Crank 2: High Voltage

Jason Statham has become an action star ever since his breakout role in Guy Ritchie's, Snatch. If one looks over his IMDB page there is a long list of action flicks, most of which are negligible. He's been in three Transporter movies and is now starring in a second Crank movie, reprising his role as Chev Chelios. I must admit, I haven't seen a Transporter movie in it's entirety, nor have I seen the first Crank. I did, however, see the last half hour of the second Transporter on cable once. I don't feel too bad for not seeing them because the movies' trailers all look the same.

Here's the trailer for Crank 2: High Voltage:



The new movie picks up right where the old one left off. Chev Chelios gets his organs harvested by some Asian crime syndicate. The doctors only manage to swap out Chelios's heart with a temporary one before he wakes up and kills them. The charge on Chelio's temporary heart battery will only last for an hour. Tension and high speed chases ensue.

The premise is a bit silly, but this isn't a movie intent on delivering realism. I can accept that. The trailer promises a lot of action and a few laughs, which is the standard model for most action movies. The problem I have with the laughs portion of the movie is that it seems to stem from a silly, camp kind of comedy rather than dark or dry humor. I have nothing against camp, but when its coming from a grizzled man who has to electrocute himself to stay alive, I'm not sure the comedy will play off that well.

The one scene in the trailer that had me most worried about the comedy aspect of the movie is when Chelios asks the gangster guys to juice him up with their car battery. It looks like another one of those, "Man, that white boy be crazy, ese!" type moments where the hard ass thugs who were about to beat up the protagonist find a new sense of respect for him because he attached jumper cables to his nipples. Its been done before and is a standard comedy trope that wore out its welcome a long time ago.

The action sequences have a lot of quick cuts, which also worries me. While action scenes need a lot of camera movement to keep the momentum going, they can also be used to make boring shots look more exciting than they are. (i.e. MTV's Cribs. How do you make a shot of a refrigerator filled with Crystal Light more interesting? Lots of jump cuts.)

If I may take a minute to be artsy, I think that the movie would be a lot more interesting if it actually took place in real time. Chelios only has an hour to live. Why not make an hour long movie? Or, give him two hours to live, and make the movie two hours. It could have a "24" like format, playing out in real time. The story would then be driven be a very real sense of tension and not have to be so reliant on explosions and car chases. I have nothing against chases, but ninety minutes of explosions does not make a movie. Putting my high brow tendencies aside, I think this will be a pleasing enough popcorn flick, albeit one that relies too heavily on formula and easy laughs.


B-