xXx, or James Bond Plus Extreme Sports Plus Terrorism
Rob Cohen's next movie starring Vin Diesel, after The Fast and the Furious, dwells on "non-stop action," including a firefight in Colombia with attack helicopters and off-road motorcycling, cocaine, electrified fences, and more explosions than the Omaha Beach landings.
Vin, as Xander Cage, i.e. xXx from the tattoo on the back of his thick neck, never suffers hearing loss or the deleterious effects of shock waves generated by big explosions. Like Dom Toretto in the Fast and Furious films, Xander is a comic book protagonist.
Into extreme sports, he steals a politician's Corvette, drives it to his cohorts who attach it with cameras. Driving fast to a high bridge over a river, he lectures into the camera, calling out the corruption of Dick the politician. He zooms the pretty red car off the bridge, rides it part of the way like it's a skateboard, before deploying his parachute. The car hits nose first, explodes. Everything explodes in this film. Samuel L. Jackson's face on the left side got burned, perhaps, in an explosion. Asia Argento, as the undercover FSB agent Xander helps in Prague, explodes with erotic coiled tension seeming to radiate from her midsection and thighs.
Xander's job is to infiltrate, for the NSA--a weird choice on the part of the filmmakers--a criminal enterprise based in Prague seemingly just employed in high end car thefts. Run by a Russian Army vet, Yorgi (Marton Csokas), nightclub owner and host of out of control parties, he runs Anarchy 99, a group dedicated to ending some of the world with biological weapons attacks on major cities, starting with Prague. He wants a purge, for governments to go after each other, unaware of who's behind the attacks. This will, he dreams, result in massive wars, with Anarchy 99 taking over, operating with total freedom in a world without laws. A fucking crazy ambition, he nevertheless seems sane.
Xander identifies to some extent with Anarchy 99 but draws the line when it comes to mass murder. He takes the fuckers down, helps Yelena the FSB agent, ends up with her on Bora Bora, her oily hands rubbing sunblock into his well-defined tattooed chest. Samuel L. Jackson reminds him through videophone that he has another job for him. James Bond, in the same situation, would toss the phone in the water.
Xander Cage, apparently, will continue to be an NSA agent, something I find disappointing. An anarchist himself, I would expect Xander to find a way to break free of doing the U.S. government's bidding in an age of this empire's attempts to achieve total dominance.
The film is either pro-America or an ironic glance at American practices, like those associated with meddling in the affairs of other nations. Cohen, the director, uses crooked camera angles at times, often in relation to NSA matters. Coming out in 2002, the film possesses an optimism about "getting the bad guys." My question is, Who are the bad guys? Obviously, the man who wants to fatally gas millions of people is a villain, however, the behavior of NSA personnel in this film makes it seem as if they regard themselves as absolutely in the right as they spy on people's lives with impunity. It's an American delusion. It's why so many fucking people are dead at the hands of American leaders and the military since 2001.
Xander Cage loses some of his ambiance as an admirable person by working for the NSA, one of the creepiest and most anti-Constitutional government organizations ever created in any country.
It's still a fun movie, mostly. Marton Csokas comes across like a mellow, scheming vampire. Vin Diesel's character pulls off his ridiculous and impossible action moves with unapologetic style. Asia Argento sizzles on low heat most of the time, but it's a nice sizzle.
Vic Neptune
Rob Cohen's next movie starring Vin Diesel, after The Fast and the Furious, dwells on "non-stop action," including a firefight in Colombia with attack helicopters and off-road motorcycling, cocaine, electrified fences, and more explosions than the Omaha Beach landings.
Vin, as Xander Cage, i.e. xXx from the tattoo on the back of his thick neck, never suffers hearing loss or the deleterious effects of shock waves generated by big explosions. Like Dom Toretto in the Fast and Furious films, Xander is a comic book protagonist.
Into extreme sports, he steals a politician's Corvette, drives it to his cohorts who attach it with cameras. Driving fast to a high bridge over a river, he lectures into the camera, calling out the corruption of Dick the politician. He zooms the pretty red car off the bridge, rides it part of the way like it's a skateboard, before deploying his parachute. The car hits nose first, explodes. Everything explodes in this film. Samuel L. Jackson's face on the left side got burned, perhaps, in an explosion. Asia Argento, as the undercover FSB agent Xander helps in Prague, explodes with erotic coiled tension seeming to radiate from her midsection and thighs.
Xander's job is to infiltrate, for the NSA--a weird choice on the part of the filmmakers--a criminal enterprise based in Prague seemingly just employed in high end car thefts. Run by a Russian Army vet, Yorgi (Marton Csokas), nightclub owner and host of out of control parties, he runs Anarchy 99, a group dedicated to ending some of the world with biological weapons attacks on major cities, starting with Prague. He wants a purge, for governments to go after each other, unaware of who's behind the attacks. This will, he dreams, result in massive wars, with Anarchy 99 taking over, operating with total freedom in a world without laws. A fucking crazy ambition, he nevertheless seems sane.
Xander identifies to some extent with Anarchy 99 but draws the line when it comes to mass murder. He takes the fuckers down, helps Yelena the FSB agent, ends up with her on Bora Bora, her oily hands rubbing sunblock into his well-defined tattooed chest. Samuel L. Jackson reminds him through videophone that he has another job for him. James Bond, in the same situation, would toss the phone in the water.
Xander Cage, apparently, will continue to be an NSA agent, something I find disappointing. An anarchist himself, I would expect Xander to find a way to break free of doing the U.S. government's bidding in an age of this empire's attempts to achieve total dominance.
The film is either pro-America or an ironic glance at American practices, like those associated with meddling in the affairs of other nations. Cohen, the director, uses crooked camera angles at times, often in relation to NSA matters. Coming out in 2002, the film possesses an optimism about "getting the bad guys." My question is, Who are the bad guys? Obviously, the man who wants to fatally gas millions of people is a villain, however, the behavior of NSA personnel in this film makes it seem as if they regard themselves as absolutely in the right as they spy on people's lives with impunity. It's an American delusion. It's why so many fucking people are dead at the hands of American leaders and the military since 2001.
Xander Cage loses some of his ambiance as an admirable person by working for the NSA, one of the creepiest and most anti-Constitutional government organizations ever created in any country.
It's still a fun movie, mostly. Marton Csokas comes across like a mellow, scheming vampire. Vin Diesel's character pulls off his ridiculous and impossible action moves with unapologetic style. Asia Argento sizzles on low heat most of the time, but it's a nice sizzle.
Vic Neptune
Comments
Post a Comment