Review of XXX! (2011) by Stuart M — 31 May 2015

I can't imagine who came up with the idea for this film. The basic idea is a combination of the Dirty Dozen with James Bond. And not gritty 2000s Bond, but the old campy one complete with impossible gadgets and American flag parachutes.

The two styles combine about as well as you might think. Every attempt to be gritty is undermined by the campiness, and vice versa. And that's why you get Vin Diesel's badass character being the sort of rebel only a 12 year old would believe in.

Someone who can steal cars from dicks because they advocate censoring video games but never cross the line into being an actually bad role model. That combined with a poor villain and OTT action scenes that put Fast and Furious to shame without being as interesting is why this film is a total dud.