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.
XXX: State of the Union (2005)
Tomatometer
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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
Reviews for XXX: State of the Union
So generic and derivative...that it's hard to turn your brain off and even enjoy the action.
xXx: State of the Union is better than the first entry, which is sort of like saying a mallet to the scalp is better than a hammer.
One of the best sequels ever made without the star of the original... The only reason to criticize is if you just don’t like big, unrealistic action.
In the words of comic Lewis Black, "Don't think about it for more than two seconds, or you'll have an aneurysm and your head will explode!"
I have a perfect way to recreate the XXX experience at home for cheap: simply run headfirst at top speed into a brick wall. Popcorn optional.
Succumbs to a depth of directorial incompetence not seen since the likes of Megaforce
There's no wit or imagination, just the thump thump thump of exposition and explosions.
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.
Opens explosively and never lets up, with Lee Tamahori (Die Another Day) in full command of the action and Simon Kinberg an equally astute writer with a flair for linking socko action set pieces with terse characterization.
Plays less like a sequel to XXX than a parody of it and the whole action genre.
Did I enjoy this movie? Only in a dumb mindless way. It has whatever made the original XXX entertaining, but a little less of it. Does it make the slightest sense? Of course not.
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.
At least this movie seems more aware of its trashiness than National Treasure was. It's therefore freer to have some off-the-cuff fun the way Steven Seagal's more tolerable vehicles once did.
This xXx seems to know exactly how stupid it is, and this kind of self-knowledge helps nudge it toward the guilty pleasure bracket, even if it never quite makes that leap.
As a rating, XXX is used to warn people away from objectionable material. For this movie, it's more like ZZZ.
James Bond’s producers aren’t going to like Die Another Day director Lee Tamahori delivering a sleeker, more contemporary thriller than he made for them.
Latest News for XXX: State of the Union
July 21, 2008:
XXX3 to Revive Vin Diesel
The producers of the XXX franchise made every effort to remove Vin Diesel from the series. Now, director Rob Cohen and Diesel have sat down with Revolution Studios' Joe Roth to... More...
January 10, 2008:
Box Office Guru Preview: Captain Jack and Captain Morgan Set Sail
For the first time in three weeks, studios will pack a Friday with plenty of new releases as four films open or expand nationwide giving the box office chart a major shakeup.... More...
April 05, 2007:
Box Office Guru Preview: "Grindhouse" Prepares for Easter Carnage
Easter weekend sees four new wide releases hopping into the marketplace aiming to give the spring box office a boost. More...
August 17, 2006:
Critical Consensus: "SOAP," "Material Girls" Not Screened; "Accepted" Denied; "Sunshine" Shines
This week at the movies, we've got snakes.... on a plane ("Snakes on a Plane," starring Samuel L. Jackson), slackers on a campus ("Accepted," starring Justin... More...
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