xXx: The Next Level
Reviewer: Chris Hallam
Issue 69 October 2005
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Who gives a xXx?
The Lowdown: Forget Xander Cage (oh, you have). Darius Stone (Cube) is the National Security Agency’s new star operative. When boss Augustus Gibbons (Jackson) gets wind of a nasty plot by right wing Defence Secretary (Dafoe) to overthrow America’s liberal president (Peter Strauss), he sends in Stone to stop it.
Review: In those far off halcyon days of 2002, the original xXx was widely heralded as the 21st century’s answer to the Bond franchise. Unfortunately this was before anyone had actually seen the film.
All it in fact proved beyond doubt was Vin Diesel’s limitations as an action star. But now he’s jumped ship and just on the off chance we are wrong and the cinemas of 2042 end up showing xXx 20, we’d better take a look at this, which is potentially From Russia With Love to the original’s Dr. No. xXx: The Next Level is the British name for America’s less Anglo-friendly title xXx: State of the Union. Perhaps in response to Diesel’s reportedly excessive pay demands, his character is cruelly dispensed with early on, the extreme sports enthusiast having apparently been killed (off camera) in Bali. “We don’t want any more snowboarders for this job,” asserts Cube’s Stone, the chubby new face of action heroism.
Yet as anyone whose ever seen xXx (or indeed any Vin Diesel film) will tell you, Vin’s jettisoning is by no means a bad thing. Indeed, even if he hadn’t been replaced at all, it would still constitute a net improvement. The Pacifier would have been about 15% better if Diesel had been digitally removed from all his scenes at the outset. But while Ice Cube’s addition to the film is a good thing, don’t get too excited. Most of us have long since given up hope that Ice Cube will ever live up to the promise he showed in John Singleton’s Boyz n the Hood and he does nothing to reverse the trend here. The plot (although vaguely reminiscent of John Frankenheimer’s political Kirk Douglas/Burt Lancaster thriller Seven Days In May) is largely an excuse for the usual explosives and utterly implausible action heroism.
And yes – it really is a case of ‘Nice extras, shame about the film’ as all the dumbass heroics are nicely analysed and discussed in a range of interviews and commentaries which put the features on DVDs to many superior films to shame.
In many ways it’s churlish to complain. With a clear-cut villain (Dafoe as a Green Goblin-esque Defence Secretary craving power), two babes (Nona Gaye and Sunny Mabrey), and some explosions and stunts, this will be all an underdemanding action fan will need. But those of us wishing to engage our frontal lobes might want to look elsewhere: surely there must be a new Vin Diesel film out?
FILM: 4
EXTRAS: 6
Disc Info:
Starring: Ice Cube, Samuel L. Jackson, Willem Dafoe, Scott Speedman
Certificate: 12
Director: Lee Tamahori
Distributor: Sony
Original Release: 2005
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1
Visuals: 16:9 Anamorphic Widescreen
Running Time: 101 mins
Price: £19.99
Special Features:
Audio Commentary With Director Lee Tamahori and Writer Audio Commentary With The Visual Effects Team
Simon Kinberg
Scene Selection
Deleted Scenes
‘Bullet Train Breakdown’ Featurette
‘Top Secret Military Warehouse’ Featurette
‘xXx: According to Ice Cube’ Featurette
‘From Convict To Hero: The Making of xXx2: The Next Level’ Featurette
