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Crank: High Voltage (2009)

Director: Mark Neveldine, Brian Taylor

Time Out rating

Average user rating

15 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Online

In the first ‘Crank’ film, Jason ‘The Stathe’ Statham’s Chev Chelios, an avenged hitman-in-LA, had a device fitted to his body that would kill him if his heart fell below a preset number of beats per minute. So he ran around drinking large quantities of Red Bull and ingesting anything to keep his adrenaline levels high. (You may remember one of the film’s most controversial scenes was an impromptu bonking session in the middle of a crowded market place.)

‘Crank: High Voltage’ uses a similar idea. Only here he’s had his ticker replaced by a plastic valve device (commonly known as an AbioCor Artificial Heart) that is dependent on a regular external supply of electricity. It seems his abnormally strong heart has long been coveted by David Carradine’s frail but heavyduty octogeneric Chinese crime lord, and Chevvie would very much like it back.

Cue a cranked up level of mayhem and debauchery that makes the first film seem like an episode of ‘My Little Pony’. But let’s not dwell on the plot; instead let’s run through a few key elements. If you like your dialogue spiced with ‘f’ words, you’ve come to the right place because Statham uses at least two in every sentence. In fact, in an effort to get controversial, directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor even splatter the screen with written, cartoon-style expletives. Why, even the ‘c’ word gets a look in. Rampant sex? Loads of it here, with nice big closeups of pert nipples and plenty of writhing. As before, Chev and his girl Eve (Amy Smart) let it all hang out right in the middle of a horse race meeting (apparently Chev’s ex-doctor friend told him that friction was an effective generator of electricity) – and the onlooking crowd love every minute of it.

Being an exceedingly violent 18-certificate film, you can rest assured that there’s an admirable quantity of claret on show: kneecaps and man nipples are neatly sliced off; there’s a close-up or two of surgery; and, of course, it comes replete with the usual gamut of exploding body parts accompanied by ample red mist. Testicular probing, hedonistic lesbianism and overtly racist quips complete what most sane viewers might deem a perverse, toe-curling package.

This is filmmaking for the desensitised. Feasibility is never in question; the storyline is a means to an end. Rather, the whole film is a series of frenetically-edited action sequences and bizarre set-pieces roughly stitched together to form some kind of whole. It’s been made with tongue firmly in cheek and is often funny for it.

But after 45 minutes of shotguns being stuffed up anuses and one Cockney rhyming slang joke too many, it all begins to, well, pall. My jaw remains on the cinema floor. Over to you – if you think you’ve got the stomach (or cajones) for it.

Author: Derek Adams 2009-04-16 15:08:02

Time Out Online Issue 2017, 16-22 April 2009

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User reviews of this film

AKL wino said...

Posted on Jul 15 2009 13:43 Hilarious. Great to watch for some real low-brow, no thinking required humour and gore.

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trazzz said...

Posted on May 10 2009 15:22 If you're a man and you're English and you don't like this film, then there must be something wrong with you.

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Becks said...

Posted on Apr 27 2009 22:47 I thought the film was an action packed mayhem of sex and violence. Fantastic! Im not sure if the director deliberatley created a comedy but most parts were hilarious, i particularly liked the part where Chev was in the park with the dog collar. I cant beleive Kaylo had a twin brother who had tourettes haha. I thought the whole concept was brilliant and I really enjoyed the crazy adventure he had to find his heart. Crank 1 was amazing as was the sequel. I was quite surprised at the amount of naked or half dresed women though .. However, I love Jason, he's a brilliant actor! I'd reccomend this film to everyone who enjoyed the first and is prepared for a silly cockney rhyming slang feast!

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Lee Munday said...

Posted on Apr 27 2009 15:21 "Even for a wet dream of a disturbed adolescent on cannabis -the sheer amount of shouting ,shagging and shooting is rather devoid of any vision or dynamic meaning reducing it to an absurdist caricature of the first crank".
Yeah, they're the bits I liked.

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Laura said...

Posted on Apr 27 2009 13:51 I really want to see this film but if have to stay in at the moment what with having pig flu an all :(

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usman khawaja said...

Posted on Apr 24 2009 12:42 a weird wet dream enacted in west hollywood and i was left wondering what drugs was the writer on while he indulged in this voyeuristic ,deliberately racist and nauseatingly violent technical blunder where everything from self mutilation of male nipples to penile and cardiac organ transplant trade is mocked and viewed with a vicious glee.
It was fine for CRANK to be over the top but this is some crazed vision of a surreal sexual and violent orgy which even exceeds the mayhem in the wildest dreams of the los angeles street gangs .
the asians and hispanics are being antagonised at the expense of proving that an englishman is superior to their sexual and martial ego mania as the writer is bent upon performing the first genital transplant theft from the well endowed english male while the director and his camera have not even spared the genitalia of the race horses in closeup on a race track .
Even for a wet dream of a disturbed adolescent on cannabis -the sheer amount of shouting ,shagging and shooting is rather devoid of any vision or dynamic meaning reducing it to an absurdist caricature of the first crank .
my condolences to mr statham as i rather like his brand of british humour and firmly tongue in cheek audacity to create inappropriate situations but this totally misfired .

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carmonnnn said...

Posted on Apr 22 2009 14:03 i totally agree with eveybody on this page...
i love jason statham....in most films,...that 1st crank was amusing and worth watchin...
i think this 2nd one is a apoorling..
with the bad sex sences n awful racism jokes... pathetic...carnt belive its actually been excepted as a film in its self...get it off the big screens...because this film is crap!!!!

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Cvetka said...

Posted on Apr 22 2009 11:29 Very disappointed with movie,..after first part expected this second one to be even better but WHAT A WASTE OF MY TIME AND MONEY! I wouldn't give it even 1 star, its more of porn movie than action!

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debbie said...

Posted on Apr 21 2009 16:37 not seen it yet but all the coments i have read so far make me want to see for myself just how bad this flim is.

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Nigel said...

Posted on Apr 20 2009 07:17 One of the worst films I have ever seen. It i s aved by good editing, special effects, and acting. The script, story line are for the chav with NO BRAIN!

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baillie said...

Posted on Apr 18 2009 10:23 Firsty i am only giving this "film" 1 star because if i didnt give it any it would be unrated. IT IS THE WORST FILM I HAVE EVER SEEN. Where to start ? the "GODZILLAESQUE" fight scene, the "english" talk show or the hrad in a jar !!!! DONT GO AND SEE THIS

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ARCHGATE said...

Posted on Apr 17 2009 19:37 The cinemas showing this film should hand out complementary bars of soap. You will need it after watching this awful and unpleasant film.

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jade xxx said...

Posted on Apr 17 2009 14:22 hiya i really wanna c this film but i am 2 young but i am gonna try 2 get in 4 an 18 gd luck xxx

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Traumatised said...

Posted on Apr 17 2009 09:12 Having enjoyed Crank I eagerly waited in my seat for Crank 2 High Voltage to start. After 5 minutes I wish I had left and gone home. This must be the worst movie I have ever seen. The story line was average at best, the acting was dreadful even by Jason Statham's standards (And lets face it he's never been the greatest actor). There are scenes which have been thrown in just to beef out the duration time as they have absolutely no bearing on the story line what so ever. Unlike Crank which was funny Crank 2 struggles to muster any kind of humour. The makers have more than over compensated on the "sex sells part" and there is a stream . . . . no river of scence and flash scenes of naked women for the sake of it - Guys sorry this was overkill and didnt not enhance the storyline in any shape or form. It almost resembled a poor porn movie at points. This is defo not a movie I would recommend wasting money on going to see on the big screen and if you had any sence would borrow the DVD from some poor idiot who has had the madness to buy it when it releases. PLease please if this was the best effort at a sequel dont kill the little respect I have left for Crank by making a 3rd one!!

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Matthew Flynn said...

Posted on Apr 17 2009 00:53 There is a fine line between genius and b#ll#cks and rarely will you see it crossed back and forth as often as in Crank2. The original was, on its own terms, a work of genius (the reviewer should check it out as he seems to be mixing crank and speed).
Chev is the same cold, angry, psycho anti-hero of the first film and is as obnoxious, vile and highly watchable as before. This time he has to keep shocking himself to keep his artificial heart going (unlike the original where he had to find ways to get an adrenaline rush to hold off a fatal poison) while he hunts down those responsible to get it back.
High Voltage gleefully embraces the B-movie and its clichés as well as revelling in the catchphrase style repetition that the sequel to such a formula setting first feature seems to demand. Yet on top of this there are occasionally original and even daring ideas, from the return of a medic dealing with the effect of the first film to the unexpected stylistic choice for the fight in the power sub-station. Add to that an extended flashback/hallucination that expands on chev's past (first brought up when a Haitian cabby’s drug made him see himself as a child and speak to his presumably dead mother in the original) and you have a film that at least tries to be more than is expected of it even if IT WON’T STOP SHOUTING!!

On the down side the writing, direction and editing could be sharper, there are pointlessly unpleasant scenes of mutilation and after about 20 minutes you start to wish LA was colder so at least one actress under 80 got to keep her top on.
However I can’t wait to see what they do with the inevitable third part. If they can hold back a tad on the gore and nudity and are allowed to let the last shred of reality fall away and really explore the weirdness the first films slipped in then Crank3 could truly be something special.

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