xXx Review

xXx

Year: 2002
Director: Rob Cohen
Starring: Vin Diesel, Asia Argento, Marton Csokas, Michael Roof, Samuel L. Jackson
Distributor: Columbia Pictures
MPAA: Rated PG-13

When I first heard of xXx, I thought it was going to be another action spy type movie. I mean everything about it made it look like that. Even the tag-line "A new breed of secret agent" made the film look like another James Bond rip off and boy was I right. I was lucky enough not to have seen this movie in theatres, but rather on DVD and even then I am disappointed.

Xander Cage (Vin Diesel) is a man who lives on the edge by performing daredevil stunts. Well, this time he gets caught by NSA Agent Gibbons (Samuel L. Jackson) who recruits him to be an undercover agent for the United States. If he does this then his criminal record will be wiped clean and he is free to go. Cage travels to Czechoslovakia to spy on the group known as Anarchy 99. As he digs deeper and deeper into the organization, he soon learns that millions of lives are on the line and he is the only one that can stop them.

The story of xXx is pretty bad. Its the same old story, theirs a bad guy trying to destroy the world, then comes a good guy and stops him. The story is unoriginal and gets dull in certain areas. There are many parts where I felt the script was written at the last second and wasn't even edited. Their are scenes that make you think "what the fuck", that shouldn't be there and it really brings the film down. Having said all of this, the story is still pretty simple so the audiences shouldn't be lost, but even with it being simple, it still doesn't change the fact that its bad.

The acting is pretty poor. The cast just doesn't look right for this film. I mean, I guess you can say Vin Diesel does an OK job as Xander Cage, but he still doesn't give his best performance. We got the main villain in the film being played by Marton Csokas who honest to god doesn't have that evil that villains should have in them. Then we have Asia Argento who plays the main love romance in the film, but she is dressed up like a New York hooker that it doesn't look right. I cant even say how disappointed I am with Samuel L. Jackson, here we have a wonderful great actor degrading himself by playing a dumb role in the film. I am really disappointed in the cast because no one looks like they belong in this film.

If there is one section where xXx truly shines, its the music. The film has music that goes pretty well with the story and action. I am amazed that it even has a score of some sort, although the score isn't really great, its still nice to see this film gets its own score. The music is mixed between metal and hard rock. There are some out there that have criticized xXx's music for being too metal, but I found it to be good to go with the movie.

A movie like this is bound to have alot of explosions with cool stunts and damn does it have alot. From the early Colombian house to the castle in the high rocks, everything explodes good. There are too many explosions and stunts in the film that it kind of makes me wonder if this is a movie or a 2 hour exploding stunt clip, but none the less, everything explodes pretty well.

In the end, xXx is just another James Bond rip off. The acting is bad, the story isn't great and it just feels like a poorly cheap made film. The only thing keeping this film alive is its good music and cool explosions. I guess I can recommend xXx if your into spy type movies that are kind of fun to watch even though there bad, but even then I would suggest you see a better film like Casino Royale or The Bourne Identity before you go out wanting to see this film.

Rating: 5.8 / 10