Comic Con: A Chat With Crank Director Brian Taylor

"Check out my fortune cookie, 'a bad day is in store, if your heart rate falls below 104?'"

Now comes the time for the man in the street, the ace in the hole, the last line of defense of this great cultural bastion that is Comic Con to weigh in with a final word... Actually I must say that Adam and the Boneman have done such a comprehensive job covering the events all I can do at this point is just toss out a few table scraps. Four to five day old table scraps at that.

My first full day at Con was in fact not at the convention but spent fulfilling a childhood dream of visiting my animal friends at the world famous San Diego Zoo. No glammed up celebrities or Lord of the Rings disciples, but in fact some more humanlike wonder and affection provided courtesy of the zoos' Gorilla and Orangutan population. The Rhinoceros and Elephants also brought humanity to me and Thomas, the fellow zboneman.com photographer who also skipped out on his official duties to join me at the zoo.

The second full day, Friday was all one could expect. Full of major studio hoopla and celebrity panels promoting both exciting epics and the usual banality of teen comedies and cut rate horror. And might I say that I learned Sasha Baron Cohen's Borat is probably the most accurate litmus test of America's true cultural nature that you could invent. Check out the film this fall.

The third full day, My day. Upon trekking out to retrieve tickets I discovered Brian Taylor, co-writer and co-director of Crank, the newest action vehicle for British ass-kicker Jason Statham, who stars as a man drugged with a substance that will kill him if his heart-rate falls below a certain level. Statham sets out to find the responsible party using a barrage of handcrafted fisticuffs he introduced a few years ago in the transporter.

Talking to the director I discovered him to be a big fan of over the top Japanese filmmaker Takashe Mikke as well as Sly Stallone. He also discussed the emasculation of the action hero and the need to bring back the hard-nosed protagonist male character. The film is said to move at a fast pace mapping out Statham's journey through Los Angeles locales. I also discovered this film gleefully earns its R rating not just from the action but the colorful banter from Statham which I was privy to hear in sound bites. I can just picture the string of overdubbed bleeps we will enjoy in the network broadcast version of the film.

Sunday the final day was really a half day for studio presentations and we were treated to quite a few trailers. Here is a roundup.

Transformers: Robots taking over earth. The film is due out in a year and judging by how little is shown in the trailer (a shadow of a robot appearing behind a satellite) deciphering what the film will bring is about as hard as predicting the news one year from now, except that some war will probably be going on.

The Hitcher: Remake of 1986 Rutger Hauer thriller with Sean Bean starring. Judging by the conventions found in the style of the trailer and it's lead-in lines, I might pass on this ride.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Animation! Right on! Maybe something true to the spirit of the comic this time.

Hot Fuzz: Trailer presented at a panel for the film. Edgar Wright will again direct Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. The trailers looked to capture some of the spirit found in 2004's Shaun of the Dead.

Hope you like it – see you at the zoo.