Review of xXx

xXx (2002)
Enjoyably stupid
20 January 2003
xXx is as big as Pinocihos nose after he has read a statement written by Jeffrey Archer and as dumb as a person with no tongue. It is designed for the kind of people who think that Bond movies have too much of that talking stuff between explosions and use this strange music that doesn't seem to have distorted electric guitars or rapping on it. It is also a lot of fun.

After losing another spy on the trail of ultra stupid terrorist anarchy 99, whose plan for world domination involves building a boat in a landlocked country, the NSA decide they need a new breed of agent. Therefore they kidnap extreme sports enthusiast and counter culture hero Xander Cage, aka xXx, aka Vin Diesel playing virtually the same character he did in Pitch Black and The Fast And The Furious. After watching him do Evil Kineval impersonations around a Colombian cocaine plantation whilst the army try to blow it off the face of the Earth they cut him a deal. Either save the world or go to jail. Unsurprisingly he chooses the former.

For the first 20 minutes it looks encouragingly like the they have just allowed the stunt team to make the entire movie. However before long we have scenes developing the love interest set in swanky restaurants and a lush orchestral score creeping in. This wouldn't be a problem if the writer didn't think the phrase "one liner" referred to the amount of decent dialogue he had to include in the entire film. As it is your mind starts wandering as soon as things stop exploding.

However xXx's action sequences are more than enough to compensate the viewer for their patience during the more laboured elements of the film. The stunts are by turns ambitious, outrageous and just plain improbable, however it seems unlikely that the film will be causing the James Bond producers too many sleepless nights. In fact before long they will be making films to appeal to people who think the xXx movies have too much dialogue and not enough nu-metal. They'll probably call them Jackass Bond.
15 out of 21 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Recently Viewed