| XXX | | Cast : | Vin Diesel, Asia Argento | | Director : | Rob Cohen | | Studio : | Columbia Tristar Hom | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby | | Released Date : | August 09, 2002 | | DVD Released Date : | July 26, 2005 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), German (Dubbed), Spanish (Dubbed) | | Audience Rating : | PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 07, 2005 | | Summary | Wicked, stellar, awesome, intense, need I go on?!?!?!!? | Content
 | This is so far the best Vin Diesel movie I have ever seen! It's full of incredible fighting, whether it be punches and kicks, guns, or explosives, it has a few love scenes, there are parts where some big cars and boats are racing around AT FULL SPEED, and it has many memorable quotes and snapping of nasty words. Vin Diesel plays such a great hero, and the villain is as diabolical as he should be. And there are some chicks in this movie, I might add. Hot ones. Babes. Anyway, if you like action movies, see this one. You won't regret it at all. |
| Rating | | | Date | August 02, 2005 | | Summary | Merely Okay | Content
| The action sequences were the best part of this movie. Vin Diesel baffles me. I don't know how that man got to be such a big action star. Maybe I could have taken him seriously if he hadn't been wearing McCloud's old coat. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 13, 2005 | | Summary | A New Breed of Secret Agent | Content
| What happens when you cross a little James Bond, extreme sports, Vin Diesel, Samuel L. Jackson, and the director of "Fast and the Furious", you get a fun-loving adventure film called, "xXx".
"xXx" starts with the CIA discovering that their current stock of secret agents are unable to get undercover with a new gang of international terrorists. The terrorists enjoy spending their time at a trendy dance club, enjoying fast cars, and even faster women. With no hope of placing one of the current CIA agents into this organization, Special Agent Gibbons (Samuel L. Jackson), decides to begin recruiting some "new talent" that would fit in to the terrorist's world. Enter Xander Cage (Vin Diesel), an extreme sports junky that hosts his own extreme show, The Xander Zone. After clashing with the law one to many times, earning him the three strikes penalty that will surely land him in prison, Gibbons offers Xander an opportunity to repay his country for the freedom he enjoys by inserting himself into the world of this terrorist organization, while trying to discover what exactly they are planning.
"xXx" is by no means a replacement to the 007 films, but it is an entertaining alternative for the new generation. With plenty of action and explosions, even a decent storyline and acting, this is quite an enjoyable movie. Critic's of Diesel saying that he was a poor man's James Bond, should realize that neither Diesel or the filmmaker's set out to replace James Bond, merely give audiences a new, uncoventional kind of spy movie. "xXx" had the makings of a highly successful franchise with the phenomenal box office success that this film enjoyed, sadly the sequel "xXx: State of the Union" was not nearly as good.
Even though the sequel was lackluster, "xXx" is quite enjoyable. If you are a fan of action movies that actually have a story to accompany the explosive action sequences, then "xXx" is the movie for you. Go check it out, you won't be disappointed.
"xXx: Unrated Director's Cut" contains violence, nudity, and language. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 11, 2005 | | Summary | Great Action Sequences BUT.... | Content
| The action sequences on this film are spectacular.... however, there are some obvious flaws. While the director can capture some real excitement in the action, and the scenes on this one are first rate, the lack of an interesting story, original dialogue, and some of the worst sound effects editing I have ever heard, make this film only average as action movies go.
Van Diesel is terrific during his action scenes, and although there are times when the feats seem a far-fetched, they are still fun to watch. But Diesel's acting is truly horrid. The "fearless" nature of his character makes him uninteresting and 2 dimensional. You don't feel scared, excited, thrilled or amazed at what he does because he doesn't. Unlike Sean Connery, Nicholas Cage, Clint Eastwood, John Wayne, Steve McQueen or Chuck Norris, who allowed us to feel their tension and fear, Diesel just goes along with what is dished out to him without fear or emotion of any kind. I ended up saying "okay, so what's next" after a while, and was almost as bored as his character was after awhile. Van Diesel is the SAME character he played in "The Fast and The Furious" (or as I have heard some call it.... "The Angry Little Clown Cars"). He is not tough, rough or heroic... he is mostly just detached and bored with his situation.
Finally, as I mentioned, the foley (sound effects) were really poor on this film. There was music that came in and out at odd times, sound effects of huge explosions seemed like they were too low in their intensity and gun shots sounded like those from a BB gun. The makeup effects were just as sub-standard and appeared plastic. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 07, 2005 | | Summary | Death to 007 | Content
| It happens early in the movie. A suave agent in a tuxedo trys to outwit the bad guys and is killed. It is a message that Director Rob Cohen is getting out....Cold war James Bond agents cannot handle the baddies of the 21st century.
Xander Cage is an extreme stunt reckloose who has a criminal record and freely breaks the law in his own personal cause. This gets the attention of the NSA and CIA who is having problems with a group called Anarchy99.
Cage is recruited by Gibbons (played by Sam Jackson) and is "encouraged" to do good for the USA, even though he is the typical anti-hero (actually a ripoff of Snake Plisken from Escape from New York). He infiltrates Anarchy99 and befriends the leader Yorgi and is immediately drawn to Yelena (Asia Argento). He discovers their plot to gas the beautiful city of Prague and sets off to stop them.
Xander is played by Vin Diesel, an actor that plopped on the radar screen when he produced and directed his own films years ago. That caught the attention of Steven Spielberg who cast him in "Saving Private Ryan". That led to more roles, in movies like Pitch Black and Boiler Room, but he really got noticed with "Fast and the Furious". Vin does have a charismatic aura around him, unless he talks. Luckily Xander is a man of action, not one to quote Shakespeare for 10 minutes.
The movie itself is a ripoff of the proto-typical James Bond movie. XXX has his own M, his own Q, his own gadget car, he fights a bond-like Eurotrash badguy who needs to elaborately setup a weapon of mass destruction that could be done with a simple set of suitcase bombs. And of course, Bond always gets the girl and the ending is very bondish as well. However, it feels more like a ripoff than an homage.
Some of the stunts had people laughing and my eyes rolling. The stunts with the motorcycles were laugh out loud funny, but some were excellent, such as Xander bridge jumping with the Vette and him riding out the avalanche of his own causing.
Asia Argento, daughter of famed Director Dario Argento also smolders, even with the piercing stares. However, she and Diesel have no chemisty and have some of the worst kissing skills I have ever seen on celluloid. She is given little to do and that is a shame, because she was good in B.Monkey.
The movie is pretty generic and nothing is really new. I do recommend this movie by the barest of margins because it does have it's share of excitement, objectification of women, cool gadgets and stunts that will keep all us knuckle dragging alpha males happy for the 2 hours the DVD will be playing.....Rating: C+
|
|
|
|
|
