Although it is way too easy to incorporate a pun with this film’s title, here we go anyway. This State of this Union stinks! I am sending a check to Gene Shalet right now. This new XXX follows a current trend in Hollywood sequels by dropping the numerical designation. Perhaps this is due to the fact sequels generally are regarded weaker than the original and the film makers do not want to alienate those uncultured souls who missed the original. Personally, I did not see the original XXX starring Vin Diesel as a titular anti-hero who must work outside the system in order to save it. Give me Jack Bauer any day of the week to fill that quota. But after seeing XXX: State of the Union, I’m neither inspired to run to my local video store, nor even queue it up on my Netflix.
XXX: State of the Union stars Ice Cube as Darius Stone, an ex-Navy SEAL and former soldier with Augustus Gibbons (Samuel L. Jackson). After an act of morally inspired insubordination, Stone is sent to a maximum security prison by his General, George Octavius Deckert (Willem Dafoe), who under the current administration is Secretary of Defense. With no one left to trust after his NSA chapter is hit in the opening scene, Gibbons must break Stone out of jail and enlist him as the new XXX in order to thwart the maniacally twisted Defense Secretary.
Deckert believes the country is too weak under control of a peace loving President who wants to extend the olive branch to our enemies. He plans to assassinate those above him in the line of secession during the State of the Union Address using military loyal to him. XXX enlists the aid of Lola (Nona M. Gaye) an old flame from the ‘hood whose entrepreneurial skills have advanced her from chop-shop operator to dealer in expensive, limited edition cars. Also on hand to aid XXX are the ‘Q’-like Toby Shavers aka “college boy,” (Michael Roof) and Zeke (Xzibit), a master car jacker.
The action movie genre is so well established that it takes some inspired thinking to make it seem fresh again. Lee Tamahori, director of the last Bond installment Die Another Day, has a lot less to work with in this variation on the 007 series. He forgets that it is not enough to blow things up ‘real good,’ but the hero of an action movie has to be so likable that the audience will forgive the narrative shortcomings. Ice Cube, an actor who has done some fine supporting work in films like Boyz N the Hood and Three Kings, does not have charisma necessary to be a character in the James Bond mold. In fact, the movie is so unsure of Cube’s lack of presence that characters constantly have to remind us of how dangerous and “extreme” he is. For some reason this aspect reminded me of when of Itchy & Scratchy introduced the buzz-word spouting Poochy to make it’s cartoon more edgy. The half-dimensional Darius Stone can only be matched by the evil Defense Secretary. Willem Dafoe phones in a performance that only chews the scenery about half as much as his villainous character in the Spider-man series. His coup d’etat is so inept that he does not realize the Secretary of Treasury is above him in the line of succession.
XXX: State of the Union is a work assembled from the pieces of other, better action movies. This can work with the right casting, but ultimately it is not greater than the sum of its parts. In a sort of hybrid of Seven Days in May meets The Rock, I was wishing I had watched both of those movies instead. Maybe if Vin Diesel’s career tanks bad enough, he’ll be willing to resurrect the franchise’s original character in the next sequel. If there’s any justice, it would be called XXX 3: I Need to Eat!
Archived article by Oliver Bundy
Sun Contributor
1 star