XXX (Unrated Director's Cut)
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Movie Reviews of XXX (Unrated Director's Cut)
Movie Review: Death to 007
Summary: 3 Stars
It happens early in the movie. A suave agent in a tuxedo trys to outwit the bad guys and is killed. It is a message that Director Rob Cohen is getting out....Cold war James Bond agents cannot handle the baddies of the 21st century.
Xander Cage is an extreme stunt reckloose who has a criminal record and freely breaks the law in his own personal cause. This gets the attention of the NSA and CIA who is having problems with a group called Anarchy99.
Cage is recruited by Gibbons (played by Sam Jackson) and is "encouraged" to do good for the USA, even though he is the typical anti-hero (actually a ripoff of Snake Plisken from Escape from New York). He infiltrates Anarchy99 and befriends the leader Yorgi and is immediately drawn to Yelena (Asia Argento). He discovers their plot to gas the beautiful city of Prague and sets off to stop them.
Xander is played by Vin Diesel, an actor that plopped on the radar screen when he produced and directed his own films years ago. That caught the attention of Steven Spielberg who cast him in "Saving Private Ryan". That led to more roles, in movies like Pitch Black and Boiler Room, but he really got noticed with "Fast and the Furious". Vin does have a charismatic aura around him, unless he talks. Luckily Xander is a man of action, not one to quote Shakespeare for 10 minutes.
The movie itself is a ripoff of the proto-typical James Bond movie. XXX has his own M, his own Q, his own gadget car, he fights a bond-like Eurotrash badguy who needs to elaborately setup a weapon of mass destruction that could be done with a simple set of suitcase bombs. And of course, Bond always gets the girl and the ending is very bondish as well. However, it feels more like a ripoff than an homage.
Some of the stunts had people laughing and my eyes rolling. The stunts with the motorcycles were laugh out loud funny, but some were excellent, such as Xander bridge jumping with the Vette and him riding out the avalanche of his own causing.
Asia Argento, daughter of famed Director Dario Argento also smolders, even with the piercing stares. However, she and Diesel have no chemisty and have some of the worst kissing skills I have ever seen on celluloid. She is given little to do and that is a shame, because she was good in B.Monkey.
The movie is pretty generic and nothing is really new. I do recommend this movie by the barest of margins because it does have it's share of excitement, objectification of women, cool gadgets and stunts that will keep all us knuckle dragging alpha males happy for the 2 hours the DVD will be playing.....Rating: C+
Movie Review: Overall great re-release with one exception
Summary: 3 Stars
Well folks here we are again. As with all hollywood movies that spawn a sequel, a re-release of the original movie is usually a precursor to the new film. The re-release is usually peppered with shameless tie-ins to the new film, and "xXx: Uncensored Unrated Director's Cut" is no exception. This release is, however, does have advantages over the original release. The most notably being the 8 minutes of extra footage not seen in the theatrical release. Anyone who has the original DVD will recognize the additional footage as the deleted scenes from the first release. This might not seem like much of an improvement but the movie flows so seamlessly that its hard to spot the new footage and it does add to the overall tone of the movie.
This release is a two disc set, with the typical making of and stunt featurettes that are a staple of action movies such as this. The release also includes the trailer for and a sneek peek at the new film. There is also a short that I consider to be the one notable blemish on an otherwise great re-release.
WARNING: If you are a big fan of this film like me, and do not wish to permenantly damage your opinion of this movie, I highly recommend you give serious consideration to watching the included "The Final Chapter: The Death Of Xander". As the title implies, this short tells of Xander's ultimate demise and is designed to bridge the two films. This short might not have been so bad had it not been for the gruesomeness and finality of our hero's death that leaves almost no chance for a surprise return. One wonders if this short was retribution from director Rob Cohen for Vin Diesel not doing the sequel.
In conclusion, if your still reading, the re-release of this film is an improvement over the original with the additional footage but some of the bonus features are something to be desired or hated. Just depends on how big a fan you are.
Movie Review: Great Action Sequences BUT....
Summary: 3 Stars
The action sequences on this film are spectacular.... however, there are some obvious flaws. While the director can capture some real excitement in the action, and the scenes on this one are first rate, the lack of an interesting story, original dialogue, and some of the worst sound effects editing I have ever heard, make this film only average as action movies go.
Van Diesel is terrific during his action scenes, and although there are times when the feats seem a far-fetched, they are still fun to watch. But Diesel's acting is truly horrid. The "fearless" nature of his character makes him uninteresting and 2 dimensional. You don't feel scared, excited, thrilled or amazed at what he does because he doesn't. Unlike Sean Connery, Nicholas Cage, Clint Eastwood, John Wayne, Steve McQueen or Chuck Norris, who allowed us to feel their tension and fear, Diesel just goes along with what is dished out to him without fear or emotion of any kind. I ended up saying "okay, so what's next" after a while, and was almost as bored as his character was after awhile. Van Diesel is the SAME character he played in "The Fast and The Furious" (or as I have heard some call it.... "The Angry Little Clown Cars"). He is not tough, rough or heroic... he is mostly just detached and bored with his situation.
Finally, as I mentioned, the foley (sound effects) were really poor on this film. There was music that came in and out at odd times, sound effects of huge explosions seemed like they were too low in their intensity and gun shots sounded like those from a BB gun. The makeup effects were just as sub-standard and appeared plastic.
Movie Review: Merely Okay
Summary: 3 Stars
The action sequences were the best part of this movie. Vin Diesel baffles me. I don't know how that man got to be such a big action star. Maybe I could have taken him seriously if he hadn't been wearing McCloud's old coat.Movie Review: rent don't buy
Summary: 2 Stars
I attempted to watch this film a few different times. I could just never quite get to the end. It's not because it's a particularly bad movie in fact it's just a modern day version of James Bond... its just that it never really excited me. The one redeeming factor is the car - it really becomes a character of its own.