xXx (DVD)

In 2002, we experienced a spy film with a difference - the use of an extreme sports enthusisast to do the government's work. Hardman actor Vion Diesel had the title role of XXX. The Plot Following the loss of an agent, and in his desire to infiltrate a Russian crime circle, NSA Agent Gibbons convinces underground sports enthusiast Xander Cage (XXX) to do the dirty work in return for being left alone by the government. Cage accepts, and needs to use all his extreme experience to survive, let alone do the job he's enlisted for. The Cast and Performances Vin Diesel is Cage, the agent known as XXX. His acting is kind of monotone, ...  Read the complete review

A review of just the film, the region 2 DVD was released back in 2003 and is easily found online for less than a fiver. In the face of a new and imposing threat to national security, the NSA decides that it needs to review its approach to counter-terrorism. Acknowledging that in this day and age the old ways just don't work anymore, agent Augustus Gibbons decides that the agency needs to find somebody that can work on the same level as the criminals. Enter Xander Cage, a twenty-something action junkie who lives for the next adrenaline-fuelled escapade. Abducted by national agents, Cage finds himself forced to undertake a series of tests before the agency ...  Read the complete review

>>>> Synopsis Having lost a special agent whilst trying to infiltrate an underground terrorist group called ‘Anarchy 99’, NSA spymaster Augustus Gibbons (Samuel L. Jackson) decides that a different approach is in order. Requiring someone who is more expendable he approaches Xander Cage (Vin Diesel), an extreme sports junkie and minor cult celebrity with a criminal record as long as his arm, forcing him to go under cover for them or face a lengthy time in prison. After a ruthless crash course in being a spy Xander is packed off to the Czech Republic to hopefully infiltrate the underground terrorist group and put pay to their evil plans. ...  Read the complete review

Some movies make you think, some make you scream, and some - just some make you laugh without even realising they're doing it - xXx is just one of those movies, let me warn you before I go any further into the details of the film, its cheesy, hell its got more cheese than an edam factory in the middle of Amsterdam. ** Storyline ** Xander Cage is an extreme sports type of person except for one major difference, when he does it he does it to 'stick it to the man' - when we meet him, he's in the middle of an elaborate stunt to basically destroy the top-line sports car of Senator Dick Hotchkiss - and film it, ending it with the tag-line ...  Read the complete review

note: also appears in part on Flixster and The Student Room At the time of its release, xXx was touted as "the new James Bond", a rejuvenating tonic to audiences who have grown tired of the cliches of the spy thriller genre and particularly the Bond films, which have long been predictable and quite trite. xXx is a strange oddity of a film, because while it claims to be something new, aside from the overblown action scenes, it adheres to a plot that is strangely familiar and predictable. Once an NSA operative is assassinated, Augustus Gibbons (Samuel L. Jackson) is given the nod to instigate a foreign terrorist cell called Anarchy 99 using ...  Read the complete review