xXx 2: The Next Level

Despite its huge budget, xXx: State of the Union is an ultra-cheap B-movie in terms of taste and intelligence. Instead of Ice Cube, who incidentally would have been better suited to the role of Baloo the teddy bear, the protagonist could easily have been played by Van Damme or Steven Seagal. Willem Dafoe, Samuel L. Jackson and the aforementioned budget are the only things that elevate this film above the level of those two gentlemen’s current work. Paradoxically, boredom rises as the breakneck action increases and some of the scenes are literally irritating (tanks). The first xXx at least managed to evoke a false sense of being cool with a certain detached humor. This one, on the other hand, is just formless, overly digitalised fluff in the same category as Torque. It deserved its status as a box-office bomb. (13.05.2005)

Wasn’t this supposed to be a failed parody with Leslie Nielsen in the main role? And Ice Cube is as tough as me after two shots of Becherovka. (10.08.2008)

Director Lee Tamahori deserves a few slaps to the head. His need to inject action into almost every other shot is commendable, but the style of execution fluctuates quite a bit from the original idea. In a time when digital effects are commonplace in almost every action movie (yes, there are also bright exceptions), they can be quite sloppily executed. The ending seems as if it was crafted by cartoon animators for children rather than computer wizards. The film gives the sense that the creators tried to make everything better, but in today's world, it takes not only a healthy passion for the craft but also a certain skillfulness. The plot could be told in twenty minutes, so the rest consists of one-liners, action, one-liners... Moreover, everything is filmed very half-heartedly and predictably. The speeches that mention Kosovo are laughable, similar to the unhealthy overflow of patriotism, which Tamahori originally intended as a lighthearted joke. Unfortunately, the reins were loosened to such an extent that what was meant to be targeted fun turns into unintended fun, which may make people laugh even more but also ends up being more infuriating. I have quite mixed experiences with Ice Cube in movies. One cannot deny Ice Cube's dose of rugged charisma, but also the dose of non-acting that Cube manages to mask properly with sharp one-liners and a dominant presence in action scenes - just like his predecessor Vin Diesel. So if I overlook the plot holes and action, when I disregard the story altogether and avoid bad memories of digital action, all that remains for me, besides tears in my eyes, is about twenty minutes of decent action (which the audience experiences in the first half-hour). When I add it all up, I think that it still has enough to earn two stars. (12.06.2005)

Tubby Ice Cube in an ultra-tough role, dispatching dozens of enemies on American soil while spouting wannabe cool lines? No thanks. It’s boring: uninteresting action, awful digital effects, a bored Dafoe and a hundred minutes of an unintentionally ridiculous movie which isn’t helped even by the omnipresent lampooning. We really get a lot of action here, but Tamahori’s filming is as mediocre as it could possibly be. A C-movie through and through. (13.06.2007)

What on earth have they done to xXx? I knew what I was getting myself in to, but in places it wasn’t even funny, but drives you to tears. Even though, it’s true to say that you probably haven’t see such craziness for a long time. It reminds me of some futuristic game of chess - on the one side there are the “good" black pieces, and on the other, the “bad" white pieces. “The fight for peace in our beloved America." ;-) (08.06.2006)

A tacky, unimaginative and thoroughly lacklustre piece of crap that at most has a few watchable action scenes, two very sexy girls and a typical loud concept. Ice Cube is just as unconvincing and unfitting as XXX as Vin Diesel was three years before him. However, this second film with the bizarre super secret agent is still a notch better. The reason is that, unlike the first one, the sequel does not pretend to be as serious and does not try to be the best action film of recent years. It offers nothing but brainless entertainment with more than enough humor and self-parody. The worst part is the ending, where the visual effects are so poor that the whole train scene feels like from a failed video game. (01.08.2006)

A cocky B-movie, which, in comparison to its first installment, is rather dull. There's no shortage of action, which is a given here, but it's action that isn't as beautifully epic as in Cohen's film. Even the characters aren't that interesting in the end, partly because Jackson's character should have stayed in the background and not been dragged to the front. (10.11.2016)