There must be a formula out there for action movies: take one hero, add a baddie that wants to either take over the world or use some dastardly device for their own nefarious means and finally add a ‘double-cross’ which every audience member can see coming a mile off. I’m sorry to say that the sequel to ‘XXX’ follows that formula perfectly. But, does that mean that it’s a completely awful film? No. It’s actually quite watchable.
And that’s largely down to its star, the titular ‘XXX’ agent, who (despite being classed as ‘dead’ in the previous instalment) comes out of retirement when his former mentor is assassinated by someone using a superweapon. In short, Vin Diesel nails the film and turns what could be just another bland action film into something that is at least fun (no brainpower required to enjoy this).I suppose the other bonus this film has going for it is the fact that it’s deliberately over the top and – most importantly – it knows this and plays on it. If it tried to be serious it would come off as completely ridiculous. The stunts are totally outrageous and, by rights, everyone should be dead ten times over during every action set-piece we see here. You’re going to have to suspend your disbelief in order to get anything out of this.
XXX doesn’t go it alone here. This time round he’s aided by a team of misfits who ‘watch his back.’ Each one gets introduced by a ‘comic book-like’ title card displaying a few ‘facts’ about them. And this is about as much ‘character development’ as these characters get. They’re all woefully under-developed and total stereotypes of their racial or ethnic groups. Even the leading lady doesn’t get an awful lot more development (but then I was kind of distracted by her weirdly-thick eyebrows!). What ‘XXX’ gains in being not particularly serious, it kind of loses because we know that no matter how dangerous any situation is, none of our heroes are in any real danger.
If you saw the original ‘XXX’ (I barely class the second film in the franchise as one) you’ll know that Vin Diesel bounced nicely off the ever-entertaining Samuel L Jackson. Now, don’t be too lured into watching this film in the hopes that you’ll see the two of them again sharing much screen time. Jackson’s role in this falls very much in the realms of a ‘cameo.’ Taking over from him is Toni Collette. Yes, she seems to enjoy playing the ‘cold-hearted bitch’ type of Government spook, but it’s going to be hard for anyone to follow Jackson’s charming footsteps and, no matter how hard she tries, she never quite ends up measuring up.
The rest of the film is pretty by-the-numbers. There’s action, chases, slow-motion gunfights and our heroes stopping to pose in uber-cool positions while the camera spins round them. It’s all very watchable if you’re in the mood for yet another mindless action film to have on in the background. As long as you have your expectations low and your brainpower even lower, you should enjoy it enough. I just don’t get how no one seemed to pick up on the awful water-based CGI when Vin Diesel rides a motorbike across the ocean (yes, seriously!). After all, James Bond windsurfing on a tsunami basically resulted in the whole franchise being rebooted!
7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that
No comments:
Post a Comment