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Dom Robinson reviews
Columbia TriStar
- Cert:
- Cat.no: CDR 33398
- Running time: 112 minutes
- Year: 2002
- Pressing: 2003
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 28 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: English, Hindi
- Widescreen: 2.35:1 (Anamorphic Panavision)
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £19.99
- Extras : xXx: A Filmmaker’s Diary, Building Speed: The Vehicles of xXx,Designing the World of xXx, Diesel Powered, Visual Effects “How To”s,Deleted Scenes, Music Video, Filmographies, Trailers, Director’s Commentary.
Director:
- Rob Cohen
(Daylight, Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, Dragonheart, The Fast and the Furious, Pitch Black, Scandalous, The Skulls, A Small Circle of Friends, xXx, TV: Miami Vice, The Rat Pack)
Producer:
- Neal H Moritz
Screenplay:
- Rich Wilkes
Music:
- Randy Edelman
Cast:
- Xander Cage: Vin Diesel
Yelena: Asia Argento
Yorgi: Marton Csokas
Agent Augustus Gibbons: Samuel L Jackson
Toby Lee Shavers: Michael Roof
Milan Sova: Richy Muller
Kirill: Werner Dahn
Kolya: Petr Jakl
Jordan King: Leila Arcieri
xXx,is to action films, what the original Turok: Dinosaur Hunterwas to video games. It sets up a scenario with a spectacle that at firstseems impressive, but is a little bit lacking all the way through and you hopethat when the sequel comes along, they’ll build upon the original.
I just hope that it doesn’t continue the trend, though, as Turok 2was a dull, meandering mess, and how the hell would Xander ever get off level3? …but I digress.
The premise of xXx is to make an action flick which overtakes James Bondin the fun stakes for those under 20. A car thief, an extreme sports junkiewho feels the need for a constant adrenaline rush, Xander Cage (Vin Diesel),or “triple-X” and even “X” to those who know him best, tests the police in amanner of ways with his stunts, until the day when he’s captured by the NSAand, under the tutilidge of Agent Augustus Gibbons (Samuel L Jackson),put through his paces in one exercise after another, each beginning with havingwoken up after being drugged with a dart in the neck, only when he wakes upin one and realises the bad guy is just a little too real… perhaps he shouldstop trying to take the piss.
X is taken to Prague, a city I’d love to go back and see, where a splinterfaction, Anarchy 99, is plotting to wreak dreadful havoc on the world (how many times havewe been here before?) and are led by the bearded Yorgi (Marton Csokas),who has a token sultry girlfriend in tow who you just know will end up withX, namely Yelena (Asia Argento), although while she’s set out to beincredibly sultry and sexy, she does come across a little too much as a bitunsavoury.
Anyway, back to the plot and X has to stop Yorgi and his henchmen in theirplan to set off a number of rockets that will disperse a toxic gas over thewhole country to kill everyone off. It doesn’t take a genius to realise,especially with a sequel planned for 2004, that X will save the day, killthe baddies and make off with the girl to a remote exotic location. However,it’s a bit piss-poor when Yorgi is offed and when X does take care of theexplosive device, along with his catchphrase for this series, “Welcome to theXander Zone!”, I kept thinking that that gas has still got to go somewhere…
A dangerous way to scratch the back of your neck.
That’s not to say it doesn’t have a very entertaining finale, which it does -and there are some impresssive and suitably far-fetched stunts along the way,such as driving a car off a bridge, nearly doing the same thing again so as toland on the top of a boat towards the end, a high motorcycle jump accompaniedby explosions plus gunfire from X as he should be concentrating on where hemight land and, my favourite, the avalanche. Outstanding.
It’s just that afterwards you feel the whole thing was more cliched than theycould comfortably have got away with and that it wasn’t as good as it could’vebeen and let’s hope the sequel does indeed improve upon this.
This film was given a “12a” in the cinema and was cut for one second for aheadbutt (“an uncut ’15’ was available to the distributor”, accordingto the BBFC’s website), so why didn’t Columbia go for an uncut 15-cert forthe DVD? The BBFC’s site also lists a 15-cert trailer – and it’s rare thata trailer will be rated higher than the film, so perhaps that included theheadbutt uncut. Madness.
All the credits for this film appear at the end. It took a while into thefilm before I realised we hadn’t really had any at the start and, while they’rebrilliantly done, many cinema patrons will have missed them because you knowwhat people are like there. As soon as the main action’s over they’re up outof their seats as if they’ve got ants in their pants.
The transport of the future.
Both the picture and sound quality are first rate. The film was shot andis presented in an anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen ratio, with crispdetail apparent throughout, even in those dark and dingy Prague streets.
The sound is in Dolby Digital 5.1 and is well-used throughout. Warn yourneighbours, as this does get loud. Dialogue is still clear, apart from VinDiesel’s mumblings… (no, they’re okay really).
The sultry Yelena…
All the extras come on the same disc and are located in the “Xander Zone”.The features go split-screen at times, but are all within a 4:3 frame and anyfilm clips are non-anamorphic:
- xXx: A Filmmaker’s Diary (41 mins):Split into two sections – one for the US and one for Prague, cameras weretrained on director Rob Cohen throughout the whole 82-day shoot. Commentsfrom the major cast and crew members are here and it looks like everyone had aball filming it and this comes across perfectly.
- Building Speed: The Vehicles of xXx (7 mins): Although X has to get ten cars together in an early scene, this short takesa look at his own weapons-laden GTO and Yorgi’s Ahab, the submersible whichcarries the deadly missiles.
- Designing the World of xXx (14½ mins):What you saw and how it came to life, focusing on the set design, weaponsand gadgets.
- Diesel Powered (7 mins): A profile of the main actor, talked-up by the other cast and crew, as wellas the man himself.
- Visual Effects “How To”s (3 mins): Split into three sections, each with optional filmmaker commentary,this is just a brief look at the CGI work and how it was put together to lookreasonably realistic, but enough to create the adrenaline rush, for theavalanche snowboarding effect.
- Deleted Scenes (15 mins): Ten here, all in 2.35:1 letterbox. mostly adding a few seconds of unimportantextras here and there, the two long scenes being X on a plane talking to ayoung lad about the ‘computer game’ he’s playing called “Anarchy 99” anddivulging all the secrets about the mission, but which the lad will think isjust a game; and an extended version of X’s night-time pole dancer.
It would’ve been an idea to keep in the “Attack of the Czech Police” scenebecause of all the explosions and can anyone explain why in the “Girls” scene,those lying on the bed have their faces blurred out??
- Music Video (4 mins): Gavin Rossdale from Bush performs the film’s main track, “Adrenaline”.The video’s a bit lame though and you’re better watching the closing creditswith the track accompanying it.
- Filmographies: “What they’ve all done before” for director Rob Cohen, writer Rich Wilkesand key cast members Vin Diesel, Asia Argento and Samuel L Jackson.
- Trailers: Three. One for xXx, one for the Eddie Murphy remake, I Spy, plusa comedy that hasn’t seen the light of day over here but was a Top 5 hit inthe US, National Security.
- Director’s Commentary: Does exactly what it says on the tin.
The menus are well-animated and scored, in keeping with the theme of the movieand there are subtitles in English and Hindi, with the main feature beingdivided once again into 28 chapters.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.