Product: xXx (2002)
Rating: 3.0
"I LIVE for this [stuff]
It's fairly obvious from the first frame of "XXX" that the powers that be behind the film both want to both pay tribute to and tear down the James Bond films. With a tuxedoed operative attempting to blend in at a Rammstein concert in the first scene, only to be shot and passed overhead in a mosh surf ... okay, we get the hint, guys."XXX" is the fairly simplistic tale of Xander Cage (Vin Diesel, resplendent in fake tattoos), an extreme athlete recruited by a shadow arm of the NSA headed by Gibbons (Samuel L. Jackson, not as bad... as usual) to infiltrate a gang of ex-Russian soldiers who have access to a biological weapon called Silent Night. Of course, there's a love interest for Xander, a Russian undercover spy named Iliana (Asia Argento, who gives new meaning to the term "heroin chic" but still manages to sport cleavage in important scenes), who is hooked up with the gang leader, Yorgi (Marton Csonkas, last seen in an American film as, believe it or not, the elf consort Celeborn in "Fellowship of The Ring"). If you can think of the spy cliche, it's in here. The stunts are unbelievable--and that's not in the good sense. Guys on snowmobiles can't outrace an avalanche, but Xander on a snowboard can? Jumping over an exploding building and not getting a speck of ash on yourself? Please.If you put your brain on hold, though, "XXX" is okay. It's essentially a big-budget B-movie intended as a star vehicle for Vin Diesel, and it works on that level. Vin is bad... enough for the boys and pretty enough for the girls (the man can DEFINITELY fill out a t-shirt), which is why he'll do well. He's not really required to act in this film, but to look tough and get off one-liners, which unfortunately for him are not very good here. He looks like he's having fun and is well aware that "XXX" isn't "Hamlet." "XXX" was intended to give him leverage in Hollywood--and with $141 million in U.S. box office, he's got it.