of late (including Wilson's own My Super Ex-Girlfriend) and one can't help but wonder why Fox has so unceremoniously dumped the movie into selected theaters.

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Based on the 2001 Italian film of the same name, The Last Kiss is a compelling, surprisingly moving look at the ups and downs of contemporary relationships. This is despite the inclusion of several needless subplots involving the central character's best friends, although - to be fair - such problems were hard-wired into the film's predecessor. The bulk of the movie follows seemingly perfect couple Michael (Zach Braff) and Jenna (Jacinda Barrett) as they attempt to work through the deficiencies in their union, most of which are a result of Michael's brief dalliance with a college student (played by Rachel Bilson). There's little doubt that The Last Kiss would've fared a whole lot better had it focused solely on Michael and Jenna, as virtually everything involving Michael's friends - all of whom are suffering from their own quarterlife crises - just feels superfluous (worse still, it's virtually impossible to care about their problems). But such concerns prove to be short-lived, as screenwriter Paul Haggis jettisons most of the non-Michael and Jenna stuff somewhere around the halfway mark. It's at that point that The Last Kiss, due in no small part to Braff's thoroughly compelling performance (with the exception of Blythe Danner's broad histrionics, the acting is uniformly effective), becomes as intriguing and authentic as one might've hoped, and the film ultimately comes off as an ideal companion piece to the thematically-similar Garden State.

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Undoubtedly filmmaker Brian De Palma's most ineffective effort in well over a decade, The Black Dahlia is a convoluted, poorly cast, and occasionally unwatchable would-be noir that's lacking even in De Palma's famously over-the-top sense of style. Based on James Ellroy's eponymous novel, The Black Dahlia follows a pair of circa 1940s detectives - Lee Blanchard (Aaron Eckhart) and Bucky Bleichert (Josh Hartnett) - as they attempt to solve the mysterious and unusually brutal murder of an up-and-coming starlet named Elizabeth Short (Mia Kirshner). Riddled with problems right from the get-go, The Black Dahlia never quite comes off as anything other than an extremely misguided and surprisingly sloppy piece of work - a vibe that stems primarily from Josh Friedman's muddled, flat-out confusing screenplay. There's simply too much going on here to comfortably sustain a two-hour running time, and it seems clear that casual viewers will have a heck of a time trying to keep up with the barrage of plot twists and recurring characters. Hartnett's stiff, thoroughly uncharismatic performance certainly doesn't help matters, as the actor seems woefully out of his element here (particularly when placed alongside Eckhart, who sporadically infuses the proceedings with welcome bursts of energy). De Palma's lamentable decision to reign in his wild directorial flourishes certainly doesn't do the film any favors, and there's little doubt that even the most ardent James Ellroy will be hard-pressed to find much here worth embracing.

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