CRANK 2

For those of you who have seen the crazy/insance action movie CRANK with Jason Statham, the idea of a sequel to the movie may sound a bit strange. Why you ask? Well (SPOILER ALERT), he died at the end of the film. Or so it seemed. Which makes these recent statements from CRANK creators Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor so odd:

"Crank 2 will pick up exactly where Crank one ends," says Taylor. "It's a true sequel. Jason Statham will return. It's not a prequel, it's not his brother, it's not a dream sequence. He will [scrape himself off the floor]" It’s going to be more sexual, more violent – more of everything," laughs Taylor. "We realise with a movie like Crank, you can’t do a sequel and do 60% or 70% of what the original was. You have to go twice as hard. So that’s what we’re going to do. If we’re going to live up to the first one with the sequel – we’re taking it WAY past the point of the first one."

I loved CRANK. It was unapologetically violent, sexist, racist, misogynistic, and flat-out fun as hell. The low-budget, gritty technical aspects were perfect and Statham rampaging throughout Los Angeles tearing shit up was just a blast to watch. And oh yeah....the sex scene in Korea town with Amy Smart...now that was something else. But I really don't understand how a sequel is possible. While over-the-top and completely crazy, CRANK exsisted in a heightened-reality, not a surreal landscape. You certainly had to suspend your disbelief but everything that went down in CRANK made sense considering the universe that Neveldine/Taylor created for the characters. So forgive me for saying that the idea of Statham's character (SPOILER ALERT) "scraping himself off the floor" after falling hundreds of feet from a helicopter onto a Los Angeles city street sounds....well...in the words of one of my teacher friends: mildly-mentally-retarded.

But, I'm willing to bet these guys will figure something out that will make it all work. I am always down for balls-out, hard-R, trippy action flicks. Some of my recent favorites, such as DOMINO, RUNNING SCARED, SMOKIN' ACES, and SHOOT 'EM UP, have re-invigorated the genre and have almost jump started a tiny sub-genre in the realm of action movies.