XXX

Van Diesel (Xander Cage)	Samuel Jackson (Gibbons)
Marton Csokas (Yorgi)	Asia Argento (Yelena)
Direction: Rob Cohen	Michael Roof (Toby Lee Shavers)
Visual Effects Supervisor: Joel Hynek	Script and Screenplay: Rich Wilkes
Music Composed & Conducted By: Randy Edelman	Special Effects Supervisor: John Frazier

Not much of a story really. Xander Cage (Van Diesel) is an extreme sports nut who goes one step too far when he hijacks a senator's Corvette for performing a stunt. He is blackmailed into joining the National Security Agency (NSA) by its top shot Gibbons (Samuel Jackson).

Gibbons wants to thwart a nasty Czech villain, Yorgi (Marton Csokas) who wants to eliminate the entire population of Prague with remote-controlled biological weapons built by renegade Russian scientists. His master plan is to repeat this in London and other major cities and have governments quarrelling with each other. Eventually he wants to control the world on his own.

However, Xander Cage (known as Agent X by now) infiltrates Yorgi's castle on the pretext of buying cool sports cars. He learns that Yorgi's confidante Yelena (Asia Argento) is an infiltrator herself. She was sent there by her government (Russia, who else?) and then forgotten. Agent X is provided with some sophisticated weaponary and a hi-tech car by Shavers (Michael Roof). Eventually, Agent X, Yelena and the NSA foil the villain, of course.

Possible death of James Bond in the near future. That is the first reaction even as you are less than half-way through the movie. And considering the trash that we have been seeing after the exit of the mercurial Sean Connery, James Bond deserves to become extinct.

XXX is actually of the same ilk. It's James Bond without a Tuxedo. It's James Bond closer to the action-hungry, graphics-mad, play station-crazy and muscle-totting modern generation. It's also got a weapons and car specialist scientist.

Director Rob Cohen had tried for two decades to make sensible and meaningful films with almost no success whatsoever. He switched to action, and generated the surprise super-hit of 2001, "The Fast and the Furious". Now, he teams up with Van Diesel again to produce yet another hit in XXX. He has found his own magic formula for success in Hollywood and after all the years of trying, he deserves it.

Van Diesel who was announced by Sony as the adrenalin-junkie Bond of the PlayStation generation, is very good indeed. Behind that bald head and those bulging muscles, you also have an actor who can deliver the one-liners with a deadpan face. He makes a great impression.

Asia Argento as the sultry Russian agent is cool. Her sleek looks and cool mannerisms generate enough heat. She is certainly better than all the femme fatales of the James Bond movies of the last three decades.

As the Czech villain, Marton Csokas, a Kiwi actor manages to pull of the accent surprisingly well indeed. Nothing new about his acting though. He delivers an expectedly reasonable performance.

The surprise packet is Michael Roof, the weapons geek and scientist. Once again, borrowed shamelessly from Bond movies, Roof does his job well however and is quite amusing.

As for Samuel Jackson, the easiest thing to say would be that his talent is wasted. His critics are pounding away gleefully. They did the same thing with his role in the "Star Wars: Attack of the Clones". It's unfair to expect someone to keep delivering academy-award winning (or even nominations) performances. He has done his best.

The backbone of the movie are the special visual effects. Top marks to Joel Hynek and John Frazier. They have created some of the best visual effects on the screen.

The movie begins with a racy number "Bang Bang". Throughout the rest of the movie, the background score and music are pretty lively and do not jar anywhere. Randy Edelman is pretty much assured of a long string of assignments in the future.

The stunts are eye-popping and the one-liners funnier than in any James Bond movie since Sean Connery. Rich Wilkes has created a pretty racy script.

If you are expecting logic and common sense, do not go for this movie. But if you want an edge of the seat thriller and two hours of sheer entertainment, this is a must see.