Back in 2002, hot-off-the-heels of the success of The Fast and the Furious – which came out the year before – Vin Diesel and director Rob Cohen took a crack at a fun espionage, with xXx. A decade and a half later and Diesel’s Xander Cage is skateboard/diving/extreme sports’ing his way back into the limelight for xXx: Return of Xander Cage (so much so, his name is even in the title now).
The three-quel in the “Triple-X” franchise opened earlier this year, in January, right after we received a slew of high-end, terrific cinematic gems – the so-called Oscar pictures – the likes of Fences, La La Land, Manchester by the Sea amongst others. Perhaps its Digital and Home Entertainment release – as we head into the Summer movie season – feels like a more apt surrounding for this affair; big, loud, action-packed, chaotic, it fits right in alongside the other second/third-tier Summer blockbusters. Because, really, that is all xXx amounts to as a film – with its bonkers action and insanity. Nothing more, nothing less.
It’s on that front – in said bonkers action and insanity – where Return of Xander Cage sticks the landing. This film is balls-to-the-walls insane, right from the get go. The stuntwork is truly astounding and very impressive to watch and the action sequences featuring it all is equally so. From the opening scene to the last, xXx is a non-stop, action-packed thrill ride and it’s terrifically enjoyable to watch. The direction of it all, by D.J Caruso – of Disturbia and I Am Number Four fame – is pretty solid too and he constantly keeps the environments and situations our characters are dealing with changing, in order to keep the action and stunts different and from getting tiresome and repetitive.
We open with Samuel L. Jackson’s franchise-alum Gibbons, in the midst (and failing), to recruit Neymar Jr. into the Triple-X program. Things go awry for Gibbons and we proceed to a rogue Triple-X team – led by Serena (Deepika Padukone) and Xiang (Donnie Yen)- stealing the film’s Macguffin, a powerful device by the name of Pandora’s Box. In hiding and presumed dead, enters Xander Cage (Diesel) – and his flashy new team – who is recruited by the government to locate and recover this device and prevent it from falling into the wrong hands.
Aside from some pretty enjoyable-to-watch action, the film is visually and stylistically pretty neat. The cinematography often falls under the umbrella of generic-action-film-aesthetic, but it is still slick and shiny looking and quite nicely shot, regardless. And there’s a certain edgy-teen/punk style Caruso has going on too. However, aside from this, xXx lacks much else. The premise is paint-by-numbers action fare and is as predictable as they come and the characters are all so one-dimensional and poorly written; the dialogue feels as contrived and rushed as the characters churning it out. The action, however, is largely quite solid; I’ll begrudgingly admit that Diesel is great in the role, and Donnie Yen is a lot of fun. However, there are other performances that feel as weak and out-of-place as the characters they’re bringing to life.
The Digital Download, however, does offer some pretty good bonus features. With a film as stacked as xXx with opportunity for featurettes, this one is rifled for all you can ask for. Third Time’s The Charm offers a nice look into the franchise’s legacy and recounts how a third instalment came to be; Rebels, Tyrants and Ghosts dives into the cast a bit more, quite nicely so, seeing as the cast offers a lot in terms of diversity; Opening Pandora’s Box features all the good, on-location stuff about how and where the film was shot; with all of the film’s crazy stunt work, it’s I Live For This Shit that is easily the most fascinating, offering up plenty of cool tidbits and behind-the-scenes of the many cool stunt sequences within the film, and there’s even a wee gag reel for good measure.
In the end, if you’re looking for a prestigious, Academy-Award nominated feature, this clearly isn’t for you. However, if you enjoy silly, over-the-top action and a very self-aware film that just provides an hour and forty-five minutes of pure, mind-numbing, shove-popcorn-in-your-face entertainment for you to watch as you drink a beer then xXx is what you need. And for all the bonus feature junkies, this has some good ones too.
xXx: Return of Xander Cage is out now on digital download: http://bit.ly/XXXReturnofXanderCage
