XXX (2002)
August 19th, 2003 at 9:26 am (3 - Enjoyed it)
BOOM! BANG! [witty one liner] POW! BOOM! [sneer from bad guy] BANG! KAPLOW! [half dressed sex-object] BANG! BOOM! [car chase], was pretty much the plot of the spy action flick XXX (2002). But for a brainless, pointless, clichéd popcorn flick, it had some fun parts.
It is really too bad that director Rob Cohen (Dragonheart (1996), The Fast and the Furious (2001)) seems to have instructed bad guy Marton Csokas to ‘think of every bad stereotype about the evil-incarnate bad guy’ as he sneered his way through this movie. Asia Argento as the stereotypical tough-chick-who-falls-for-the-hero could have also used some… well, actually a decent script would have been a good start, but really anything to add some character to her character would have helped.
What made this movie enjoyable was really Mr. Diesel. Vin Diesel has great screen charisma and gives what could have been a purely cardboard character some dimension. I don’t know what it is about this dude that makes me believe he has actual feelings and somehow cares, even as he machine guns the peasant cart in order to plow his hot rod through the village fast enough to save the world.