Amazon.co.uk
Vin Diesel is no James Bond, and he doesn't want to be. That's why XXX announced Diesel as the adrenalin-junkie Bond of the PlayStation generation, copying the Bond formula so shamelessly that this action-packed silliness would be a Bond movie if it starred Pierce Brosnan. Reuniting Diesel with his Fast and the Furious director Rob Cohen, XXX has an attitude (if not a brain) all its own, plucking Diesel's Xander Cage from his celebrity as an extreme sports renegade, recruited by a National Security Agency big shot (Samuel L. Jackson) to foil a nasty Czech villain (Marton Csokas) who's eager to depopulate Prague with remote-controlled biological weaponry. Toss in a sulky, sultry Russian agent (Asia Argento) and you've got extreme Bond-age for anyone who thinks tuxedos are passé. With a handful of eye-popping action sequences, XXX launched a movie franchise with a cool guy, another cool muscle car, and plenty of box-office sizzle. --Jeff Shannon
Amazon.co.uk Review
For a movie that would like to think of itself as the future of the action / espionage picture, xXx uses a surprising number of jokes and stunts lifted directly from the Roger Moore Bond era while the actual premise resembles a sex-change for Nikita. Vin Diesel's Xander Cage--an extreme sports daredevil recruited by spymaster Samuel L Jackson for a covert mission in Prague--may be Blofeld-bald, pumped-up with testosterone, tattooed like a graffiti-covered wall and given to driving sports cars off bridges for fun, but he turns out to be a disappointingly square goodie-goodie when the quips and bullets are flying. Even the slinky heroine (Asia Argento), a double agent within a mad ex-Soviet gang called Anarchy 99, laughs at the idea that a walking cue ball with three Xs tattooed on his neck could ever be a secret agent.
There's one stunt scene that will be remembered as a classic, as xXx triggers an avalanche and snowboards ahead of the fall. But there's too much of the falling-out-of-planes, straddling-and-defusing-jet-propelled-germ-bombs, blasting-every-baddie-in-the-place business that makes it too familiar. Enough material for several great trailers, but next time they'll need a script. --Kim Newman
On the DVD: xXx comes loud and proud to DVD, with Dolby 5.1 sound and the kind of sharp screen transfer you'd expect for a movie of this magnitude. From beautiful scrolling menus based on the tattoo artwork to the brash music, this disc epitomises everything an extreme sports release should be: special features are offered in the "Zander Zone" and include a whole host of behind-the-scenes action and commentaries, made all the more interesting by Rob Cohen's reluctance to use CGI and Vin Diesel's willingness to be thrown in at the deep end. If there's one thing you should avoid, though, it's the Gavin Rossdale music video--unless of course you want to see a grown man's vanity on screen. --Nikki Disney
Customer Reviews:
Noisy video game style fun.......2008-01-16
What exactly do you want here? Shakespeare? Vin Diesel plays a video game style action hero/antihero who lives life for driving sports cars off bridges. Like a certain substance I could mention it does exactly what it says on the tin. If this kind of movie is not your bag, well so be it, but if it is then this is high octane fun with some good stunts, some good one liners, and the antihero wins the day and gets the girl. It is noisy, there are explosions, and yes on a couple of occasions you get to see a great deal of bare flesh, enjoy it on the simple level that it is designed for and you will not be disappointed.
ACCOMPLISHES WHAT IT SET OUT TO ACCOMPLISH.......2007-08-08
As the Bond franchise has worn on past its use-by date with not a fresh or new idea in sight, it should hardly be surprising that competition on the espionage-based action-adventure front is emerging. And to be quite frank, the competition doesn't exactly have a tough field to fight on. Three of the last four Bond films have been utter tripe, with the most recent in particular an utter embarrassment in the face of this upstart. Even Licence To Kill isn't all that interesting compared to some of the recent cloak and dagger superheroes we've seen in film or otherwise.
XXX succeeds where Bond has failed by setting aside any conventions about class or preening, and getting right back into the guts of what a visual medium should be about. Deisel's Xander Cage doesn't expect the viewer to be impressed by overused dialogue. Instead, he communicates through a relative economy of words and lets his actions do most of the talking. The gadgets or stunt skills demonstrated in early parts of the film have a purpose later on in the story.
It is this latter point where XXX utterly caned Bond 20. In XXX, we see our hero steal a car from the kind of man anyone who grew up during the 1970s or 1980s would love to stick on a pole and drive it off a bridge. While the snowboarding sequence crossed the line between extreme and ridiculous, Vin Deisel makes this work because he looks, sounds, and even generally acts the part. After Bond 20's "See? I can be X-TREME too!" opening, it's no wonder that rumours are persistent that Pierce Brosnan will not be coming back.
But to get away from the Bond/XXX comparisons for a second, let's look at what this film was trying to accomplish. You can have all the extreme sports conventions and secret agent plots in the world, but it is all for naught if you don't entertain your audience. In that sense, XXX works by diving right into the Indiana Jones style of action, setting a pace that gives the viewer little, if any time to consider the improbabilities of the situation. Which is one area that any action film thrives upon - if you give your audience time to think about what they've just seen and how probable it is, you're dead in the water.
Going back to comparisons between XXX and Bond for a second, it seems a fixture of this kind of series to have improbable women with improbable personalities doing (comparatively) mildly improbable things. If the action is only as good as the main antagonist, then the dialogue and interpersonal relationships are only as good as the leading woman. XXX has Asia Argento. The last five Bond films have had Halle Berry, Sophie Marceau, Teri Hatcher, Izabella Scorupco, and Carey Lowell. Rosamund Pike and Famke Janssen notwithstanding, I rest my case in this department.
Getting away from that overworked comparison again, I am definitely not a XXX zealot. There are numerous problems with the film that become obvious when you look past the surface. None of the characters have anything remotely resembling a third dimension, and many of them don't even approach a second. As previously hinted, some of the stunts are so ridiculous that they almost undo the film. Even when your pace is so fast that you're not giving the audience time to think, you can't just openly defy the laws of physics. A hero narrowly dodging bullets, an audience will accept. A hero running from the centre of a nuclear explosion (or an avalanche) past the edge without the aid of a miracle, they won't.
Unfortunately, it seems that XXX is destined not to become even a two-episode franchise. Deisel has already left the series, and the same director who helmed Bond 20 looks set to direct episode two. A two-punch knockout, in other words. Given that XXX is firmly rooted in the time it was made, however, that's probably a good thing. In all, I gave it a seven out of ten. Jump in expecting merely to be entertained, and you can't go wrong.
A buffed-up 007 without the suavity.......2006-07-22
The acquisition of polished good manners and social skills is, I suspect, less important in today's culture than it used to be. Therefore, Vince Diesel's Xander Cage action hero will be as big a hit with current, younger, theater audiences as the elegant Bond (JAMES Bond, if you please) was with earlier generations.
XXX is the first release in what will certainly be a continuing series of Xander Cage adventures. Hollywood knows a gold mine when it stumbles over it. In this installment, Cage is an anti-social, tattooed Bad Boy hooked on extreme sports stunts, who's cornered into joining a U.S. intelligence agency by Agent Gibbons (Samuel L. Jackson). After a suitable period of, um, competency testing, America's newest hero is sent to Prague to gather information about a megalomaniacal anarchist named Yorgi (Marton Csokas). Of course, anybody keeping the world safe for democracy has to have the potential reward of TLC from an appreciative Babe. In XXX, the latter role is supplied by Yelena (Asia Argento), who starts out as Yorgi's hard-edged and edgy moll. Or is she? And it's a long overdue opportunity for American viewers to see something of Prague, a truly beautiful city that's apparently recovering nicely from its gloomy days behind the Iron Curtain.
The nifty gadgets and death-defying stunts in XXX are satisfying and spectacular, especially the sequence involving the "fresh powder". However, since it's the rare action film nowadays that doesn't have eye-popping FX, those in this one simply meet what has become the average expectation. What lifts XXX above three stars is Xander's anti-establishment bad attitude. Had he been dressed up in a tux at any point, the total effect would have been lost. Once the novelty of his persona wears off - soon, I think, in my case - his Big Screen feats of derring-do will become so much Mindless Entertainment. Now, don't get me wrong. The periodic Bond flicks are mindless also, but the current actor in the title role, Pierce Brosnan, at least has demonstrated a capability for doing a thinking man's espionage caper, specifically the excellent screen adaptation of John le Carr's THE TAILOR OF PANAMA. Somehow, I don't see Diesel up to anything of such quality in the near future, if indeed ever.
Perhaps it's just the sour grapes of an older movie goer, but down deep I'll maintain that Sean Connery's Bond (JAMES Bond, if you please), and perhaps even Brosnan's, could wipe up the floor with Xander Cage. Old age and cunning will trip up youth and inexperience.
An entertaining thrill ride of a film.......2005-12-31
I'm not a huge fan of action movies, but I've quite enjoyed both of the XXX films. The original, starring Vin Diesel, is chock full of things that go boom, and I don't think the story is all that bad. I was especially happy to finally get to see Asia Argento for the first time - she is, among other things, the daughter of one of the true greats of European horror. I must admit I'm still not quite sure what all the Vin Diesel hysteria is about, though. He's certainly a different breed of actor, but I thought he had a few moments of inconsistency here. One thing I really don't understand is the inevitable comparisons between XXX and James Bond. I would never have even thought of comparing them because I see them as two completely different characters occupying opposite ends of the secret agent spectrum.
So, anyway, Vin Diesel plays Xander Cane, a rebel with an X Games mentality and a penchant for sticking it to the man. It's enough to get him noticed by NSA Agent Gibbons (Samuel L. Jackson), and - needless to say - Xander passes Gibbons' test and soon finds himself ensconced amidst a group of dangerous anarchists in Prague. The bad guys are your typical malcontented youths who oppose everything society stands for and revel in the idea of unfettered freedom. What makes them special, though, are the scope of their operation and the plans they are cooking up to make the whole world all but implode. The newly christened XXX knows how to walk the walk and talk the talk, and that puts him in a position to learn just what Anarchy 99 is up to. Naturally, there's a woman thrown in the mix - the mysterious Yelena (Asia Argento), a pivotal member of the organization who might very well be more than she seems. It is the special effects rather than the actual storyline that tend to dominate the movie, though - and that's fine because it makes XXX a pulse-pounding cinematic experience. Of course, if any of the bad guys could hit the broad side of a barn with their weapons, XXX would have been down for the count before he even got started.
I thought the stunts and special effects were well above average. As the Filmmaker's Diary documentary and making-of featurettes show, director Rob Cohen relied on actual stunts rather that CGI whenever possible (one stuntman died during his work on the movie), making XXX more realistic than a lot of other action films. Xander himself is the proverbial anti-hero, and that always seems to appeal to audiences. The pumped-up soundtrack only adds more energy to the almost nonstop action on the screen. In essence, XXX has all the makings of a solid summer blockbuster - and that's exactly what it was.
All the fun and action no mush.......2005-10-13
This movie is like a study of Bond and Bourn "The Bourne Identity (TV Miniseries) (1988)", action movies. Toss in the innocent enthusiasm as in "If Looks Could Kill (1991)", There are gadgets women plots and sub plots. But this movie is mostly about action. This is not one of those thinking movies or realy a talkie. It does hold your attention.
Xander Cage is an innocent dissident minding his own business. The business being stealing the governor's car and displaying reckless abandonment all in the cause of freedom. He is pressed into serves ala "Remo Williams - The Adventure Begins (1985)" in lieu of a prison sentence. It seems that the NSA needs someone of his reputation and abilities for short time. Will he comply and if so how short of a time? Will he quit when he is told to do so? And is there a love interest or just one of those spy vs. spy things?
DVD:
- Zatoichi (2 disc Collector's Edition) [2003]
- 7 Men From Now [1956] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
- Attack Of The Sabretooth [2006]
- Batman Forever - Special Edition [1995]
- Battleground [1949]
- B. Monkey [1998] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
- Bullet In The Head
- Cast A Giant Shadow [1966]
- Code Of Silence [1985]
- Columbo [1968]
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