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Crank: High Voltage /Crank 2/ movie comments

Date: 2009-05-02 10:12:27 User: Movie Blogger During the credits, Doc Miles places Chev's heart back in. At first, it looks like a failure, but after everyone leaves, Chev's eyes open, and his heart is heard beating. Date: 2009-12-17 22:10:09 User: Buy Truy Jason Stratham's heart is not in his work but ours will be in the surprisingly entertaining and jolting actioner CRANK 2: HIGH VOLTAGE Balding bad boy Jason Stratham is back in explosive form in the charged-up sequel Crank 2: High Voltage. Of course many may recall Stratham’s 2006 hit actioner Crank where he played a vulnerable hitman living on the edge of constant mayhem in a convoluted attempt to keep his adrenaline levels high in order to combat a deadly poisonous cocktail contained within his bodily systems. Naturally, Stratham’s animated recklessness for creative destruction gave the original Crank vehicle a tremendous testosterone-driven tug of absurdity that was—quite amazingly—the film’s unrelenting charm and selling point. Predictably, Stratham is given permission to crank it up a few more notches and go totally ballistic in the outrageously fuel-injected follow-up High Voltage. Brash, outrageously inane and chaotically crafty, Crank 2: High Voltage is unapologetic in its sheer penchant for graphic-induced ribaldry as its charismatic calling card. Co-writers/directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor raise the bar into maximum overdrive as they deliver the grandiose goods in allowing the hyperactive Stratham to engage in the hedonistic heft of their throbbing action-packed thriller. Admittedly, there is more spark and bite to High Voltage and a lot of that has to do with Stratham’s magnetic presence in the way he takes to this deliciously jolting junk with roguish relish. It goes without saying that to appreciate Crank 2 means enduring long stretches of hypnotic violence, titillation, explosions and other sensational urges that an overzealous video game may entice a pimple-faced teenaged boy trying to reach a high score in a crowded arcade. With a conflicting platform of both cartoonish and corrosive proportions, Crank 2: High Voltage is a pulsating guilty pleasure looking to knock the socks off of its avid observers. The exasperated Chev Chelios (Stratham) can never seem to get a break concerning his shattered sense of existence. When Chev survives a treacherous fall from a helicopter (sans parachute) he is quickly apprehended by the Chinese mob off the streets of Los Angeles. Viciously, Chev’s heart is removed by one of the group’s diabolical members Triad Johnny Vang (Art Hsu). It is not a pretty sight when Chev is finally revived. The harried hitman finds out the startling news that his vital heart organ is missing and soon sets out in vengeance mode to recover his precious ticker. Chev is now sporting an artificial heart that needs regular doses of electricity to keep his functioning up to speed. Otherwise, no shocks to the artificial heart means no life...period! Thus, Chev has to be creative in making sure that his substitute ticker has its moments of shocks in order to survive. Inevitably, Chev gets involved in all kinds of outlandishly perilous situations that require his kinetic energies to surge with demonic glee. Chev must rely on the sleazy Dr. Miles (Dwight Yoakum) for the monitoring of his unusual medical conditioning. Among other business includes reuniting with his exotic dancing girlfriend Eve (Amy Smart) and understandably locating and dangerously messing with the captor of his flesh-pounding heart in the duplicitous Vang and his sordid associates. Along the way, Chev’s run-in with an assortment of peculiar personalities plays like a who’s who of decadence and dysfunction. Bai Ling is on board as an envy-driven Chinese prostitute that harbors lusty designs for the embattled Chev. Corey Haim’s Randy is the current riff raffish boyfriend of Chev’s ex flame Eve. Also, Venus (Efren Ramirez) is looking for some payback against the put-upon Chev regarding the demise of his notorious twin sibling. Granted that Crank 2: High Voltage is shameless in its depiction of random misogyny, unspeakably crude and insensitive dialogue and a hint of racist overtones. Plus, the only true sense of tension and suspense is when the colorfully orchestrated mayhem is stretched out unabashedly to the point of wincing beyond belief. Indeed, High Voltage is numbingly dipped in a ragged sea of exploitation at its fullest. Nevertheless, the aimless fury and frenetic dot-to-dot tawdriness is weirdly warranted in an over-the-top actioner that’s not necessarily existing to make the masses think on cue but to stimulatingly have them react to its brand of flourished alienation. Instinctively, Crank 2: High Voltage is an overreaching action adventure that impishly manipulates the senses. One can argue that this second installment doesn’t show much distinction from its predecessor other than to ante up on the sensationalistic quotient. Still, it’s perverse fun and a mindless, concocted octane-producing fantasy that resonates in its pure nihilistic naughtiness. From flying body limbs to a blatantly flamboyant sex scene between Stratham’s Chev and Smart’s Eve (a provocative turn as evidenced in the original “Crank”) both Neveldine and Taylor parlay their hyper narrative into a high-powered hodgepodge of intensified insanity. Stratham is suited aptly as an unconventional action star oozing defiance and surrealistic angst as he forcibly runs amuck as a workman-like wrecking machine. For his highlighted havoc as an anti-hero with a lingering grudge, Stratham’s Chev is the manic medicine man for the perfunctory disease that is the pedestrian action flick. Unfortunately, the movie contains too many supporting players to keep track of given the fluctuating subplots that the audience is not quite invested into their assigned plight. Yes, Crank 2: High Voltage is an acquired taste if you’re into that type of meandering in-your-face deliriousness that can radiate disdain in its quest for carousing contempt. But as a sizzling cinematic active piece that doesn’t pretend to be anything but what it is in cockeyed concept, Voltage will pump up the volume in your indiscriminate, action-craved heart.   You have to register to leave a comment...   Back to the Crank: High Voltage movie download page