This dark comedy is as pumped full of adrenaline as its protagonist, Chev Chelios (Jason Statham), a hit man who spends the movie trying to fight off the effects of a slow-acting poison while he seeks vengeance on those who killed him. Why didn’t Verona just shoot Chev when he had the chance? Because Verona, like many people in the movie, is sadistic and wanted to rub Chev’s face in the fact that Verona had killed him. Unfortunately for Verona, the poison is temporarily offset by large amounts of adrenaline. So Chev embarks on a frenetic chase to get Verona, get some epinephrine (recommended by his shady doctor, played perfectly by Dwight Yoakam), and protect his girlfriend Eve (Amy Smart) from Verona’s inevitable attack.

The movie is presented in the way that Chev is experiencing his last hours of life: frenetic, confusing, sometimes blurred, and with images from his life popping up in odd places. The editing is fast and furious. Although not quite an hour and a half long, the frantic action-packed pace of the movie makes it exhausting. I liked it, but was glad it wasn’t longer. This is a dark comedy of sorts, although I suspect the laughter is born of nervous excitement and is a release of tension that the movie generates in abundance. In between severing one thug’s hand and a major gun fight with lots of blood and corpses, Chev races across Los Angeles in a hospital gown so souped-up on epinephrine that he couldn’t slow down if he wanted to. The violence is abundant and bloody, so this movie is not for everyone, but it is a beautifully executed wild ride.