neumu [ cinematronic ]




	XXX
	Rob Cohen Vin Diesel, Samuel L. Jackson, Asia Argento, Marton Csokas 2002		Attempting to create a James Bond-ed franchise for the next generation, the producers of the uneven "XXX" found an ideal star in Vin Diesel. Who else but the muscular, confident Diesel could so effortlessly slip into the role of rebellious, multicultural, extreme-sports fanatic Xander Cage — recruited as a reluctant secret agent by a tough-as-scar-tissue American spymaster (Samuel L. Jackson)? Cage is prison-bound for some illegal, authority-tweaking stunts unless he agrees to go undercover in Prague and infiltrate a gang of anarchists preparing to push the world into chaos. He's as much a Dirty Dozen-minus-11 as he is a 21st-century 007. It's fortunate that Diesel, as Cage, is driving this train, because it often jumps the track with ludicrous speeches by its villains and obvious swipes from the Bond pictures. Then Diesel generates good will by the sheer force of his personality, or a stupendous action sequence gets you gasping, and the train chugs on. With smoky/sultry Asia Argento as a ferocious Russian moll.