dir. Rob Cohen
In xXx‘s defence, it doesn’t exactly purport to be highbrow fare. Xander Cage (an almost giddily happy and invested Vin Diesel) is some kind of extreme sports professional-slash-protester (it’s not fully clear), who’s recruited to become a National Security Agency spy. Like in many spy films before it and since, xXx‘s chief peril comes courtesy of generically evil Russians doing generically evil things, this time wanting to set off a biochemical weapon. Cage fights on the roads, in snow, and in water to save the day, and also strikes up a romance with Russian spy Yelena (Asia Argento). Because what spy movie would be complete without a hot femme fatale on the sidelines? The plot honestly doesn’t make much sense, with Cage basically moving from location to location and getting embroiled in conflicts that don’t obviously further the story at all. The action also beggars belief sometimes – no matter how strong and agile Cage is, he definitely should die about ten times at least in this movie, most notably by the avalanche he deliberately causes to come cascading down on himself. xXx is basically what you’d expect: loud, dumb, and relentless.
BMDb 