Auto repair FAIL
Crank: High Voltage
Directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor
Lionsgate, 2009
By Sean Kelly
I have to admit, I don’t mind the odd mindless, insanely violent action film. 2006’s Crank was a good example of that. Jason Statham played Chev Chelios, a man who was poisoned and had to keep his adrenaline high in order to stay alive. This involved him doing everything from drinking a whole lot of Red Bull to having sex with his girlfriend in the middle of the sidewalk. It was fun, action-packed, and, even with the crazy premise, the plot still smacked of reality. Also, the film had as complete an ending as you can get, with Chelios falling from a helicopter to his death.
Not so fast! Apparently, the first film was successful enough for a sequel, so they threw reality out of the window and created a second film with a modified premise. Chelios has miraculously survived falling from the helicopter (which also involved landing on a car), and the action picks up three months later when Chelios’ heart has been harvested and replaced with an artificial one that has to be constantly charged with electricity. Chaos, and many creative ways of electrocuting yourself, ensues.
Everything that was fun about the original is overblown to the point of gratuity in the sequel. Unlike its predecessor, this film was violent and crude just for the sake of being violent and crude. It also didn’t help that the film had terrible cinematography that relied on low angles and close-ups, which — combined with the fast cuts — made much of the action an ugly, scrambled mess.
Apart from Statham, a few characters from the original return, some less necessary than others. Dwight Yoakam returns as Chelios’ doctor, his role not much expanded from that in the first film; in fact, he’s got even less to do this time around. Amy Smart’s only role in the sequel is to give a longer, more tasteless encore of the public sex scene from the first film. It would have made absolutely no difference to the plot of the film if she was written out. Then, there is a character from the first film that returns towards the end of High Voltage in a way so ludicrous that reality was not only thrown out the window, it was beaten to death after the fall.
Cheap stunts? Make a guy shake and edit it badly.
Some scenes in High Voltage were simply transparent filler. This includes a scene with a bit player from the first film being in therapy and a talk show flashback featuring Chelios as a child. It’s evident they were really scraping the barrel for content in this highly unnecessary sequel.
So far, I have been tearing this film apart. I should say that I do not consider this a terrible film, and it still had its moments. I particularly enjoyed a fight scene that was made out to look like a Japanese monster film, complete with guys in rubber suits. These flashes of inspiration were the exception to the rule in what was a very disappointing movie that I’d hoped and expected to enjoy.
The first one was a fun, mindless action film; this time around, the fun’s faded and we’re left with something mindnumbing. Crank: High Voltage proves that there are some films that you just cannot make a sequel out of.
I COMPLETELY agree with you. I thought the fillers were ridiculous, they didn’t add anything substantial to the already awful plot…
Don’t they ever learn?! DON’T MAKE A SEQUEL UNLESS IT CAN TOP THE ORIGINAL… which this sequel failed miesrably to do.
Nice review.