XXX
Curiously, when you start walking out of this flick, you hear the words "none of this makes any sense" during the song blaring over the speakers. How perfectly does it sum up XXX? Very well. Vin Diesel plays Xander, a no-fear type of guy out on parole. When the NSA needs help in getting the 411 about a new biological weapon, Samuel L. Jackson, in his worst role to date, with a ridiculous unexplained scar no less, calls up a group of people including Xander for the task. Predictably, the group is weeded down to one, Xander. With his reputation and interest in cars, he successfully infiltrates Anarchy 99 and finds out its leader has acquired rockets that can spread gas and kill a city's population instantly.

It's loud and pointless. The powers that be turn this film into stunt after stunt after stunt. It never gets a chance to really develop its characters, something that needs to be done since they're probably going to do many sequels. Sure, it's an action film but they seem to dumb it down so much it's simply one-dimensional thinking. It all becomes quite over the top and so ridiculous that you can't help but laugh. As for the stars, this is Diesel's vehicle. Everyone's focused on him. As a result, Jackson seems to be in the way and beautiful bad-girl Asia (3 syllables!) Argento does nothing but stand there. The stunts speak for themselves and the gadgets, while few and far between, look cool with the exception of the bazooka at the end which is just a camcorder with a pole attached to it. 1.5 stars