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Most would assume an obese Hispanic getting a shotgun shoved up his ass would make for an awkward, gruesome situation. “Crank: High Voltage” proves otherwise. The follow-up to the 2006 cult hit “Crank” is as grisly as it is hilarious, and as politically incorrect as it is electrifying. Scenes that shouldn’t be funny are uproarious.
The 2006 installment came out of nowhere, blowing everybody away with its hold-nothing-back attitude and its trippy cinematography and editing. The follow-up is twice as fun and 20 times as inappropriate.
“Crank: High Voltage” stays in the same vein as the first flick. It has it all: frenetic violence, crude sexual jokes, Godzilla parodies, public sex on a horse-racing track and unabashed racial and ethnic slurs. It’s a disturbingly brave film and an oddly remarkable one at that. Almost never has a mainstream movie been this crass or offensive.
The indestructible and sickly beloved Chev Chelios (Jason Statham) is back. He has a fake heart which needs to stay electrically charged. He only has to live long enough to kill as many people as possible while getting back his original heart. The rest of the plot really doesn’t need detailing – probably the only time I’ll ever say that in a film review.
Movies like this need to be taken with a humongous grain of salt. There are no Oscar dreams for directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor. They make the film they want to make, no matter what people say. That bravado and courage is something to admire.
The flick’s amazing cinematography and editing alone are worth the price of admission. However, it’s not worth it if you’re eight years old. One of my only gripes with the movie was the fact that there was a grown man sitting behind me, who brought his elementary school-aged kid. What a terrible display of parenting. It’s one thing to take your kid to see a R-rated film like “Little Miss Sunshine”; it’s an other thing to take them to see “Crank: High Voltage.”
Is the movie stupid? Yes. Is it highly offensive? Absolutely. Should everyone see it? No, and especially not little kids. Is it one of the most fun times to be had at the movie theater this year? Heck yeah. “Crank: High Voltage” is shockingly awesome.
Grade: A
Bangor Daily News