So, couple big things to write about today. Obviously the first one was the inauguration…
Don’t even know where to start.
Honestly, I need a day or so to process it all. Leave it to say that I still find it all so
surreal, like it couldn’t really be happening.
Anyway, more on that tomorrow perhaps.
So, let’s go with the other big event today… the release of
“XXX The Return of Xander Cage.” Needed
a good, fun movie to blow away the day so I figured this was worth a shot. Let’s set some ground rules first, one does
not go to see this movie expecting Academy award winning performances. The bar for the story and writing is set at
two notches above completely ridiculous.
If you go into this with that mindset, XXX sort of delivers.
The story revolves around Xander Cage (Vin Diesel) returning
to the service of the American spy industry to help recover a piece of hardware
that can break into encrypted things including satellites (which it can force
to fall out of orbit, survive reentry and cause big explosions when they hit
(remember our viewing ground rules.)
Cage assembles his team to steal back the devise from a likeminded group
who stole it in the first place. Without
giving any details that you wouldn’t already expect from a movie of this genre,
gun battles, chase scenes and hand to hand combat ensue. In the fight scenes, it become clear that Vin
Diesel is not the star of this movie other than in name. The real star power on the screen come from
Donnie Yen in the character of Xiang and from Deepika Padukone as Serena Unger. Yen shows off some of the same martial arts
moves that we saw in his other mainstream film this year (a little indie film
called “Roque One.”) While he isn’t
going to light you up with his acting (again the rules) his fight scenes will
remind you a lot of a young Jackie Chan.
Padukone on the other hand shows that there is some depth behind her
super model bio. Again, this isn’t
exactly Shakespeare but she was asked to handle the most “complex” character in
this and she did it well along with providing her own action scenes as well.
Now I am a big fan of Diesel. For his genre of film, I think he is as big
as it gets. I would even go out on a
limb to say, at times, he is even under rated as an actor. That said, this was not one of the
times. This felt, for lack of a better
term, mailed in. His lines were flat,
his action scenes were ok but nothing spectacular (easily being overshadowed by
his fellow cast.) There was little of
the sly humor that he brings to any of his roles nor any of the edginess. This was a franchise that Diesel left a while
back and hasn’t helped it in its return.
This is the biggest disappointment in XXX as this could have been
another, different vehicle for us to see more of Diesel. In the end, I actually wished there was less
of him.
I would be remiss if I didn’t give a shout out to Rory
McCann as Tennyson Torch who provides a good deal of the comic relief throughout. A fun role from someone most will recognize
as “The Hound” from HBO’s “Game of Thrones.”
His few seconds caught singing “What a Wonderful World are almost worth
the price of admission by themselves.
So, all it told, “XXX” is not a great movie (and never had a
chance to be) but isn’t completely terrible either. If you are a fan of Vin Diesel you will
likely be disappointed as this is far from his best work. Yen and Padukone are the real stars of this
one (which perhaps shouldn’t be surprising given the prominence of the East
Asia funding for the movie) and they really are good. So, a good mindless action movie to escape
with for a couple hours but little more but Diesel’s best part of it was in the
previews for the latest F&F before the actual movie began.
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