DVD Review: XXX (B-)

XXX
Directed by Rob Cohen
Starring Vin Diesel, Samuel Jackson and Asia Argento
MPAA: PG-13
Grade: B-

Review by Bobby Nashville

XXX was exactly what I expected: an action packed movie with poor acting, lots of guns and a few memorable quotes. Vin Diesel takes his shot at superstardom with this explosion filled, extreme stunt bonanza and while he doesn't actually pull it off he doesn't really flop either.

The US Government is having a hard time cracking an evil terrorist ring in Prague simply because their agents are too square. The more their spies try to fit in with the grunge rock blasting, car stealing, bomb making scene that they claim is going on over there (?!) the more they fail. Apparently our spies just aren't cool enough.

That's when the feds call in Samuel Jackson. Samuel Jackson handles the governments superspies. These guys are convicted arsonists, murderers and thieves converted to our side in order to infiltrate the criminal world. Jackson sets out to find the baddest of the bad and of course this turns out to be Xander Cage, played by Vin Diesel. Xander Cage is an underground exteme stunt artist. What that really means is still unclear, but I guess he is a celebrity for stealing things and doing "radical stuff" like driving cars off bridges and jumping over things. Anyway, Diesel goes undercover to crack the terrorist ring and you can pretty much guess the rest of the story.

The real stars of XXX are the pyrotechnics and the stunts. Just about everything in this movie either blows up, flies through the air or goes real fast. The script is fast moving with its only fault being its attempt to sell us on Xander being really smart (why even try?). There are some great lines in here ("The things I'm going to do for my country" being my favorite) and that GTO is pretty darn sweet. Don't expect too much from this fast moving but mindless action flick and get ready for a wild ride.

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