Movie Review

xXx: State of the Union

So it's a few years after the events of the original xXx, and apparently Vin Diesel's character has kicked the bucket (although it's never explained how). This leaves an opening for the position of the ultimate action spy. Augustus Gibbons (Samuel L. Jackson) needs a new guy now that his xXx government bunker has been raided and sixteen of his best agents have been slaughtered.

He secretly visits a military prison to chat with Darius Stone (Ice Cube, whose real name is O'Shea Jackson), one of his former comrades in an elite unit which was disgraced. Gibbons tasks Mr. Stone with uncovering the conspiracy that got his men murdered. They find that a very high-up figure in the U.S. government is planning a military coup against the President and his administration. It's time for the actor/rapper to spring into high action.

The movie's best scene is the opening. A seemingly innocent farm gets raided by black-clad, goggle-sporting commandos with high-tech gadgets. They bomb-drill their way down to the secret bunker underneath the farm, and go on a wild shooting spree that got my adrenaline pumping. I really thought this had a chance of being a good action movie. But I spoke too soon.

There is some decent action, although I'm sure you have gathered that it is even more unrealistic than the usual fare. The problem is that in the big set pieces (i.e., a tank battle inside a cramped army compound), the combat is not well handled at all. This furthers my hypothesis that there are almost no directors who can stage truly good action scenes. And the editors really don?t help either, as they cut sequences like they are Motocross competitions. These lame segments sink the film despite the generally fun tone.

The script is God-awful as well. I cringed every time the nerdy tech-boy spoke. His lines and personality are like cinematic chalkboard scratching. And what's up with the demeaning of white folks? Yeah, yeah, we get it: Black people are hardcore street warriors who are too cool for anything but flashy crime, and white people are squares. How many times do we have to endure this kind of brain dead propaganda? The urban hip-hop culture has worn out its welcome several times over; now it's just part of the mainstream corporate shark tale. The messages are far from revolutionary and nowhere near intelligent.

I did have some fun. I'm a fan of Ice Cube's music, and it was amusing to see him in this Hollywood role. He's not a good actor per se, but he does have a presence that can be right for certain roles (like Three Kings). And he looks the part here, buffed up and mean-faced. Samuel L. Jackson is suitably bad ass as well, although he disappears for a large chunk of the film and isn't involve in much of the action. The direction is by Lee Tamahori, who helmed the last James Bond film, Die Another Day. If you saw that one, you'll know what kind of stuff to expect out of this one: style over substance, but with not much style.

Scott's Grade: C+

A	15.1%
B	59.2%
C	24.5%
D	1.2%
F	0.0%