I have to admit I actually liked the first "Crank" movie. Sure, it was silly and cheap, but it was also fresh and a lot of fun. "Crank: High Voltage" (CHV) however, shows that more is not always better.
Everything in CHV is several steps up from the original, which is hard to imagine given how insane that movie already was. But somehow they managed and the result in now and utterly hollow and tasteless experience.
"Crank High Voltage" is basically 90 minutes (barely) of extremely gratuitous sex and violence with literally no story or characters to tie the action together. Now I really don't mind violence in movies and I'm not easily offended, but everything that goes on in Crank is so tasteless and nasty that it makes your eyes roll.
First of all there's the characters. Even the "good" guys are totally nihilistic and sadistic, all the women are drooling prostitutes, and all the bad guys are extremely offensive racial stereotypes. Just about every line is either a misplaced curse or an insult of some minority group. Even the one-liners are horrible.
Then there's the action..which is just as soulless and trite as the dialogue and the characters. At least in the first movie there was a sense of urgency since the main character was in real danger. Here, he's completely indestructible, which drains out any suspense. Several times, the movie even goes into complete surrealism just for the sake of it. Please. Too much.
But perhaps most importantly..this is just not fun any more. The majority of things in this movie are supposed to be cool but are so tasteless that you can't really do anything but gasp in disbelief. Among the "highlights" are the protagonist inserting a tar-covered shotgun up somebody's anus and humping an elderly lady. Not funny. Not cool. Just sick.
Mindless action can be hugely enjoyable but there is a limit, and Crank High Voltage goes miles beyond that limit. It's a nasty, soulless, and witless mess that reaches a new low for an already pretty low genre.
Everything in CHV is several steps up from the original, which is hard to imagine given how insane that movie already was. But somehow they managed and the result in now and utterly hollow and tasteless experience.
"Crank High Voltage" is basically 90 minutes (barely) of extremely gratuitous sex and violence with literally no story or characters to tie the action together. Now I really don't mind violence in movies and I'm not easily offended, but everything that goes on in Crank is so tasteless and nasty that it makes your eyes roll.
First of all there's the characters. Even the "good" guys are totally nihilistic and sadistic, all the women are drooling prostitutes, and all the bad guys are extremely offensive racial stereotypes. Just about every line is either a misplaced curse or an insult of some minority group. Even the one-liners are horrible.
Then there's the action..which is just as soulless and trite as the dialogue and the characters. At least in the first movie there was a sense of urgency since the main character was in real danger. Here, he's completely indestructible, which drains out any suspense. Several times, the movie even goes into complete surrealism just for the sake of it. Please. Too much.
But perhaps most importantly..this is just not fun any more. The majority of things in this movie are supposed to be cool but are so tasteless that you can't really do anything but gasp in disbelief. Among the "highlights" are the protagonist inserting a tar-covered shotgun up somebody's anus and humping an elderly lady. Not funny. Not cool. Just sick.
Mindless action can be hugely enjoyable but there is a limit, and Crank High Voltage goes miles beyond that limit. It's a nasty, soulless, and witless mess that reaches a new low for an already pretty low genre.