Belfast Meet, Details at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ belfastmeet/ - come along, you know you wan...
Belfast Meet, Details at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ belfastmeet/ - come along, you know you want to.
Member since:22.01.2001
Reviews:172
Members who trust:145
Some movies make you think, some make you scream, and some - just some make you laugh without even realising they're doing it - xXx is just one of those movies, let me warn you before I go any further into the details of the film, its cheesy, hell its got more cheese than an edam factory in the middle of Amsterdam.
** Storyline **
Xander Cage is an extreme sports type of person except for one major difference, when he does it he does it to 'stick it to the man' - when we meet him, he's in the middle of an elaborate stunt to basically destroy the top-line sports car of Senator Dick Hotchkiss - and film it, ending it with the tag-line 'don't be a dick....... dick' - clever huh?. Aaaaaaaaanyway, cut to Xander basically getting caught by the American Government and blackmailed into a top secret mission where he has to go to Prague and get information on a rebel gang called 'Anarchy 99', and all because he'd fit in with them - bring on your usual spy-movie fare of plots to end the world, girls, guns, and secret agents-a-plenty complete with naff gadgets and you're away - you have xXx in a nut-shell. So what of the storyline then? is it new? no, has it been
done before? Yes, plenty of times, especially by a certain Mr.Bond, is it better than the previous incarnations of spy movies?
Not really - you see as the movie goes along all the plotlines are easy to guess, there wasn't one time when I sat thinking that I hadn't seen it coming - maybe I'm getting cynical about movies in my old age of DVD movies, but it left me thinking that it could have been done a lot better.
** Cast **
Xander Cage (played by Vin Diesel - Fast and the Furious): Cocky, loud-mouthed, and covered in tattoos - there was only one person who was going to get this part - Hollywood's latest fad: Vin Diesel. The character itself is everything you could ask from an action movie, hes got the moves, the lines, even the cool-ness, except for one scene - when he lands after being thrown off the plane 'Not Bad, Not Bad at all........ Lets do it again', sorry but that was just too corny. Apart from that hes the big bad hombre you could've hoped for.
Vin himself gives in the best performance you can when faced with a storyline as bad as this one, hes his usual shouty self and does a good job in portraying a character thats so far up himself he can probably see out his own throat, there were one or two moments where I shuddered a bit at some of the things he was coming out with - but that was the scripts fault and nothing to do with Vin himself.
Yelena (played by Asia Argento - a veteran of foreign movies): Stereotypical foreign love interest, play heavy on your accent, look sultry and play hard to get for a few seconds and look where it gets you, cast in the ladies role of a spy-film.
I'm not saying that its a bad performance by Argento, just that she comes out really bad due to the terrible scripting she was given, all the time shes fawning over Xander, and not doing much else (except for the terrible attempt at dancing in the night-club scene. But whilst I'm here can I add - why do all foreign characters in Spy Movies sound russian?
Sorry for not saying much about Argento - she does try her hardest to get the character across to the best of her abilities, its just that the script shes been given is too wooden, and its all been done before.
Yorgi (played by Marton Csokas - formerly in Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring) once again its another stereotypical character - hes the leader of Anarchy 99 and thinks nothing of killing innocents to make himself look maniacal - as per usual for the spy movie - once again its a heavy russian accent as well - so don't tell me you weren't warned.
Csokas again does his best with a bad script, but ummmm, the performance is just average, at times he tries to make it a good performance, at other times its as if hes reading from a piece of paper sat in front of him.
Agent Augustus Gibbons (Played By Samuel L.Jackson - he played Shaft: Can you dig it?): Oh dear lord, its been done by Anthony Hopkins and it was done better, Gibbons just mutters a bit about ordering around aaaaaaand thats about it.
I usually like Jackson but not this time, theres one facial expression and he just doesn't fit into the part at all - sorry but its just one of those performances I'm never going to like.
** Location and Soundtrack **
Hard Rock, fecking cold country - once again its the norm for Spy Movies, expect Feuer Frei by Rammstein as a good indication of what the sound-tracks like, I like my rock music I do but to me this is a little too hard, however it fits in quite well with the 'fast paced action of the movie'
Location-wise well some of it is stunning, the mountains they filmed some of the end scenes in are breath-taking, and some of the scenes of Prague they use are pretty danged handy as well - of course most of this will have been filmed away from the actual city but what they used is good, very good.
** Special Effects **
The one area this movie exceeds itself in - to see so many bangs, flying cars, motorcycles leaping off buildings and snowboarding away from avalanches has never looked so good - its obvious to see a lot of work has gone into making it all look just right, with no penny spared in the making. Special Note goes to the gadgets that have been created for use in the movie.
** Overall **
Its crappy, sorry but if it wasn't for the decent special effects it would have got one star instead of two, but hey, at least the gadgets were cool and I didn't pay a penny to see the movie (It was one of my free rentals from Dvdsontap -a very cool site if I do say so)
myself).
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Production Year: 2003 - Action/Adventure - Director: Jan De Bont - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring:Angelina Jolie, Ciaran Hinds, Chris Barrie, Gerard Butler, Noah Taylor, Djimon Hounsou, Til Schweiger
Production Year: 2002 - Action/Adventure - Director: Vincenzo Natali - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring:Lucy Liu, David Hewlett, Anne Marie Scheffler, Joseph Scoren, Matthew Sharp, Jeremy Northam
Production Year: 2002 - Action/Adventure - Director: Rob Cohen - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring:Vin Diesel, Samuel L. Jackson, Asia Argento
Production Year: 1964 - Action/Adventure - Director: Cyril Endfield - Original Language: English - Classification: Parental Guidance - Starring:Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins, Ulla Jacobsson, James Booth, Michael Caine, Nigel Green
I thought this film was a steaming pile of horse manure. Two *s is very appropriate. I enjoyed the action though, but storyline... Was there any?! Joe
Mercury 04.05.2003 10:47
I promise I didn't read this before penning my own op... though it appears we have very similiar misgivings about this film... still can't understand why a criminal genius picks landlocked Prague as the place to build a submarine... but hey thats just me... Simon.
Sootica.P.Monster 09.04.2003 14:50
Asia's father must be horrified at the rubbish she seems to end up in. Ho hum. Sootica XXX
For a movie that would like to think of itself as the future of the action / espionage ... more
picture,xXxuses a surprising number of jokes and stunts lifted directly from the Roger MooreBondera while the actual premise resembles a sex-change for Nikita. Vin D...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
For a movie that would like to think of itself as the future of the action / espionage ... more
picture,xXxuses a surprising number of jokes and stunts lifted directly from the Roger MooreBondera while the actual premise resembles a sex-change for Nikita. Vin D...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
Xander Cage (Vin Diesel) is a notorious underground thrill-seeker who, until now, has been ... more
deemed untouchable by the law. But when crack NSA Agent Gibbons convinces Cage to infiltrate a ruthless Russian crime ring, this new breed of secret agent (code ...
![xXx [DVD] [2002]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78530909.jpg "xXx [DVD] [2002]")
Mar 28th, 2003
very helpful by (100%):
