Product: xXx (2002)
Rating: 5.0
Fill 'er up with Diesel
Vin Diesel is back and badder than ever in XXX. Diesel stars as antihero Xander Cage, an extreme gamesman who's had more than his fair share of scrapes with the law, and who is looking at a very long stretch in Leavenworth until he meets NSA Agent Augustus Gibbons (Samuel L. Jackson). When Gibbons offers him a job he is initially reluctant until he's reminded of what he will get in return, and then the real fun begins.The thing I liked the most about this movie is the fact that it had a great plot and plenty of action, along with some gadgets that would make even an MI6 armaments master proud. The mix of plot and action was excellent in this movie, which is something that's not easily done. In a lot of films you either get all action and little plot, or you get all plot and little action. XXX has a perfect mix of both.The casting choices for XXX were very good as well. Vin Diesel was the perfect choice to play Xander Cage, extreme gamesman-turned government agent, and Asia Argento was a good choice to fill the role of Yelena, the member of the terrorist group Anarchy 99 who ends up helping him as well as revealing her own secret life. I also like Samuel L. Jackson as Gibbons and Marton Csokas as Yorgi, the head of Anarchy 99 and a bad guy who makes some of filmdom's bad guys look like pussycats.The XXX DVD included some very good extras. I especially enjoyed watching the Filmmaker's Diary documentary and was very touched by the fact that director Rob Cohen chose to mention late stuntman Harry O'Connor, who was killed during filming. (He could have just included the dedication in the end credits and left it at that, but he talked about O'Connor and his work on the film, which was nice of him.) There are also featurettes on the various vehicles in XXX, the "Designing the World of XXX" featurette, and 11 deleted scenes with optional commentary by Rob Cohen. There are many other extras, but I'm going to let everyone see what they are for themselves.All in all, XXX is one heck of a ride.