2 out of 5

Director: Mark Neveldine, Brian Taylor

Whereas Crank was a surprise of ridiculous, frenetic energy, Crank 2 over-ups the ante and ends up beating the horse way past being dead. Crank 2 starts where 1 left off: Chelios (Statham) is alive, and then kidnapped by another gang who steals his heart and replaces it with a temporary model while they keep him alive long enough to steal other key organs. Chelios, of course, escapes, and learns from his handy doctor that he can keep his temporary model pumping with jolts of electricity. Cue Statham shocking himself with any and everything, resorting to the minor blips of static electricity up to the grand guignol of grabbing the high voltage bit by the power lines. Its much more crass than the first one, and respectfully flaunts from moment one that all of this is understandably ridiculous and implausible. And it goes by without you thinking, it just never has the same (ha ha) jolt as number one, feeling like it plays its cards in the first few minutes. As Statham stares into the camera at the end, on fire, and flicks you off, it seems to summarize something about the mentality behind the putting the film together.