XXX: State of the Union (2005) Columbia/Action RT: 101 minutes Rated PG-13 (sequences of intense action violence, some language) Director: Lee Tamahori Screenplay: Simon Kinberg Music: Marco Beltrami Cinematography: David Tattersall Release date: April 29, 2005 (US) Cast: Ice Cube, Willem Dafoe, Scott Speedman, Peter Strauss, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Roof, John G. Connolly, Xzibit, Sunny Mabrey, Nona Gaye, Ramon De Ocampo. Box Office: $26M (US)/$71M (World)
Rating: ***
I wasn’t a fan of the first XXX movie starring Vin Diesel as the titular extreme sports enthusiast-turned-secret agent. To me, it was a failed attempt to create a James Bond-like franchise for modern audiences. However, it still made enough money for the studio to greenlight a sequel.
When Diesel dropped out due to a salary dispute, all seemed lost for XXX: State of the Union until somebody came up with the idea of replacing his character with a new XXX. Enter Ice Cube (Three Kings) as Darius Stone, a former Navy SEAL currently serving time in Leavenworth for disobeying orders and assaulting a superior officer. This is who NSA Agent Gibbons (Jackson, Pulp Fiction) wants to recruit to weed out a traitor within the ranks of the US government.
It goes down like this. A secret facility in Virginia is attacked and 16 agents are killed. Gibbons and his assistant, gadget maestro Shavers (the late Roof), are the only ones to escape. With Xander Cage no longer available (it’s explained he was murdered in Bora Bora), Gibbons breaks Stone out of jail and brings him into the fold. Somebody on the inside orchestrated the attack and it’s really no secret who if you think about it. Look at the cast list. One of the names should jump right out at you as somebody usually typecast as a villain. If you said Willem Dafoe, give yourself a gold star. He plays Secretary of Defense George Deckert, a former general who doesn’t agree with President Sanford’s (Strauss, Rich Man, Poor Man) foreign policy. He plans to do something about it, something very bad.
After Gibbons is killed in his own home, Stone and Shavers are left to deal with the situation on their own. The NSA agent-in-charge, Steele (Speedman, Underworld), won’t be any help because he believes in his government. There’s no way there’s a conspiracy afoot. Making matters worse for Stone, he’s been framed for murder. With every law enforcement agency out to kill him, he enlists the aid of some old friends, a gang of car thieves led by Zeke (rapper Xzibit), to put a stop to Deckert’s nefarious plan.
XXX: State of the Union is extremely absurd and a whole lot of fun. While far from perfect, it’s definitely a better movie than its predecessor. The first movie left me cold; it was so perfunctory. I’d be lying if I said XXX: State of the Union had any more substance than the first movie. It doesn’t. It’s silly, mindless and completely implausible. Are we really expected to believe that nobody notices the army of black-clad killers with rocket launchers outside the Capitol building while the POTUS delivers his State of the Union address? Where is the Secret Service while all this is going on? Aren’t they paid to prevent such things before they start? I could ask many questions about XXX: State of the Union; this thing has more plot holes than Chestnut Street has pot holes after the winter snow melts. But what would be the point? Aren’t most action flicks, by definition, illogical?
Ice Cube makes a pretty bad ass action hero. With that million-dollar sneer and badder-than-bad attitude, he’s one dude not to be screwed with…. EVER! Okay, so I don’t buy him as a former soldier much less a lieutenant. With his anti-authority attitude, I don’t see him making it too far in the military, but whatever. Dafoe can play the role of bad guy in his sleep. Deckert doesn’t really stand out in any particular way, but he’s sufficiently hateful. Jackson, with his limited screen time, does a decent job.
XXX: State of the Union moves at breakneck speed. The action scenes are big and loud. Some are pretty good. What’s not so good is the CGI. Unfortunately, director Lee Tamahori (Die Another Day) opts for CGI rather than good old-fashioned stunt work. The climactic scene aboard the President’s private bullet train looks totally fake. The storyline is predictable. It also doesn’t make a lot of sense. But the movie is fun in a stupid, mindless way. It’s a cool Saturday night action movie.
