Crank 2: High Voltage

Is this film incredibly immature? Undoubtedly. Is it over the top? You could say that. Does it have narrative consistency? Come on. Is it a borderline surrealist masterpiece? Quite possibly. Did I enjoy myself immensely? Yes, yes I did.

Having never seen the original Crank I can't say how the two stack up and maybe I missed a lot of character background, but I doubt it. The film begins with our hero Chev Chelios falling out a helicopter and being immediately thrown into a van by chinese mobsters. They immediately start harvesting his organs to implant in a dying triad boss. Chev just rolls his eyes and groans when they take his heart and stick in a replacement, but when it turns out they're going to cut off little chev, well that's just too much. He breaks out of the hospital and tries to run his heart down. It turns out that his replacement heart can only stay powered so long, so chev then spends the rest of the film shocking his heart back into beating. That's it, and really its glorious.
Rememder when I said that Speed Racer was a live action cartoon? Crank 2 is a live action video game. Chev runs around, fights, kills, shocks himself back into shape, all the while all the films elements are turned up to eleven. I don't to give too much away but tell me you wouldn't enjoy a film with all this:

-Chev repeatedly sticking himself with a taser
-A fight scene where the characters switch into an old school Godzilla, Man-In-Suit style, fight scene complete with stop motion photography
-The climatic fight scene is eventually framed as an eighties music video complete with an REO Speedwagon power ballad

Look this will never be mistaken for a great film, but its so over the top and aware of its ridiculousness that you can't help but enjoy it. Really the closest thing I can compare this too, favorably, is Shoot 'Em Up, another film that goes so gloriously over the top that you can't help but go along for the ride.

Plus there's something to be said for a film completely doing what it sets out to do. Maybe its not shooting for narrative greatness, but it knows exactly what it is and sets out to revel in its excess. Give me that over The Reader any day.

Post Script: I've heard some criticism that the film hates women, I wouldn't necessarily agree. It hates everybody. No group is potrayed in a positive light here. The stereotypes are broad, everybody is portrayed as being an ultra violent sociopath, and if it didn't take itself so lightly I would probably find it all incredibly offensive. But I don't.