se71

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October 02, 2006

xXx

xXx was billed as an American answer to James Bond, and was supposed to herald a series of movies in this new franchise. There has in fact been another, but if it's anything like this one, then I'm not really going to hurry out to see it. I've actually had the DVD of this on my shelf for more than a year, but somehow the immediacy of having it on a normal TV channel usually prompts me more, so last night I stayed up late and watched it there.

The things that are wrong are easiest to explain. It has an idiotic plot and an annoying amount of loud hard rock/metal music, some of it sung in German. There are a lot of scenes with the evil anarchist yorgi - and his false Russian accent gets very wearing, very quickly.And calling yourself 'Triple X' or just 'X' for short, is a bit naff. They're going after the 007 James Bond link again. And it's just too long. In an spy adventure story like this you shouldn't be looking at your watch to see if this set-piece action stunt is the final one, and then sighing because you realise that there is another 20 minutes so there is plenty of time for another.

Gadgets, and there are a few, should be ambitionsly modern, but still believable. James Bond pushed the limits (went way past if you ask me) with his invisible car. But here we have something just as bad, binoculars that can see through brick walls and take full colour photographs. I think this technology is quite a way off.

Vin Diesel is a passable action hero, though he never manages to look as if he's taking anything seriously. His character is an irreverent internet prankster at the beginning, and the swift transition to freedom fighter for the US government is a bit unlikely. Unfortunately, the script is terrible, and he cannot manage to pull off the wise cracks to make them funny. His fellow cast members, unfortunately, are somewhat let down by this terribly cliched script too. I can't believe they are all terrible actors, but they really do come across like that here. It's like the new Star Wars films - you'd think from those that Ewan McGregor couldn't act for toffee, but it's just the derisory dialog.

The stunts are very polished; I looked carefully and wasn't able to spot the joins where the computer took over the action. Most of this action takes place in Prague in winter, which looks really dreary and I think that was a mistake. Bond always has some exotic locations, and we needed a bit of sunshine to brighten up what was quite dull looking scenery. But if you just like big explosions and car chases and snowboarding and parachuting stunts, then I think this is your film.

I was very disappointed really by xXx. I expected a little more, and the first 10 minutes were good enough to make me think I was going to get it. But it quickly degenrated into just a very expensive sequence of stunts divided up with bits of plots of other films into a very unsatisfying whole.

Posted by se71 at October 2, 2006 11:15 AM

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