Product: xXx [VHS] (2002)
Rating: 4.0
I learned something interesting - & useful - from this no-brainer action movie...
I love watching action movies, even if some of them are no-brainers! My purpose of going to the movies is very simple: firstly, to be entertained within a span of about two hours, & secondly to pick out some interesting & useful ideas.Triple X is one such action movie. The plot is very simple: An extreme sports renegade (with no fear but has a bad attitude), Xander Cage (played by Vin Diesel), is recruited by a NSA big shot, Augustus Gibbons (played by Samuel Jackson), to spy on & then foil an attempt by a nasty group of Czech criminals, known as Anarchy 99, & led by a crazy villian, Yorgi (played by Marton Csokas) who had some nutty ideas to change the world using a biological virus, called Silent Night.The many high-octane action sequences (cars, bikes, skis, boats, helicopters,...), all the way from the opening scene & the attendant rampant explosions, plus all the state-of-the-art weaponry, including a super-duper Bond-like vehicle, in the movie are quite fun to watch. The dialogue is witty, too. [For example, in Prague, while Xander was about to go to bed with a sexy girl, with compliments from Yorgi of course, he remarked: "The things I'm gonna do for my country."]Among others, there is one particular dialogue, between Gibbons & Cage, during the first half of the movie which strikes my personal attention.When Gibbons offers Cage a job to work for the US government, with a view to redeem the latter's crimes, Cage turns him down flatly. That's when Gibbons tells him the story about the difference between the eyes of a lion in captivity & the eyes of a lion in the wild.This also reminds me of an insightful dialogue between Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) & Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) in one of the earlier scenes of the movie, Rocky III. [In contrast to Triple XXX, Rocky III is an intelligent movie.] The movie tells the story of how Creed convinces & retrains a down-&-out Rocky to go back into the ring to fight againt Clubber Lang (Mr T) who had earlier gave Rocky a thorough bashing in humiliating defeat. In that particular scene, Creed tells the story about "the eye of the tiger". Creed desperately wants Rocky to regain his focus quickly in order to win. Incidentally, this is also the title of the movie's signature tune.These are certainly interesting learning points, especially in terms of understanding life (or survival) skills. I often share these stories with teens who are searching for directions in life.In summing up, I have enjoyed watching Triple XXX & learned something interesting - & useful - along the way.