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Friday
17Apr2009

Movie Review - 'Crank: High Voltage'

DateFriday, April 17, 2009 at 2:24AM
Crank: High Voltage

Starring Jason Statham, Amy Smart, and Dwight Yoakam
Directed by Neveldine and Taylor
Rated R

crank2poster The trend of tying movies into video games is more plentiful and profitable than ever. This summer, about a half dozen blockbusters will be transferred into PlayStation, Wii, XBox, and PC titles. How that trend is missing the adventures of Chev Chelios is beyond me.

Chelios is the Jason Statham character in Crank and the new sequel, Crank: High Voltage, and he's tailor made for video games. More than likely, he is inspired by them, too. Writer-director pair Nevldine and Taylor have created a guy who can't be killed, in this case, even when you take his heart out of his chest.

In the hall of fame of unlikely stories, there are not a lot of movies enshrined on the basis of their lead character hunting down the gang that stole his heart and replaced it with a battery charged artificial one, which the hero can jump start the way you would a '78 Nova. So Crank: High Voltage has an original twist on the most basic of movie plots: Go get 'em.

That's as it should be, because we don't want to see a story. We want to see a video game - unbelievable stunts, plenty of gun fire, villains that embody every racial stereotype you can think of, and a guy sticking his fingers in light sockets to avoid a personal brown out. And for about 65 of the film's 85 minutes, that's what we get.

It's not that the action lets up so much as it just kind of all blurs together. Neveldine and Taylor have worked hard to infuse Crank: High Voltage with a few wildly unexpected interruptions (Chelios' troubled backstory shown as a childhood visit to a Dr. Phil-like talk show is a great touch), but they actually compound the problem.

Remember: This is a movie with a three-word plot; it doesn't need to be much more than that. While the Crank sequel mines some laughs out of Dwight Yoakam as Chelios' unscrupulous surgeon fried, Doc Miles, and while it's good to see Amy Smart back in the mix, there really isn't enough stuff to spread around here, no matter how hard the filmmakers try.

It would have been better off with just Statham taking on all the gangs in Los Angeles on a mission to find his still-beating heart. Of all of Statham's interchangeable one-dimensional characters, Chev Chelios is the one that has potential, and he's maximized here.

It's just that everything else is maximized, too. And as it is with video games, you'd gladly skip past the cut scenes to get back to the main action.

AuthorColin Boyd | | in , , | Print ArticlePrint Article | | Comment2 Comments |

Reader Comments (2)

Did you go to the midnight showing? Hope you don't miss Holmberg again :)

That is what video game moves should be like and grindhouse and 70splotation well any exploitation film ever combined.

Friday, April 17, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterKt

a very fine movie ever seen ................. go for it guys ......... it worths ur money

Friday, April 17, 2009 | Unregistered Commenterjason

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