Rating: NN
You know that the spy genre has changed when the secret agent resembles the villains who used to populate the old spy movies. XXX star Vin Diesel plays an extreme-sport daredevil with a hate-on for hypocrisy who’s recruited by the U.S. to infiltrate a group of Russian anarchists operating out of Prague.
Diesel is the new breed of action hero, and unlike Arnie, Bruce or Jean-Claude, he’s an openly arrogant, self-loving bad apple. The first half of XXX is great because Diesel gets to flex his big pecs and shoot off his smart mouth. It also contains jaw-dropping stunts that are shot in ways that make it clear Diesel is doing an awful lot of his own stunt work.
But like most action movies, the plot degenerates into save-the-world silliness when Diesel taps into his humanity to keep the planet safe. Boring.
Diesel isn’t particularly good-looking, nor has he shown himself to be a great actor, but he’s built like a brick wall and his gravel-voiced cynicism is entertaining. XXX would have fared better if it hadn’t held Diesel back.
Audiences are primed to dump that tuxedo-clad, martini-loving, middle-aged spy.
