Review of xXx: Return of Xander Cage (2017) by Lane Z — 25 Sep 2017

Vin Diesel has always used XXX as his passion project. The first was fun and new to the eye of the beholder while the second saw him step away (much like he did with 2 Fast 2 Furious) when things might have looked bleak. So he returns 10 years later with Return of Xander Cage, which is neither fun nor exciting. It's almost pathetic.

When the character was first introduced, Cage was fool-hearty, suave, and adventurous. 10 years later, everything feels forced and fake. There's a XXX program created by Samuel L Jackson's character, but the problem is now we have about four too many characters to introduce and keep up with over the course of the film. Toni Collette's character was more laughable than fearsome even when you put it next to Marton Csoska's Yorgi from the first. Nina Dobrev's Becky was over-the-top.

Even though this story lacked any kind of structure, it was still semi fun to be part of the XXX franchise again. It just wasn't worth watching in total.