xXx:
State of the Union on DVD
xXx: State of the Union is the kind of movie that will forever
be known as the sequel that killed the franchise.
On top of that, it will forever be known as a horrible flop and
a terrible movie.
And while the first two points may be completely correct, the third
title is a little unfair and, worse, unfortunate. For you see, State
of the Union is not a terrible movie. It’s not a great movie
by anyone’s standards, but as far as bad action movies go,
there are a lot of worse ones that are beloved by many (Armageddon
and Pearl Harbor, anyone?).
Xander Cage (the original xXx, played by Vin Diesel), has been
killed in action, so Agent Gibbons (Samuel L. Jackson) is on the
hunt for a new secret agent. An old buddy of his, Darius Stone (Ice
Cube), is in jail for something he undoubtedly didn’t do,
and he has all the necessary skills to become the latest “X”.
And because it wouldn’t be much of a spy movie without some
kind of terrorist plot, there just happens to be a terrorist plot.
But who are the good guys and who are the bad guys?
After Gibbons gets captured by the baddies, it’s up to Darius
Stone to single-handedly thwart the evildoers and save the world
from almost certain doom. What follows is a series of absurd action
pieces that look pretty cool when you put them on film.
Ice Cube’s acting skills are on par with Vin Diesel’s,
but he lacks the action star charisma necessary to anchor a movie
such as this. His lines are at least 75% one-liners, and most of
them are so bad they would make Schwarzenegger and Stallone cringe
(and even Seagal, for that matter). Our favorite was his very first
line in the film, as Agent Gibbons approaches him from behind glass
and says: “It’s been a long time, Darius,” to
which he replies (with a tough-guy expression on his face): “Not
long enough.”
Most of the supporting cast (which includes Scott Speedman, Willem
Dafoe and Peter Strauss) is there simply to advance the plot, while
a few of the action scenes are included merely to help with pacing
and to spend more of the $87 million budget. Director Lee Tamahori
goes overboard as often as possible, but not to the extent he did
in Die Another Day.
Despite its problems, xXx: State of the Union is a worthy successor
to the first xXx which was, in itself, a bad action movie that goes
completely overboard and requires you to turn off your brain. If
your tolerance for this kind of flick is high, and you have an extremely
open mind, you just might feel as though you haven’t wasted
101 minutes of your life. If you love indie films and hate anything
that’s not art, you might as well skip this one and spend
your time on something you may possibly enjoy.
Hoping to make back a bit more of its production costs and appeal
to the few fans out there, State of the Union gets a very good DVD.
Available in separate 2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen and full screen
versions, picture quality sparkles with exceptional detail and sharp
colors. The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track also booms very nicely.
Surround use is frequent and separation is handled well.
Before we move on, we need to mention a little something about
the box. The picture on the box clearly shows several jet fighters
flying towards the Capitol. However, I did not notice even one second
of the film that featured said jets (and just to be sure, I had
some friends keep an eye out while they were watching it, and they
confirmed that there were no jets present onscreen at any point).
That seems like a really poor (and weird) way to market a movie.
Director Tamahori and writer Simon Kinberg team up for the first
of two audio commentaries. There are the typical bits of information
on developing the project and stories from the shoot and all that
jazz, but it really isn’t all that exciting. The visual effects
commentary (with visual effects supervisor Scott Farrar and CG supervisor
Lindy De Quattro) is more interesting, as we learn how the multitude
of visual effects shots were created.
The 45-minute making-of documentary is split into two parts, and
features stories of the production, behind-the-scenes footage, and
cast crew interviews. It’s as good as these things usually
are, but it’s hard to take seriously when the filmmakers seem
to want us to take the movie seriously.
Three short featurettes give us a multi-angle breakdown of the
climactic “Bullet Train” sequence, a look at some military
gadgets (cool stuff!), and how Ice Cube’s character is different
from Vin Diesel’s.
Finally, we get three deleted scenes, which run less than two-and-a-half
minutes, that can be watched with or without commentary by Tamahori.
None of the scenes are the least bit crucial to the film.
xXx: State of the Union, from Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment
101 minutes, anamorphic widescreen (2.40:1) 16x9 enhanced, Dolby
Digital 5.1
Starring Ice Cube, Willem Dafoe, Scott Speedman, Peter Strauss
Produced by Neal H. Moritz, Arne L. Schmidt
Written by Simon Kinberg, directed by Lee Tamahori
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