I was possibly one of the last people  (who take movie reviewing seriously) to see Crank, but having seen it earlier this year and being incredibly impressed by what I assumed would be just macho rubbish, it was a quick step for me to see the sequel.  If you have missed out on the wonder of Crank, yes it is an action movie but its also an excuse to engage in some good old fashioned silliness, birds being shot in freak accidents and a main character who needed to keep his adrenalin up to stay alive. By the end of Crank however it seemed the almost indestructible man Chev Chelios (Jason Statham) had finally ran out of luck.

Crank: High Voltage picks up where the original left off and finds Chev on an operating table having fallen from the sky. This time instead of being poisoned, he has had his heart removed by back street Chinese organ thieves. As he quickly despatches the surgeons, he discovers that his heart is missing, replaced by an artificial heart, which he needs to keep charged. As he chases across town in search of Johnny Vang (the gangster in possession of his heart) Chev must fight of numerous villains, while keeping his heart pumped with electricity in the most unconventional of ways.

Everyone raved about the new Crank movie, but I have to say it never floated my boat in the same way that the original did. Crank pushed the envelope just enough to be moth funny and generally entertaining, the language was harsh bit it had something a little old fashioned about it. Crank: High Voltage just goes, for my money one step too far. The action is good but at times just plain stupid, and it almost takes the action out of the movie placing it somewhere else. Fight scenes are prolonged, and in one scene replaced in a sort of Godzilla style manner that has no context other than he background with whats actually happening. I’m sure some would say it was a metaphor for something, but personally it just made the movie to stupid.

Stupid is the ultimate word for Crank: High Voltage, it’s a bit of a disaster. Its just one step to far in most places, yes it’s still entertaining but in a cringe worthy car crash style manner, you just can’t help but look. If your familiar with the director Greg Araki (Doom Generation, The Living End) you’ll have an idea the sort of mentality that we are looking at here. Araki’s movies rather like Crank are completely out of time.

Okay so I have punched all the holes in this movie I intend to, despite the silliness of the movie there is still quite a lot to like. Like the original Chev finds himself in a sexually charged scenario in a public this place, this time turning his charms on a pensioner before hooking up with old girlfriend Eve played by the voluptuous Amy Smart (a role very out of context for this fine actress).

The scenario is much like the original, Chev literally running around moving from one incident to another. It enters the realms of science fiction a couple of times particularly when an old enemy makes a unusual return in a rather heady situation.

Statham performs well, given the fact that he has to work with what must undoubtedly be the most stupid script he has ever worked with. He gets to make lots of quips at his co-actors and behalf more stupidly than the worst drunk you know.

It’s nowhere near as good as the original, despite what everyone seems to think. But even that said its still a lot more amusing than a great deal of comedy movies out there at present. Give it a try and see for yourself, but bear in mind that while everyone else wows this movie like nothing else, the only way to go from such praise is in the direction of disappointment, something you cannot help but notice here.