“XXX: State of the Union” (Columbia Pictures)
Vin Diesel starred in the original “XXX” film. It was a hit. Now Ice Cube takes over the role of the X man and the film is a total waste. It isn’t all his fault however, director Lee Tamahori must share some of the blame for his overzealous timing of the film. His theory seems to be if you keep enough action going no one will notice the potholes in the story. It doesn’t work, Lee.
As the film starts, a team of killers enter an underground lair and kill a lot of government workers. The head man, Augustus Gibbons (Samuel L Jackson), escapes and decides he has to have a very special XXX type agent. He thinks outside the box and decides to offer the job to Darius Stone (Ice Cube). The only problem is that Stone is in prison, but that doesn’t stay a hindrance for long. Gibbons and company bust him out.
Later they discover the Secretary of Defense (Willem Dafoe) is planning a coup on the night the President (Peter Strauss) delivers his “State of the Union” message. It is up to Stone and Gibbons to prevent this and save the country.
The plot is pretty lame but it only operates to string together one action sequence after another. And since most of the special effects look totally computer generated, they aren’t that impressive. This is especially true in the last action sequence of the movie in which Stone chases a bullet train. It is oddly non-involving.
Ice Cube is always good in any role he undertakes but Darius Stone doesn’t give him much to work with in any way. He just has to act tough and scowl, and that he does very nicely. Jackson, Dafoe, Strauss and Scott Speedman just walk through their roles.
The movie is rated PG-13 for profanity and violence.
Nothing about this movie rings true, and when you don’t believe anything that is happening on screen then you don’t have any suspense generated by the movie. Ice Cube does his best to make “XXX” an action hit but somewhere in the far distance you can hear Vin Diesel laughing as he takes his “Pacifier” earnings to the bank.
I scored “XXX: State of the Union” a voted out 4 out of 10.
