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Movies / On DVD / XXX: State of the Union
XXX: State of the Union

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XXX: State of the Union (2005)

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Reviews Counted:135

Fresh:22

Rotten:113

Average Rating:3.8/10

Consensus: Even more absurd and implausible than the first XXX movie.

Runtime: 1 hr 41 mins

Genre: Action/Adventure

Synopsis: Ice Cube replaces Vin Diesel for this hard-bangin' sequel which favors fists, cars, and snooping over the original's heavy dose of extreme sports stunts. NSA agent Gibbons (Samuel Jackson, back... Ice Cube replaces Vin Diesel for this hard-bangin' sequel which favors fists, cars, and snooping over the original's heavy dose of extreme sports stunts. NSA agent Gibbons (Samuel Jackson, back from the original) finds his group under attack by well-armed, well-informed combatants, forcing him to activate a new XXX, Darius Stone (Cube), an old Navy Seal buddy currently cooling his heels in an army prison. It turns out there's a plan to whack the president (Peter Strauss) and a deranged secretary of defense played by Willem Dafoe is behind it. What's more important is the cool way Darius knows how to land a speeding boat on a bridge, then walk away in slow motion as it blows up behind him. Other great scenes include a tank battle on an aircraft carrier and a race with a bullet train that makes THE FRENCH CONNECTION look like a turtle race. There's some hilarious dialogue, such as when Darius recruits his old D.C. car-jacking buddies to ride into battle against the corrupt militia, leading to the "first tank-jacking in history." Scott Speedman plays a sympathetic Fed; Lola Jackson and Sunny Mabrey are the sexy chicks. There's lots of greal looking cars, cool gadgets, and pumpin' rap-crunk music. Director Lee Tamahori also helmed James Bond's DIE ANOTHER DAY and the 1997 thriller THE EDGE. [More]

Starring: Ice Cube, Samuel L. Jackson, Scott Speedman, Peter Strauss

Starring: Ice Cube, Samuel L. Jackson, Scott Speedman, Peter Strauss, Sunny Mabrey, Willem Dafoe, Lola Jackson, Xzibit

Director: Lee Tamahori

Director: Lee Tamahori
Screenwriter: Simon Kinberg
Producer: Neal H. Moritz, Arne Schmidt
Composer: Marco Beltrami
Studio: Columbia Pictures

[See More Credits]

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Reviews for XXX: State of the Union

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1 - 20 (sorted by critic A-Z; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 >> >|
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Viewed on its own trashy terms, it succeeds brilliantly.

Full Review Source: BBC | comment Comment
05/21/05
Paul Arendt
Paul Arendt
BBC
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

OK you don't expect a sequel to 2002's brainless XXX to be an action masterwork, but this is so preposterous that it feels like an overblown spoof of the original.

Full Review Source: Shadows on the Wall | comment Comment
04/18/05
Rich Cline
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall

Ice Cube makes an appealing lead and no-one ever mentions that he might be a little on the tubby side to really cut it as an action hero.

Full Review Source: ViewLondon | comment Comment
05/14/05
Matthew Turner
Matthew Turner
ViewLondon

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
04/01/06
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
02/09/06
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

This is better than its predecessor, but it still lacks something. It's too clean, sanitized and artificial looking, a film like this needs to get down, dirty and grimy.

Full Review Source: Eclipse Magazine | comment Comment
04/29/05
Michelle Alexandria
Michelle Alexandria
Eclipse Magazine

Just what we need, a chubby, surly, incomprehensible action hero.

Full Review Source: Denton Record Chronicle (TX) | comment Comment
05/03/05
Boo Allen
Boo Allen
Denton Record Chronicle (TX)

If this sequel is any indication, the next XXX will be subtitled 'Bigger, Louder, Dumber.'

Full Review Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel | comment Comment
04/28/05
Tracy Allerton
Tracy Allerton
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

This could be the ultimate video-game movie, in that it sees the world entirely in terms of gigantic explosions that take place regularly every few minutes and which no one in the narrative seems to consider in any way out of the ordinary.

Full Review Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer | comment Comment
04/28/05
William Arnold
William Arnold
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Implausible actioner too noisy and clunky.

Full Review Source: Sympatico.ca | comment Comment
04/29/05
Angela Baldassarre
Angela Baldassarre
Sympatico.ca

Ice Cube brings his trademark charisma and street sensibility to a film that wouldn't be nearly as entertaining without it, though he gets considerable help from better-than-the-material-deserves performances by Jackson and Dafoe.

Full Review Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | comment Comment
04/28/05
Mack Bates
Mack Bates
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Plays less like a sequel to XXX than a parody of it and the whole action genre.

Full Review Source: Las Vegas Weekly | comment Comment
04/28/05
Josh Bell
Josh Bell
Las Vegas Weekly

There isn't a fresh moment in the entire 100-minute running time. The tediousness is impossible to dispel.

Full Review Source: ReelViews | comment Comment
04/28/05
James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli
ReelViews

Functions less as a movie than an overactive adrenal gland.

Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle | comment Comment
04/29/05
Amy Biancolli
Amy Biancolli
Houston Chronicle

XXXcrement. If it weren't for Ice Cube's charismatic bad attitude, State of the Union would be downright unwatchable.

Full Review Source: SPLICEDWire | comment Comment
04/27/05
Rob Blackwelder
Rob Blackwelder
SPLICEDWire

With Ice Cube at the wheel, it delivers all the adrenaline a junkie could ever want. Just don't pay too much attention to anything else going on in the movie.

Full Review Source: Hollywood.com | comment Comment
04/29/05
Kit Bowen
Kit Bowen
Hollywood.com

XXX: State Of The Union is an action movie for liberals, and as far as empowerment fantasies go, it's a hoot.

Full Review Source: Philadelphia Weekly | comment Comment
05/20/05
Sean Burns
Sean Burns
Philadelphia Weekly

There are really only two kinds of big-budget action movies: stupid, and good and stupid. Surprisingly, XXX: State of the Union is good and stupid.

Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment Comment
04/29/05
Ty Burr
Ty Burr
Boston Globe

So full of self-aware speechifying, howlingly bad verbal pissing contests, and audacious bulls**t plotting that it almost flies as a parody of itself. Almost. [Blu-Ray]

Full Review Source: Groucho Reviews | comment Comment
04/29/05
Peter Canavese
Peter Canavese
Groucho Reviews

You always have the option of giving yourself a lobotomy before seeing this. If you do that, you just might like it (or even understand it).

Full Review Source: 7M Pictures | comment Comment
05/01/05
Kevin Carr
Kevin Carr
7M Pictures
 
 
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Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 >> >|
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