Review of Crank: High Voltage (2009) by Sarah B — 30 Jun 2010

Ever wonder what it would be like to be Jason Statham for a day? Would you be able to put up with the countless hordes of sanguinary henchmen charging after you as you knock them over like dominoes? With a heart working at a thousand beats per minute, you'd probably be dependent on the everlasting entertainment.

So, in Crank High Voltage, we once again get Jason Statham running around town mercilessly beating people to death, having outrageous sex in public, and surviving the inevitable as the superhuman Chev Chelios. I am a huge fan of the first installment and High Voltage couldn't have done better justice to its predecessor. The movie is completely reliant on pure insanity to entertain its audience and it does one hell of a job with the cocaine-crazy production. I, for one, am a fan of all the personified scenes and humorous captions (i.e. strawberry tart = heart). The acting was pretty awful besides Statham's oh-so fitting role, which is probably the only con of the film.

Now, the story is the same as the first, only this time around instead of fueling himself with lethal doses of adrenaline, Chelios is reluctant on keeping his artificial heart pumping by sending waves of electricity through his body. Again, since he is so destined to survive in his "shit-magnet" of a life, he keeps his heart pumping in the most ridiculous of ways: tazing himself, wearing a dog's shock collar, producing friction (skin-on-skin contact, oh yeah), and even grabbing hold of power lines. The audience, being the most obedient of viewers, are practically forced to believe all of this is possible but of course, it's not and that's what makes the film so damn fun! If you're looking for extreme violence, hilarious scenarios, and just something that will keep the excitement going, look no further than Crank High Voltage.