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Crank: High Voltage

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Crank 2: High Voltage
Theatrical release poster
Directed byNeveldine/Taylor
Written byNeveldine/Taylor
Produced byMichael Paseornek
Tom Rosenberg
Gary Lucchesi
Skip Williamson
Richard Wright
David Rubin
StarringJason Statham
Amy Smart
Clifton Collins, Jr.
Efren Ramirez
Bai Ling
David Carradine
and Dwight Yoakam
CinematographyBrandon Trost
Edited byFernando Villena
Music byMike Patton
Distributed byLionsgate Films (US)
Sony Pictures (international)
Release dates
  • April 15, 2009 (2009-04-15) (United Kingdom)
  • April 17, 2009 (2009-04-17) (United States)
Running time
96 minutes
CountryTemplate:Film US
LanguageEnglish
Box office$34,447,368[1]

Crank: High Voltage, sometimes promoted as Crank 2: High Voltage on some regions and on DVD, is a 2009 American action-thriller comedy film and sequel to the 2006 action film, Crank. The story of the film resumes shortly after the first film left off, retaining its "real-time" presentation and adding more special effects. 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 15, 2009,[2] two days prior to its North American release date.

Plot

The film begins immediately after the last film ends, where Chev Chelios (Jason Statham) lands in the middle of an intersection after falling out of a helicopter. He is scooped off the street via snow shovel by a group of Chinese medics and removed from the scene. Chelios 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. He wakes up three months later 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. Miles informs Chelios that once the external battery pack runs out, the internal battery will kick in and he will have 60 minutes before it stops working. While driving Chelios crashes his car which destroys his external battery pack. After getting directions from a driver, Chelios has the driver use his jumper cables on him. At the club, Chelios loses Vang but picks up a hooker named Ria (Bai Ling) who sends him to a strip club where Vang is hiding out. In the club, Chelios finds Eve (Amy Smart), now a stripper. A group of Mexican mobsters, led by Chico, show up looking for Chelios. After a gunfight, Chelios learns that a mobster named "El Hurón" ("The Ferret") wants to kill him, but he doesn't find out why.

Outside of the strip club, Chelios commandeers a police cruiser with Eve and another stripper. The stripper tells Chelios that he should look at the Hollywood Racetrack for Johnny Vang. Along the way Chelios meets Venus (Efren Ramirez), who reveals himself to be Kaylo's brother. Wanting his help, he tells Venus that El Huron was involved in his brothers death, but escaped. At the horse track Chelios begins losing energy again. Another call from Doc Miles informs him that friction will cause static electricity to power the internal battery. Eve shows up and they have sex on the racetrack before Chelios spots Vang and leaves Eve behind. Vang escapes, and Chelios is about to be subdued by security when Don Kim picks Chelios up in his limo. He informs Chelios that there is a leader in the Triads named Poon Dong (David Carradine), who was in need of a heart transplant and chose Chelios's to replace his. Chelios kills Don Kim and his henchmen upon learning that Don Kim wishes to return him to Poon Dong for a reward. Meanwhile, Venus calls in Orlando (Reno Wilson) to assist in tracking down El Huron.

While searching for Vang, Chelios boards an ambulance and steals a battery pack for his artificial heart. Chelios exits the ambulance upon seeing Johnny Vang on the street outside and a shootout ensues while before Chelios subdues Vang. Chelios discovers that Vang's red cooler doesn't contain his heart and then learns via cellphone from Doc Miles that his heart has already been transplanted into Poon Dong. Johnny Vang is shot and killed by Chico as Chelios interrogates him, after which Chelios is knocked unconscious. Doc Miles uses his secretary to locate Poon Dong to retrieve Chelios's heart.

Chelios is taken to an island where El Huron awaits. It is revealed that El Huron is, in fact, the brother of Ricky and Alex Verona, both of whom Chelios killed in the first film. He reveals Ricky Verona's head is being kept alive long enough to watch El Huron kill Chelios. El Huron is about to kill Chelios when Orlando, Venus and Ria show up, each with their own group of gunfighters. As a gunfight ensues, Verona and El Huron are killed by Chelios. As he starts to slow down, he climbs a nearby telephone pole and grabs a pair of live wires to recharge. He is flung off the pole and set on fire by the massive current. Chelios walks towards the camera, giving the middle finger to the audience in the final moment of the film.

As the credits roll by Doc Miles replaces Chelios's heart. At first it looks like a failure but after everyone leaves Chelios's eyes open wide and his heart monitor indicates normal activity.

Cast

Main article: List of Crank characters

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 and Sony Pictures handled international distribution.

Filming started in April 2008. The production budget was less 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]

Soundtrack

Main article: Crank: High Voltage (soundtrack)

Linkin Park's song, "Given Up", was featured in the trailer for the film. The majority of the soundtrack was done by Mike Patton.[5] 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:

Reception

Critical response

Crank: High Voltage has received mixed reviews. The film has a "fresh" rating of 62% on the film review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes with the consensus being "Crank: High Voltage delivers on its promises: a fast-paced, exciting thrill ride that doesn't take itself too seriously."[6] However the "Cream of the Crop" top reviewer aggregate score on Rotten Tomatoes only gives Crank: High Voltage a 36% score. Co-Host 3000 of Spill.com gave the film a "Better Than Sex!" which is the websites highest rating. Elsewhere, Metacritic cited a score of 41 out of 100, based on 15 reviews.[7] 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.

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.

Awards and recognition

The poster artwork received an IMP Award for best funny poster tagline of 2009: "He was dead ... but he got better".[8]

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 per the latest figures, 827,000 units have been sold, acquiring revenue of over $15 million. This does not include Blu-ray sales or DVD rentals.[9] In Germany the uncut DVD and Blu-Ray was indexed on March 31, 2010.[10]

References

  1. ^ [1]
  2. ^ http://www.crank2.co.uk/. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); Missing or empty |title= (help)
  3. ^ Crank 2: High Voltage Being Shot With Cheapo Best Buy HD Cameras, Still Ridiculous
  4. ^ "Amy Smart Spills on Crank 2 Sex Scene, Crazy Plot, Crank 3?". Crank 2: High Voltage Blog. 2008-08-07. Retrieved 2008-09-24. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  5. ^ "Crank 2: High Voltage (2009) - Soundtracks". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 2009-02-03.
  6. ^ "Avg score for Crank". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2009-05-16.
  7. ^ "Avg score for Crank". Metacritic. Retrieved 2009-04-19.
  8. ^ Best Tagline nominees Best Tagline winner
  9. ^ http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/2009/CRAN2-DVD.php
  10. ^ Indizierungen/ Beschlagnahmen März 2010
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