Inspired by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor's long cherished desire to make a nonstop action movie with the same frenetic energy as a videogame, Crank is a hyperviolent assault on the senses with a healthy disregard for good taste.

You have to admire the writer-directors' audacity. Armed with all the neat visual tricks they have acquired from their award-winning television commercials and music videos, Neveldine and Taylor blaze on to the big screen, determined to deliver a thrill-ride with a unique look and feel.

To a large extent they succeed, using split screens and 'screens within screens' to striking effect, even going so far as to wear roller-blades while filming certain action sequences to ensure the camera moves just as quickly as the adrenaline-pumped hero.

The anguish begins for hit man Chev Chelios (Jason Statham) the moment he wakes up, feeling decidedly worse for wear, in his Los Angeles apartment.

Staggering downstairs, he spots a DVD waiting to be played and is stunned to find it contains a message from his sworn enemy, Verona (Jose Pablo Cantillo).

The rival assassin gleefully reveals that he has injected Chev with a deadly and powerful toxin. "You got about an hour," hoots Verona, "Have yourself a nice death!" With time ebbing away and his life with it, Chev heads out into the seamy underbelly of the city with just one burning desire: revenge.

He seeks medical advice from Doc Miles (Dwight Yoakam) who quickly identifies the poison. "If I'm right, they just gave you the Beijing cocktail," he concludes, "Keep your adrenaline constant.

If you stop, you die!" So Chev does everything he can to keep his heart rate up, including gulping down caffeine drinks by the gallon and engaging in furious al fresco sex with his girlfriend Eve (Eva Smart) on a bustling sidewalk, with half of Chinatown watching in awe.