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'XXX' is little more than recycled adventure
Vin Diesel and Asia Argento in 'XXX'
Murray Close, Columbia Pictures
Then, the movie gets lodged uncomfortably, painfully, on a picket fence between groundling humor and terrorism.
In June, we called the movie "Bad Company" and collectively pitched it into the dumper, one of the summer flops.
The latest recycling of the same high-concept, no-sense premise is "XXX," which is expected to launch a franchise thanks to the canny way in which in which it exploits Vin Diesel's extremely insouciant outsiderness and adds an endless barrage of impossible stunts.
"XXX" (pronounced "triple X") is hardly a movie that respects its audience's ability to discern reality.
In yet another variant on "The Dirty Dozen," which did makes sense, comes this one-man-can-save-the-world comic strip.
Ex-Russian soldier Yorgi (Marton Csokas) slays a U.S. agent who is suspiciously reminiscent of James Bond, a move designed to suggest that the Bond franchise is passe.
Rather than scour the ranks of thousands of CIA agents, Augustus Gibbons (a scarred Samuel L. Jackson) of the National Security Agency opts for a scum-of-the-earth recruit, Xander Cage (Diesel), an arrogant and obnoxious poster goon for tattoos and bad behavior.
Xander's specialties include extreme sports and grand theft auto. Although he has "too much integrity" to sell out to a video game company, he steals a senator's car, a crime the film justifies through the stereotypical politician's haughtiness.
The senator deserves the loss of his vehicle, "XXX" underscores, because he's against video games and rock. When a movie panders so transparently, it should be required to flash a neon warning to the impressionable: "Blatant audience manipulation. Think twice and resist swallowing."
Although Xander can't start a car without peeling out nor slow one without screeching to a halt, he's to be our savior, assisted by Yorgi's playmate, Yelena (Asia Argento).
Gibbons tests Xander's resourcefulness by discharging him in a Colombian poppy field and later ships him to Prague, from which Yorgi plans massive annihilation through the use of a biological weapon called Silent Night on a submarine called Ahab.
Almost all information is acquired off camera because we mustn't tax anyone's attention span with, y'know, talk'n'at.
Director Rob Cohen cultivates pacing at the expense of all other virtues. Rich Wilkes' screenplay makes few concessions to plausible plotting or human dimension but makes one occasionally to risible dialogue.
When someone tells Xander, "You almost got us killed," he fires back, "Do I look like a fan of law enforcement?" No, XXX, no - nor of passable picture-making.
| 'XXX' |
Director: Rob Cohen
Stars: Vin Diesel, Samuel L. Jackson, Asia Argento
MPAA Rating: PG-13, for violence, non-stop action sequences, sensuality, drug content and language
