The last time we saw Chev Chelios he had just bounced off an old man’s car and slammed into the pavement of downtown Los Angeles after falling a thousand feet out of helicopter.  It was the first moment of a 90-minute chase across the city that included murder, transvestites and public sex acts, where the film slowed down enough for the audience to catch their breath.  Chev had successfully killed the men that injected Chinese poison into his heart and was free to die with all his scores settled.  Then he blinked. 

As the screen faded to black and a shallow heartbeat introduced the credits, I was excited that this wasn’t the end of such an incredible character.  That his hectic pacing refused to be slowed down by something as frivolous as death.  What I never took into consideration was how perfect Chev’s death was as an ending to his story. The ultimate exclamation point to Crank’s message of pure anarchy. There never should’ve been a Crank 2

Crank 2: High Voltage picks up on that street next to that old man’s dented car where Chev is pealed off the blacktop and tossed into a van.  He wakes up months later with a prosthetic heart – something to keep him alive long enough to harvest the rest of his organs. He, of course, breaks free and begins hunting for his heart, punching, killing or sexually assaulting anyone that gets in his way.

To keep his robot heart beating, Chev has to periodically shock himself.  It’s a big leap from the dilemma of the first film, which featured Chev finding unique ways of keeping his adrenaline up, but it leads to some interesting scenes involving jumper cables, tasers, and the inventible public sex acts.

The new premise might seem like a jump in logic but it’s best to keep in mind that this is basically a live action videogame.  You’d do well to suspend belief here.

To me it seems almost obvious that they’re setting up a third film and part two is merely the bridge between them. High Voltage plays like one extended action sequence between two plot points.  It’s unwavering and unyielding in its energy but it also has very little to say.  Where the original movie used its style to help tell a story of revenge, High Voltage’s plot seems to be taking a back seat to experimental filmmaking and a few dozen great action scenes.  It looks fantastic but is really just the big explosion before the last explosion.

High Voltage is heavily flawed and desperate to continue a story that rightfully should have stopped but, as a Crank movie, it’s exactly what you want it to be.  High energy, completely insane and tons of fun.  Things like “plot development” seem so insignificant somewhere around the point that Chev’s head catches on fire.  As he burned in the sun giving me the finger, I realized I was watching one of action’s best modern icons… and I wanted his adventure to continue.   

VERDICT | 5 out of 10 | Rent It!