Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Has action changed all that much since 2002? Because action in movies has. Back before about 10 years ago, characters were much less jokey, things blew up a lot more, and bad guys had terrible aim.While dated as can be, xXx is an enjoyable watch. The film's inspiration is questionable, but Vin Diesel plays the title role exactly how you'd expect him to. There is no shortage of platitudinous quips, but he delivers them in a way that makes you forget that the dialogue is terribly written.Diesel plays Xander Cage, aka Triple X, a criminal stunt man hired by the US government to infiltrate the international mercenary group, Anarchy 99. There's not a whole lot more to it than that, yet the film seems to be able to stretch itself to nearly 120 minutes (132 in the director's cut).xXx is so 2002 that, at times, you can't differentiate it from a early 2000s Disney Channel Original Movie. It sacrifices practicality for spectacle whenever it gets the chance. But considering its action-based modus operandi, the film still tends to drag at times.Ultimately xXx does nothing new. At all. The only reason why anyone would watch this film is to experience Vin Diesel's charisma and charm. Because that's really the only unique aspect brought to the otherwise trite premise.But it's entertaining. Mindless, but entertaining. Despite the hackneyed script, you have to commend the movie for not taking itself too seriously, ultimately not making it a chore to watch. It's actually quite fun and ridiculous in all its glory.Twizard Rating: 72

"xXx" is an American movie from 2002, so it has its 15th anniversary this year. Fittingly with this anniversary, they made the third entry to this series recently and the lead actor is once again Vin Diesel. He has worked together with director Rob Cohen on several occasions, such as the very first "The Fast and the Furious" as well. And now you also know what to expect here. This one here is the epitome of a pretty pointless action movie. It is about an extreme sports athlete who gets recruited by the government to go on a secret very dangerous mission. And honestly, this mission and the story around it is just not enough for two hours in terms of the quality. Even I as a fan of Samuel L. Jackson must say that his generic character cannot really elevate the material here. It is all as expected. Diesel's character of course easily gets all his missions done, even if they try to make it look hard and he also always make a cool statement afterward, which may work on the first two or three occasions, but gets repetitive and try-hard relatively quickly. The only scene I somewhat liked was when they were at this restaurant and the girl (of course Diesel's character takes care of the bad guy's lover) gets informed that somebody is aiming at them. This was a pretty tense scene because Diesel for once has to go out of his comfort scene, but everything (before and) afterward is about one action sequence following the next, at the very end also in the snow. And about Jackson's character making jokes how it's just a test all the time and the real mission is yet to come. Oh well, maybe it finally did in this recent release.Back to this one here, you can easily identify the filmmaker's intention to turn this into something deeper than pointless action, but I just don't feel they had the talent and this is also what people say about her other works sometimes. Here, one example would be the scene when he recognizes the woman's boots and hos Jackson's character explains it all afterward. And of course Diesel's character is also the one cracking jokes with the other guys in the plane, so we see what a cool, likable alpha male he is, not scared of attacking that one other agent all the time, the one we are supposed to consider unlikable, but I personally did not really like Diesel's character either. Occasionally, they try to thrown in Bond references, like when he says what he has to do for his country before going to bed with a hot chick, but yeah, it all just feels funny for the sake of it and not really creative or authentic. This is a perfect example of a movie that does not even deserve one sequel, let alone maybe this original film here, but the success with audiences resulted in it actually becoming really successful (not with critics though) and that's why even 1.5 decades later still new films are being made. I personally give this one here a thumbs-down though. Not recommended.

A brain-dead exercise in OTT action, lacking in wit, style, and intelligence. Yet not without a certain moronic charm to recommend it. xXx is basically FAST AND FURIOUS director Rob Cohen's take on the whole spy/Bond sub-genre, in much the same style as his car-racing flick: big, loud, obnoxious, and obnoxiously smug, thinking itself to be the hippest, most stylish offering yet, when in fact it offers the same tired clichés and obvious paper-thin plot and situations. It starts off relatively well, with bizarre situations (a fake diner hold-up) and a particularly unlikable leading man, the rude and charmless Xander Cage who does dumb things like parachute from a car falling off a bridge. After a little while, and a change of location to Prague, things become typically dumb: Cage breaks into the baddies' inner circle, falls in love, gets found out, then lots of people shoot each other until the film finishes. Hmm.It does look good, with great locations and a budget which is able to convincingly portray the special effects in a good light. But the action is fast, yes, furious, no, most of it being unconvincing in the extreme, yet not in a good way like one of those zany kung fu flicks. They're in it for the fun, this tries to be realistic, it doesn't work. There are outrageous stunts – Cage's trick with the dinner tray, for instance, and plenty of big-bucks OTT explosions and even avalanches. There are admittedly some bits that work (I liked the exploding flying motorbike shot, so shoot me) and it certainly seems fast-paced with little drag. The cast, too, keeps it interesting: Diesel's lunk is still different enough to be worth a watch, whether just to hear his latest big-headed wisecrack; Euro-villain Marton Csokas is pretty charismatic, and a few stalwarts show up like Danny Trejo and Samuel L. Jackson, playing riffs on routine characterisations. The hot Asia Argento is also present, and her appearance may be enough to make male viewers watch it; there's something so base and low about her here that she's a character hard to resist – some might say Dario's greatest offspring (or is that SUSPIRIA)? So, all in all, not bad…typical, but enough stuff to keep watching.

I didn't expect too much from Cohen since he's a schlock meister like Emmerich, and Bay. But he give us Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, and not much worth mentioning. The premise is so ludicrous, if stuntmen can take on terrorists, then why are the terrorists so problematic instead of inept? Diesel makes a wooden performance not only stiff, but obnoxious. Like we're supposed to laugh at his "funny" & "glib" remarks. The whole movie fails on every level. It's not funny, too predictable, far fetched, it doesn't have revolutionary effects or give us anything we haven't seen before. Like Diesel says in the diner: "Their performances were terrible." Talk about breaking the fourth wall.