Product: xXx (2002)
Rating: 4.0
Make room for Vin
"XXX" starring Vin Diesel as the title character is a snowboarding, car stealing, anti-establishment, skateboarding, weight lifting, snarling, speaking out of the side of his mouth kind-of-guy. Much has been said that "XXX" is really a James Bond movie but I think that is only because the main locale of the film is Prague and not Los Angeles, as was "The Fast and the Furious." Rob Cohen directed both movies and he certainly shows that he is adept at making films move at breakneck speed.Vin Diesel is not Pierce Brosnan but a combination of Schwarzenneger and Eastwood; with Arnold's brawn and Clint's brain. Not a bad combo, if you ask me.XXX is coerced into spy service by the redoubtable Samuel L. Jackson for one only (no sequel? Yeah right!) mission to investigate a group of Russian émigrés who plan, in essence to take over the world."XXX" is very noisy, exudes a lot of testosterone, has several car, plane and helicopter chases and is generally a whole lot of fun. Whether or not Vin Diesel can play a romantic lead or a comedic one is not really the point, is it? He seems to have found his niche and if he can play Othello or Romeo...hey, more power to him. Right now he is brimming with machismo and charisma and he's young. Right on.