I must say I was looking forward to this film as I am a big fan of Vin Diesel and the story to this film had elements from James Bond and The Fast and the Furious so when it came out in the cinemas last year I had to go and see it even with the bad reviews the press had given it, and me being a fan of this type of film I loved it.
Director: Rob Cohen (The fast and the Furious, The Skulls)
Cast: Vin Diesel (The Fast and the furious, A man apart, Pitch Black) Samuel L Jackson (S.W.A.T., Shaft, Jackie Brown, Deep blue Sea) Asia Argento (zoo, XXX2)
Cert: 12 Time: 1 hr 59 min
The story:
Vin Diesel plays Xander Cage a man who has a criminal record as long as your arm because of his hobby, a TV show that involves him doing crazy stuff like stealing American senators sports cars and driving them off a massive bridge just for the entertainment of the viewers of his show ‘the Xander Zone’ after reading this you are properly thinking how does he become a secret agent but
some how he gets recruited by NSA agent Gibbons (Jackson) to go undercover and find out about a underground terrorist organisation in eastern Europe called ‘Anarchy 99’ which is made up by ex Russian nationals with insane plans to destroy western civilisation. After a few lessons of how to become a secret agent that involved Xander being dumped out of a plane into Columbia in the middle of a drug war, Xander is sent to the Czech Republic to infiltrate Anarchy 99 headed by a man called Yorgi (Marton Csokas). Xanded gets accepted into the group when two members recognise him from his TV show, so he gets into the loop and finds out some information but he knows something is going on.
Xander forms a close relationship with Yelena who is another member but is also a agent for the Russians, she is the person who tell Xander about the secret basement and the scientists who work down there. Xander finds out that Yorgi is planning to kill millions of people with his special solar powered submarine called Ahab that has missiles packed with a chemical weapon called silent night, we find out what silent night can do to people when yorgi kills all of the scientists that had built Ahab with the gas. Yorgi plans to kill the whole of prague with his weapons and the only person who can save all of those people is Xander with a little help from Yelena.
This film is aimed at the male half of our population and has the same style of the fast and the furious as well as brilliant special effects. XXX2 is already in the works and due for release in summer 2005 with Vin, Jackson and director Cohen all returning to work on this promising film franchise that could rival James bond.
The soundtrack for this film is brilliant, the film even features a concert at the start where a NSA agent gets killed with Rock group Rammstein performing there song ‘Feuer Frei’ that appears on the 2 disk soundtrack as well as Drowning Pool, Queens Of The Stone Age, Mushroomhead, Moby, Nelly, N.E.R.D. and hatebreed. You can get the CD for £10.99 from play.com with free p&p.
This film had a budget of $85 million and managed to make over $210 million worldwide so the films makers Revolution Studios and the Distributors Columbia TriStar were very happy to put up the money for a sequel. In this film Vin Diesel manages to fit into his role as secret agent with ease, I am a big fan of Vin and I cant wait to see him in the up coming film: Pitch Black 2 the Chronicles of Riddick and I have herd rumours on the internet that he is to star in a romantic comedy.
The extras on this DVD really make it worth while buying, Rob Cohen manages to make this one disk DVD look really good just like he did the ‘The Fast and the Furious’ DVD
DVD Extras:
Audio commentary by director Rob Cohen XXX filmmakers diary (40 min): which is a documentary following the day-to-day filming and a in depth view of the directors view of the film. Building speed (7 min) this is a documentary on the vehicles of XXX Designing the world of XXX featurette (15 min) Diesel powered (7 min) feature on Vin Diesel 3 short visual effects montages with optional commentary: ‘Creating the mountain avalanche’ ‘Shack explosion’ ‘Creating an avalanche’ 9 deleted scenes with optional commentary, these include a longer scene of the raid on the Anarchy 99 base and an extended bedroom scene with Vin and a pole dancer. Music video: ‘adrenaline’ by Gavin Rossdale Filmographies for the stars and production team Trailers for XXX, I Spy and National Security
I would recommend you buy this film if you are big action/Vin Diesel fans and rent it first if you are not certain.
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
What a great film! Not the XXX I normally watch!! Thought the ending (rocket boat thingy) was a bit naff really, but all good fun. I've just bought A Man Apart on DVD (Foreign) - another classic Vin film. Watchout for a review soon.
Dardalius 16.06.2003 08:12
I live for this... well not really, but I will be watching on freeview... god op
merv83 08.06.2003 16:03
This film is great! A very well written op which explains the film well! Martyn! :-)
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...
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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...
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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]")
Apr 25th, 2003
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