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XXX |
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USA, 2002. Rated PG-13. 113 minutes. Cast:
Vin Diesel, Samuel L. Jackson, Asia Argento, Marton Csokas, Joe Bucaro III |
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| Grade: C+ | Review by Carlo Cavagna |
t was bound to happen sooner or later. If the Broccoli family refused to reinvent
the increasingly stale, by-the-numbers James Bond franchise, it was inevitably
going to be reinvented for them. Star/executive producer Vin Diesel (Pitch
Black, The Fast and the Furious)
and director Rob Cohen (The Fast and the Furious) have done just that,
reimagining Bond as Xander Cage, a tattooed adrenaline junkie with an authority
problem. Not since Sean Connery has Bond shown even a hint of the menace, rage,
and raw masculinity that Xander exudes from every pore.
The best way--the only way--to describe XXX is James Bond with tattoos. That's it. Nothing more or less to it than that…which makes my job unusually easy.
XXX follows the formula faithfully. Just as the gun barrell becomes
an eye that opens onto the introductory action sequence in a Bond movie, the
triple-X logo becomes an eye that opens onto the introductory action sequence
in XXX. It continues by the book, with the meeting at headquarters, the
infiltration of the band of evildoers bent on global destruction, 
the
chauvinistic encounters with wanton women, the agent's inevitable discovery
and capture, the assault on the stronghold, etcetera, etcetera, all accompanied
by impossible stunts. There's even a gadget man, an improbably souped-up car,
and the de rigeur skiing sequence. Except Xander prefers a snowboard,
this being a new generation and a new millennium and all.
The only major difference between XXX and a Bond movie are the scenes depicting Xander's recruitment via blackmail and unorthodox training. Xander has had a few run-ins with the law. He's not a murderer or rapist, but an anarchist dedicated to undermining hypocritical politicians. This gives NSA Agent Gibbons (Samuel L. Jackson) the ammunition he needs: either Xander performs a few minor tasks for the United States, or he goes to Leavenworth.
Xander's assignment is to infiltrate a Prague-based anarchist organization founded by Russian ex-military types (played by various non-Russians, including Kiwi Marton Csokas as the man in charge). Government-trained secret agents have repeatedly failed, probably because the bad guys have grungy clothes and lurid tattoos, while the NSA agents show up for work in tuxedos. XXX is deliberately poking fun at 007, here, stating loud and clear that Bond's time is past. It's time for the NSA to fight snakes with a snake of its own, as Gibbons says. Xander is an anarchist himself, and his reputation precedes him.
XXX is the epitome of a summer movie--big, loud, and not intelligent. It doesn't feel quite as global in scope as the better Bond films, and it doesn't deliver the mano-a-mano climactic combat we hope for with the musclebound Diesel, preferring to stick to gunplay (big mistake and big lost opportunity). However, it is refreshingly free of the contrived emotional content that has been making inroads into action movies of late. Diesel can carry a film on his broad shoulders in a way that Pierce Brosnan or Timothy Dalton never have, and probably never will. Bond answers the XXX challenge in the fall with Die Another Day; it will be a pleasant surprise if that movie is nearly as fun.
Review
© August 2002 by AboutFilm.Com and the author.
Images © 2002 Columbia Pictures. All Rights Reserved.
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