For those of us that saw the first movie Crank it seemed open and shut - a retooling of D.O.A. and Speed to combine a exploitation-action-comedy that had Jason Statham gunning after the dirty folks who slipped him a irreversible Chinese poison that would kill him immediately unless he kept his heart racing like a coke-driven locomotive. At the end it seemed especially the case since, well, Chev Chelios falls out of a helicopter and crashes on a car. Dead? Actually no, as case turns out to be.
Let's face it - with Crank you already had to suspend disbelief, but with Crank: High Voltage you'll need to put your disbelief in a microwave and cook until it's about ready to jump out and kick the ever-loving s*** out of you. This movie not only doesn't follow logic or laws of physics or biology, it flips the finger and goes along on its way like the best video game your friend ever got that he wont let you play.
But hell, why bother playing when watching it may be even more fun? Chev Chelios- who three months after we last saw him has been given a "fake" heart with a kind of electrical system (think of a ghetto version of that thing Tony Stark has as Iron Man) after some Chinese dudes took out his heart- goes on rampages, when properly given the quality electroshock of course, like he's the energizer bunny criss-crossed with... hmm, the most psychotic hell-bent killer one's ever seen outside of the dirtiest and most ultra-violent exploitation flicks ever? Even more to face it, at this point Chev Chelios would make Charles Bronson have second thoughts about that sock-o-quarters.
To say that this is a "better" movie than the first one would not be correct. It's simply not. The first had a clearer story, and didn't try to add "depth" like flashing back to Chev's childhood memory of being on a talk-show as an already ultra-violent hoodlum kid with a talk-back mouth (still a very funny scene, but besides the point). What Crank: High Voltage has, and this is in barrels and barrels like an outhouse at a circus, is crazy, LOTS and LOTS of craziness. This had me, and at least a good lot of others at the midnight screening I went to, howling with laughter. What else can you do as they actually TOP the in-public rampage-of-sex scene between Statham and Amy Smart as they get it on (because, apparently, skin friction creates energy doncha know?) in front of a full crowd at a race track? Or what about the incredibly stream-of-consciousness cut-aways to the F-you-Chev-Chelios texts scrolling across the screen?
Best of all, or just so bats*** mad of all that you will be hitting yourself across the head with a hammer to make sure you're not seeing things, are new casting choices. One, Clifton Collins Jr, is a nice little touch where he gets to basically go all out- and I do mean ALL out, handlebar mustache included- after playing low-key character parts for years. The other will keep genre fans talking for weeks: David Carradine, that's right, David "Bill" Carradine, is in the movie as the 100 year old gangster who is barely on life support and is given his last chance at life - thanks to Chev Chelios' Chinese-poison-resistant heart. Compared to Carradine's "how-the-hell-did-they-get-him" casting, Bai Ling is just a natural choice as a relentlessly obnoxious Ho' who keeps following Chelios as he's "her Kevin Costner." Did I mention the brother of the uh, Efren Ramirez's character from the first film, is back as a gay turret's-body sufferer?
Add on to this Jason Statham's go for broke attitude with the whole shebang, and the fact that the filmmakers behind this film (as well as the first one) will go to the most extreme lengths to make the most hardened action film and Grindhouse geeks drooling and jaws agape many times over, and you've got yourself a completely, joyously Gonzo piece of HARD-R-rated American cinema. Don't go to see it because it might give a "message". See it because it's Jason Statham rampaging- at one point he turns into Godzilla at a power plant fighting a goon- all the way to the last moment... and yes, there will be a sequel! Maybe...
Let's face it - with Crank you already had to suspend disbelief, but with Crank: High Voltage you'll need to put your disbelief in a microwave and cook until it's about ready to jump out and kick the ever-loving s*** out of you. This movie not only doesn't follow logic or laws of physics or biology, it flips the finger and goes along on its way like the best video game your friend ever got that he wont let you play.
But hell, why bother playing when watching it may be even more fun? Chev Chelios- who three months after we last saw him has been given a "fake" heart with a kind of electrical system (think of a ghetto version of that thing Tony Stark has as Iron Man) after some Chinese dudes took out his heart- goes on rampages, when properly given the quality electroshock of course, like he's the energizer bunny criss-crossed with... hmm, the most psychotic hell-bent killer one's ever seen outside of the dirtiest and most ultra-violent exploitation flicks ever? Even more to face it, at this point Chev Chelios would make Charles Bronson have second thoughts about that sock-o-quarters.
To say that this is a "better" movie than the first one would not be correct. It's simply not. The first had a clearer story, and didn't try to add "depth" like flashing back to Chev's childhood memory of being on a talk-show as an already ultra-violent hoodlum kid with a talk-back mouth (still a very funny scene, but besides the point). What Crank: High Voltage has, and this is in barrels and barrels like an outhouse at a circus, is crazy, LOTS and LOTS of craziness. This had me, and at least a good lot of others at the midnight screening I went to, howling with laughter. What else can you do as they actually TOP the in-public rampage-of-sex scene between Statham and Amy Smart as they get it on (because, apparently, skin friction creates energy doncha know?) in front of a full crowd at a race track? Or what about the incredibly stream-of-consciousness cut-aways to the F-you-Chev-Chelios texts scrolling across the screen?
Best of all, or just so bats*** mad of all that you will be hitting yourself across the head with a hammer to make sure you're not seeing things, are new casting choices. One, Clifton Collins Jr, is a nice little touch where he gets to basically go all out- and I do mean ALL out, handlebar mustache included- after playing low-key character parts for years. The other will keep genre fans talking for weeks: David Carradine, that's right, David "Bill" Carradine, is in the movie as the 100 year old gangster who is barely on life support and is given his last chance at life - thanks to Chev Chelios' Chinese-poison-resistant heart. Compared to Carradine's "how-the-hell-did-they-get-him" casting, Bai Ling is just a natural choice as a relentlessly obnoxious Ho' who keeps following Chelios as he's "her Kevin Costner." Did I mention the brother of the uh, Efren Ramirez's character from the first film, is back as a gay turret's-body sufferer?
Add on to this Jason Statham's go for broke attitude with the whole shebang, and the fact that the filmmakers behind this film (as well as the first one) will go to the most extreme lengths to make the most hardened action film and Grindhouse geeks drooling and jaws agape many times over, and you've got yourself a completely, joyously Gonzo piece of HARD-R-rated American cinema. Don't go to see it because it might give a "message". See it because it's Jason Statham rampaging- at one point he turns into Godzilla at a power plant fighting a goon- all the way to the last moment... and yes, there will be a sequel! Maybe...