Then again, when it's bad, it's overlong, faintly chauvinistic, and most definitely thicker than two short planks.
But don't get me wrong. xXx has a lot to recommend it. From an action point of view, this movie's about as much fun as you can have with your pants still on. Buildings explode, bullets fly by and Vin Diesel grins and goofs about like any self-respecting action star should. I mean okay, the movie doesn't give it's audience any credit for intelligence, utilising a paper-thin plot to lead us about like a blind man, and the entire female cast, even Asia Argento (who trust me is very good when she's GIVEN SOMETHING TO WORK WITH...), are really just left to sit around and look pretty while all the exploding goes on, but I can't hold that against it too much. It just must be explained first.
Given the way of the Hollywood blockbuster, i.e. the hideously PC lacklustre uninvolving pap we're getting force-fed these days that you instantly forget when you leave the theatre, it's nice to see a film that doesn't care if you like it or not. xXx is this movie. It knows it's not big, clever or funny, but it doesn't care and it gets on with it's exploding wares with admirable effort. In fact xXx is much like it's star Vin Diesel. He, and the film, may not be the greatest in their field but damn it they're gonna try as hard as possible to keep your bum on the seat.
They succeed. You won't be forgetting xXx in a hurry. You might not enjoy it as much as I did, but if none of this film leaves a gawping 'wow, they actually went and did that' expression on your face, you may well be dead. My only real criticism other than the movie's stereotypical nature (which is a given anyhow given it's director and publicity) is it's running time. I watched the extended special edition cut and it's about 2 hours 10 minutes. Either way you cut it that's a long time to sit through a movie that boils down to 'get girl, kill baddies'. Minor gripe though. Check it out, it's worth your time.
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