News > "Crank" Cast Returns, Plus Bai Ling! (Some Spoilers)

"Crank: High Voltage," once an incredibly unlikely sequel, now has most of the primary players from the first film back in place. Jason Statham, Amy Smart, Dwight Yoakam, and Efren Ramirez will reprise their roles and they'll be joined by actress Bai Ling ("Dim Sum Funeral," "Love Ranch").

For those who missed the first film, Statham plays Chev Chelios, a poisoned assassin who will die if his heart rate drops below a certain point. Smart plays his girlfriend, Yoakum is Chelios's "concerned doctor," and Ramirez is "the cross-dresser who loves him." Newcomer Ling will play "a call girl obsessively pursuing Chelios for romantic reasons. She teams up with him to hunt down the Chinese mobster who has stolen his heart, literally." To quote Lennon/McCartney, "Ohhh boy." 

Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor will return to co-write and co-direct as they did in the first installment. It's genuinely reassuring to me that the film industry still has room for folks as nutty and off-the-wall as these two. It can be healthy to throw realism and logic out the window every now and again, as long as you have the raw entertainment to make the audience forget everything else.

(The Hollywood Reporter) 

-David Morgan