Review of xXx: Return of Xander Cage (2017) by Roland S — 29 Jan 2017

In a way, Vin Diesel is a unique movie star.

He is neither black or white, he is a man of action but also able to do serious stuff although these projects tend to tank hard or go unnoticed.

AND the best-known part of his career consists of long-term action franchises which make you forget about realism, favoring big explosions, gravity-defyingly bombastic stunts and enough glamour to make you 12-year old self go green with envy.

The world presented here represents pretty much of a teenage boys' fantasy of adulthood. Everybody's cool, tough and super competent, regardless of their sex.

Diesel's best known work is Fast and the Furious" and xXx" feels like its crazy younger sibling.

It has the same structure - Diesel and his trusty crew do dangerous stuff that no one else even dares to think of - and philosophy about the importance of loyalty and "family" and how to be the best.

But there is less fast cars and setpieces are even more outlandish, which rely so heavily on digital effects that even some of the action movie fans are calling it stupid already. I mean, they go so ballistic this time that comparisions with Bollywood are not far anymore.

Return of Xander Cage" is too brash and outlandish to earn a comparision with Mission: Impossible" or James Bond, but it can be seen as Diesel's answer to Sylvester Stallone's The Expendables" series.

It's comparably dumb, has comparably weak screenplay and dialogue, and has comparably exciting cast of kickass characters - including two Asian martial arts cinema stars. Donnie Yen and Tony Jaa. Of course, Stallone's collection of screen legends will always look cooler but Diesel's crew of young guns is very likable also.

So, that's it. If you like impossible mission spy movies and are able to spend two hours in the world where everything is possible and the good guys are indestructible, you will find a lot to like in the new xXx".

At nearly two hours, it's probably too long. But enough is happening throughout the movie, to justify spending the time. At least for me.

It's too dumb to be taken seriously but in a world where superhero movies regularly do at least half a billion dollars at box office, there's surely some room for Vin Diesel's particular take on the impossible action subgenre.