Review: xXx

It was a movie that revolutionized a genre of film, shattered box office records and cemented an action star’s legacy forever!

What is the film in question? 2002’s xXx

Starring world-renowned action star, Vin Diesel (The Fast and the Furious, The Pacifier) as Xander Cage, aka: xXx.

The film starts off as an agent of the NSA gets killed trying to escape a group of thugs within a Rammstein concert. The agent, looking a lot like a Bond-styled spy, stuck out like a sore thumb in his tuxedo among the head bangers at the show, and gets killed with relative ease.

Back in the U.S., our eponymous hero, Cage, who is a extreme-sports icon, and a professional rule breaker, is shown pretending to be a valet, in order to steal the car of a senator, who is notorious for trying to outlaw stuff that his people hold dear [such as rock music, video games, et al] and so he takes it upon himself to steal the car, rig it with cameras, and drive it off a bridge, surf the car down, and then parachute to the bottom, where Tony Hawk is waiting at the bottom.

So, yeah, the movie is entrenched in realism from the get-go.

While celebrating his latest stunt at the “Xander Zone” with his crew and a bunch of extreme guests, The NSA raid his crib, and tranquilize him, and it goes black.

Cage then awakes in a diner, where an attempted robbery is about to be staged by the NSA in order to test Cage and see if he’s the type of guy they want to use in their day-to-day operations.

Leading the charge is the NSA’s Augustus Gibbons, (Samuel L. Jackson), who feels that by using less than reputable sources for potential agents, they would not only be expendable, but at the same time, they’ll be able to infiltrate certain places that your typical agents couldn’t blend in.

Cage, after a series of tests is less than enthusiastic about being a pawn in this game, but with his freedom being dangled in front of him, he reluctantly agrees, and is sent to the Czech Republic to infiltrate an underground group by the name of Anarchy 99, in order to find out what their intentions are.

Also starring Asia Argento (The Daughter of famous horror film maker, Dario Argento) as Yelena, the “Bond Girl” of the film, who is also on the inside of Anarchy 99, but her intentions are not yet clear.

The film plays out a lot like a Bond film, with [of course] the idea that it’s not a Bond Film. A lot of cool special effects, and stunts fill the movie, in order to give it a much better flavor than the typical spy adventure.
The plot isn’t anything that you haven’t seen anywhere else. Good guy goes undercover, meets woman who’s in league with the bad guy, only to find out that she’s got her own agenda as well, and then the two team up to defeat the evil bad guy. Nothing really imaginative.

I really enjoyed the action sequences, they were done very well, most notably, would be the scene where Cage induces an avalanche, and proceeds to snowboard down the mountain in order to beat it, and stop the men chasing him.

I do actually like Vin Diesel and his films. They are a guilty pleasure of mine, I just never really cared for this film, mainly because I almost took it as a poke toward the James Bond series, which I will admit, at the time was pretty stale, but the fact remains that they’re still very good movies. Diesel works better though, when his character is more believable, or drawn out even more [see: Pitch Black, The Fast and the Furious].

Directed by Rob Cohen (Dragonheart, The Fast and the Furious), the film went on to gross $277 million worldwide countered against an estimated budget of $70 million, the film was extremely profitable. A Sequel was spawned, 2005’s xXx: State of the Union, which was a critical and financial flop. The film did not feature either Cohen at the helm, or Diesel in the lead. However, reports have surfaced that there is another sequel in the works, this time with Diesel and Cohen, called: xXx: The Return of Xander Cage.

Looks like someone’s trying to capture lightning in a bottle again [remember when Diesel came back to do 2009’s “Fast and Furious”?]

I would recommend the film to anyone who enjoys action films, and doesn’t want to do a heck of a lot of thinking. Or, if you’re a Vin Diesel fan, then you’ll get a kick out of it.

I give xXx 4 out of 10.