Crank: High Voltage

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Crank: High Voltage
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Neveldine/Taylor
Produced by	Michael Paseornek Tom Rosenberg Gary Lucchesi Skip Williamson Richard Wright David Rubin
Written by	Neveldine/Taylor
Starring	Jason Statham Amy Smart
Music by	Mike Patton
Cinematography	Brandon Trost
Editing by	Fernando Villena
Distributed by	Lionsgate Films (US) Lakeshore Entertainment (international)
Release date(s)	United Kingdom: April 16, 2009 United States: April 17, 2009
Running time	96 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	US$12,900,000
Gross revenue	$34,447,368 (worldwide) [1]
Preceded by	Crank

Crank: High Voltage (released as Crank 2: High Voltage in some regions and on DVD) is a 2009 American action/thriller film, and sequel to the 2006 action film, Crank. It picks up shortly after the first film left off, retaining its "real-time" feel and adding surrealism. Crank: High Voltage was written and directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, who both wrote and directed the previous film. The film was released in the United Kingdom on April 16, 2009,^[2] one day prior to its North American release date.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Production 4 Soundtrack 5 Reception 6 Box office 7 Home media 8 Sequel 9 See also 10 References 11 External links

[edit] Plot

The film opens with a sequence designed to look like a classic video game, depicting Chev Chelios's fall from a helicopter during the final moments of the original film. Immediately after his fall, he is scooped off the street via snow shovel by a group of Chinese medics and removed from the scene.

He wakes up in a makeshift hospital and sees doctors removing his heart while Johnny Vang (Art Hsu) watches. The doctors place Chelios's heart in a white cooler with a padlock, and place a clear plastic artificial heart in his chest. Chelios passes out. He wakes up, and escapes. He notices a yellow battery pack is attached to him. After a gunfight and interrogation of a thug, he learns the location of Johnny Vang - the Cypress Social Club.

Chelios calls Doc Miles (Dwight Yoakam), who tells him that he has been fitted with an AbioCor Artificial heart. Once the external battery pack runs out, the internal battery will kick in and he will have 60 minutes before it stops working. He crashes his car right after the conversation, destroying his external battery pack. In order to keep going, Chelios has the driver of another car use his jumper cables on him, and runs to the Club.

He loses Vang at the club but picks up a hooker named Ria (Bai Ling) who sends him to a strip club where Vang is hiding out. In the club, Chev finds Eve (Amy Smart), now a stripper.

Back outside of the strip club, Chev is met by a group of police, who begin beating him down. He is weakened, but one of them inadvertently charges Chelios by using a stun gun on him. Another stripper tells Chelios that he should look at the Hollywood horse racetrack for Johnny Vang. They encounter a group of porn stars protesting low wages, and Chelios is forced to escape, leaving Eve in the back of the cop car. Chelios is picked up by Venus (Efren Ramirez), who reveals himself to be Kaylo's brother. It is revealed he also has Tourette's Syndrome. At first, Chelios tells Venus that he killed everyone responsible for his brother's death, but this prompts Venus to leave. Wanting his help, Chelios tells Venus that El Huron was involved but escaped.

At the horse tracks, Chelios is losing energy. He learns that the heart can be charged through the skin by means of friction. Eve shows up and they have sex on the racetrack while the crowd cheers, and Chelios is restored to full energy. Chelios spots Vang and once again leaves Eve behind. Vang escapes, and Chev is about to be subdued by security when Don Kim picks Chev up in his limo. He informs Chev that there is a leader in the Triads named Poon Dong (David Carradine), who was in need of a heart transplant. When he heard of Chelios's ability to withstand the Chinese adrenaline poison, he put out an order for Chelios's heart. Don Kim then tells Chev Chelios that he wishes to return him to Poon Dong for a reward. Upon hearing this, Chev kills all of Don Kim's henchmen, including the limo driver, and shoots Don Kim several times. Meanwhile, Eve is arrested, and Venus calls in Orlando (Reno Wilson) to assist in tracking down El Huron.

While driving, Chev is cut off by an ambulance. He boards the ambulance and is surprised to see the EMTs are working on Don Kim. He demands a new battery pack for his artificial heart, and the EMT is forced to stop working while he hooks it up. Don Kim dies, and Chelios exits the ambulance upon seeing Johnny Vang on the street outside. Vang tries to escape in a car, but the car drives off without him, and Chev chases Vang to an electric plant, where there is a Godzilla-inspired fight between Chelios and Vang. Upon winning, Chev discovers that Vang's red cooler holds something other than his heart (the contents of which are unknown, but make Chelios recoil in disgust). Chelios learns from Doc Miles that his heart is already transplanted into Poon Dong, but promises to find him for Chev. Chelios goes to ask Johnny Vang, but Johnny Vang is shot and killed by Chico, and they knock Chelios unconscious.

There is a dream sequence showing Chelios as a youngster, with his mother (Geri Halliwell) on the Luke Canard show talking about his violent tendencies as a boy. Eve is interrogated by police, but refuses to rat Chev out. Doc Miles uses his assistant Chocolate to lure Poon Dong in, and knocks him out.

Chelios is awakened by electric shocks to his testicles, and is dragged by speedboat to an island where El Huron awaits. El Huron explains to Chev that he is the third Verona brother, and is very upset that Chelios killed Ricky (Jose Pablo Cantillo) and Alex Verona (Jay Xcala). He reveals Ricky Verona's head being kept alive in a tank by a group of scientists, speaking in an electronic voice. Chelios is whipped for Verona's pleasure, and is about to die when Orlando, Venus, and Ria show up, each with their own group of gunfighters, and chaos breaks out.

Verona's tank is smashed open by Ria's gunfire and Chev kicks Verona's head into the swimming pool but starts to slow down. He climbs an electric pylon nearby and grabs the insulators to recharge, but is flung off of it upon contact. Venus is fighting El Huron and is about to lose when Chev reappears, still partially on fire from the electricity. He beats El Huron to death (while still burning), and throws his body in the pool next to Ricky's head. In a hallucinogenic state, Chelios then tries to hug Ria (thinking she is Eve) but accidentally sets her on fire as well, and she runs off screaming. His flesh burning and his face melting, Chelios walks towards the camera, giving the middle finger to the audience in the final moment of the film.

During the credits, Doc Miles places Chev Chelios's heart back in. At first, it looks like a failure, but after everyone leaves, Chelios's eyes open, and his heart is heard beating.

[edit] Cast

• Jason Statham as Chev Chelios
• Amy Smart as Eve Lydon
• Efren Ramirez as Venus
• Dwight Yoakam as Doc Miles
• Reno Wilson as Orlando
• Clifton Collins, Jr. as El Huron
• Bai Ling as Ria
• Art Hsu as Johnny Vang
• David Carradine as Poon Dong
• Jenna Haze as herself
• Ron Jeremy as himself (cameo)

Former child actor Corey Haim has a supporting role in the film. Also appearing in the film are porn stars Ron Jeremy, Ed Powers, Jenna Haze, Nick Manning, Lexington Steele, Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia star Glenn Howerton, both of whom had appearances in the first film, Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan, former Nine Inch Nails member Danny Lohner, pop star Geri Halliwell (who appears in a flashback sequence), UFC fighter Keith Jardine, actress Lauren Holly and the founder of Troma, Lloyd Kaufman. John de Lancie, of Star Trek: The Next Generation fame as Q, also appears at the start of the film as the newscaster.

[edit] Production

Mike Patton, of Faith No More and Mr. Bungle fame, produced the score for Crank: High Voltage.

Lions Gate Entertainment handled North American distribution of the film, while Lakeshore Entertainment handled international distribution.

Filming started in April 2008. Like the first film, the production budget was lower than $20 million. In order to help keep costs low, the filmmakers took advantage of low-cost prosumer HDV cameras such as the Canon XH-A1, as well as a consumer model, the Canon HF10.^[3]

Crank: High Voltage received an R rating by the MPAA based on an interview with Amy Smart. She was photographed brandishing taped nipples and disclosed that her character Eve has become a pole dancer.^[4][5]

[edit] Soundtrack

Linkin Park's song, "Given Up", was featured in the trailer for the movie, but not in the movie itself (lead singer Chester Bennington has a cameo in both films). Furthermore, one of Linkin Park's earlier songs was also entitled "High Voltage". Coincidentally (or not) the title of Crank 2. The majority of the soundtrack was done by Mike Patton.^[6] The soundtrack received an "Incredible" 9.5/10 from IGN.

Original songs not scored by Mike Patton that appear in the film are as follows:

• "Keep On Loving You" by REO Speedwagon
• "The Stroke" by Billy Squier
• "Heard It In A Love Song" by Marshall Tucker Band

[edit] Reception

Reviews for Crank: High Voltage have been mixed to positive. The film has a rating of 62% on the film review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes (a higher percentage than the original).^[7] However, Metacritic cited a score of 41 out of 100, based on 15 reviews.^[8] Crank 2 failed to score in the box office in its first week, ending at #6 with $6,510,000 in 2223 theaters, although its predecessor only opened with $10 million.

[edit] Box office

Crank: High Voltage opened with $2.7 million on its opening day. It earned $6,963,565 on its first weekend at #6 at the box office. Overall the film made $13,684,249 at the domestic box office and $20,763,119 as of November 20, 2009 in foreign box offices totaling up to $34,447,368 worldwide.

[edit] Home media

Crank: High Voltage was released on DVD and Blu-ray on September 8, 2009 in the United States. At the DVD sales chart, Crank opened at #2, selling 305,000 units which translates to $5,345,078 in revenue. As of the 4th week, 540,500 units have been sold, acquiring revenue of $9,761,550. This does not include Blu-ray sales/DVD rentals. ^[9]

[edit] Sequel

In an interview, when asked about a third Crank film, actress Amy Smart said "It's been talked about," but no actual statement from the writers has been made.^[10] Also in an interview with Amy Smart after the release of Crank: High Voltage, she mentioned that Crank 3 might be made in 3D but, if so, wouldn't be released until 2011.^[11]

[edit] See also

• Crank
• Chev Chelios
• List of American films of 2009
• List of films set in Los Angeles
• AbioCor - The artificial heart featured in the film.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official website US
• UK viral site
• Movie's trailers
• Crank: High Voltage at the Internet Movie Database
• Crank: High Voltage at Allmovie
• Crank: High Voltage at Metacritic
• Crank: High Voltage at Rotten Tomatoes
• Crank: High Voltage at Box Office Mojo
• DVD Review, DVD Talk

v • d • e Films of Neveldine/Taylor Mark Neveldine  · Brian Taylor Written & directed Crank (2006) · Crank: High Voltage (2009) · Gamer (2009) Written Pathology (2008) · Jonah Hex (2010)