Crank: High Voltage (2009)
★★½ — Crank: High Voltage (2009)
Crank: High Voltage arrived in 2009 as the direct follow-up to Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor's 2006 cult hit Crank, with the writing-directing duo doubling down on every excess that made the original a midnight-movie favourite. Produced for around $20 million through Lionsgate and Lakeshore Entertainment, it shot largely on location across Los Angeles with the same guerrilla, handheld-on-rollerblades aesthetic the pair had become known for. Neveldine and Taylor had essentially invented their own visual grammar with the first film, and this sequel gave them licence to push it further with no studio interference. Jason Statham, by 2009 well established as action cinema's most reliably physical leading man, returned alongside Amy Smart. The film came out in a period when R-rated action was making a modest commercial comeback, though its willingness to be genuinely, deliberately absurd set it apart from most of its contemporaries.
Crank: High Voltage is basically the first film’s wild younger sibling who didn’t learn anything from rehab. It's just louder, dumber, and running on electricity instead of adrenaline. Jason Statham returns as Chev Chelios, now with an artificial heart that needs constant charging (literally), and the whole movie becomes a two-hour scramble to stay plugged in. It’s still got that same hyper-kinetic, sensory-overload style (flashing lights, frantic editing, Statham sprinting half-naked through Chinatown) but this time, the novelty’s worn off. The first Crank felt outrageous and inventive. This one is just outrageous. It doesn’t surprise you; it just escalates the absurdity for the sake of it. Electrocuting himself on power lines, getting chased by organ harvesters, having a fight on a moving truck again. It’s the same formula, same energy, same “don’t think, just watch” mentality, but without the freshness that made the original even a little special. That said, it’s not boring. If you’re in the right mood (tired, tipsy, or just craving something utterly ridiculous) it can work as decent “turn your brain off” cinema. Statham commits fully (as always), and there’s a certain charm in how completely it embraces the stupid. But as a sequel, it’s lazy. No real evolution, no new ideas, just more of the same, cranked to eleven. Mildly entertaining, entirely forgettable.
Rating: ★★½ | Year: 2009 | Watched: 2025-09-03
Where to watch (UK)
Stream: ITVX Premium
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Related on Movies With Macca
More from Mark Neveldine: Crank (2006)
More with Jason Statham: Death Race (2008) · Crank (2006) · Snatch (2000)
More from the 2000s: Kirikou and the Wild Beasts (2005) · Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) · Daredevil (2003) · Apocalypto (2006)
More action: A Better Tomorrow (1986) · The General (1926) · Hand of Death (1976) · Daredevil (2003)
More thriller: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) · Angst (1983) · The Long Walk (2025) · Punishment Park (1971)
