XXX  (2002)

Starring: Vin Diesel, Samuel L. Jackson, Asia Argento
Director: Rob Cohen

Rating: PG-13

Studio: Columbia

Review Posted: 8.01.02

Spoilers: Minor

By Dennis Landmann

The tagline "a new breed of secret agent" is fairly close to what Vin Diesel's Xander Cage is. Cage is the leader of a semi-underground extreme sports clique. The film opens with his most death-defying stunt to date. He steals a Senator's red hot ride to prove that a recent legislative ruling against language, music and skateboards is not going to stop the fans (isn't it sad how much today's teenage crowd can identify with this?). Tailed by cop cars, Cage races over a bridge, jumps off in mid-air and opens his parachute to glide to safety (this scene sets up Cage's climatic finale and to justify his parachutist ability).

NSA Agent Gibbons (Jackson) and his team are looking for new recruits to foil a bad guy's plan to chemically poison big cities. After a test in a mock-up diner that ended in a bloody exchange, Cage is dropped into a Columbian drug cartel with two other recruits. Captured and about to be dismembered by Danny Trejo, Cage performs some high-action tricks and finds a way out. However, things get even more complicated when the Army shows up in an entourage of military choppers. Fired upon and avoiding explosions, Cage manages to get out of the compound maneuvering a motorcycle over a high wired fence. Agent Gibbons is so impressed he offers Cage, or Triple X as he calls him, an opportunity to pay back Uncle Sam. Cage agrees under the circumstances and soon is on plane to Prague. His mission is to infiltrate Anarchy 99, a secret underground organization.

Yorgi (Marton Csokas), the film's villain, leads Anarchy 99. He plans to poison the Earth's biggest cities with a deadly chemical solution created by a team of (potentially evil, money-grabbing) scientists. Yorgi plans to release the poison via a floating device that resembles a futuristic speed boat. Villains tend to be the problem of films such as XXX and James Bond, among others. XXX doesn't portray Yorgi as the run-of-the-mill psychotic villain. I admire the fact that XXX didn't focus too much on the villain, but instead on Triple X. On a side note, there is a hilarious (subtitled) scene featuring two patrolling bad guys talking about how "life".

The rest of XXX deals with Cage's investigation. He befriends the only girl in the organization, Yelena (Asia Argento), and they play off each other nicely. The film plays out well over the course of two hours. We get to experience many death-defying stunts, including the avalanche scene shown in the trailer (judge its ingenuity for yourself). Rob Cohen directs the script by Rich Wilkes with great precision. Each action scene consists of multiple angles to give it a greater coverage and scope. While The Fast & The Furious suffered from a slow pace, XXX gets right into the action (despite a dull opening). Vin Diesel appears to perform all stunts by himself, but the question is how many of them took place in front of the blue screen.

Wilkes' script calls for action every fifteen to twenty minutes. This is no problem by itself, but it becomes a problem when the action exceeds our perception of reality and plausibility. XXX's biggest flaw is the huge amount of implausible action sequences. Granted, the film wants to stand out and have fun with the action, but the rock music that overlaps the action scenes fail to impress. The music is simply too loud and instead of letting the action speak for itself, XXX relies on loud music to alleviate the insanity and implausibility of the (many) stunts. Nevertheless, I was impressed by what Cohen and his team of stunt choreographers managed to create.

It's hard not to compare XXX to the many Bond films. The difference between these two agents is that Triple X is supposed to be cooler (he's a risk taker) and more charismatic (can talk his way out of almost anything) than Bond, which, to no surprise, just does not play out right The Bond films are known for their exotic and cool locations, yet they are most known for the exemplary use of gadgetry. It is this trend and fashion that XXX copies and tries to reinvent.

Instead of "Q," XXX shows us a dim-witted young agent who thinks he's funny. Triple X gets his share of gadgets like 007. There is a scene in the trailer in which Triple X sits in a car and tells the NSA "Q"-equivalent that he wants "all that in here." -- he means an array of guns, bullets, and rockets. Just when the final climatic sequence begins, the car shows up so Triple X can pursue the enemy who got away. The ultimate qualm of XXX, in terms of implausibility, is this plot device. It is incredible how fast and precise all the guns, bullets, and rockets got installed in the vehicle.

There is no doubt Vin Diesel is a natural. He carries this film nicely despite the fact that his character tends to sometimes exceed what is humanly possible. Samuel L. Jackson plays his role very well and it adds to the "coolness" of the film. Asia Argento, apart from looking sexy as hell, does her job well considering with what she was given to work with. Marton Csokas does what he can as the villain. The whole team behind XXX did a great job in an effort to present a movie that, despite some flaws and fluctuations, is able to kick some ass!

If the opening sequence of XXX wasn't so trite and dumb, my rating would go up a point. As it is in the film, the opening is just not exciting at all. The real opening should have been the bridge stunt.

Rating: 6 out of 10