Extras :
xXx: A Filmmaker's Diary, Building Speed: The Vehicles of xXx,
Designing the World of xXx, Diesel Powered, Visual Effects "How To"s,
Deleted Scenes, Music Video, Filmographies, Trailers, Director's Commentary.
Director:
Rob Cohen
(Daylight, Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, Dragonheart, The Fast and the Furious, Pitch Black, Scandalous, The Skulls, A Small Circle of Friends, xXx, TV: Miami Vice, The Rat Pack)
Producer:
Neal H Moritz
Screenplay:
Rich Wilkes
Music:
Randy Edelman
Cast:
Xander Cage: Vin Diesel
Yelena: Asia Argento
Yorgi: Marton Csokas
Agent Augustus Gibbons: Samuel L Jackson
Toby Lee Shavers: Michael Roof
Milan Sova: Richy Muller
Kirill: Werner Dahn
Kolya: Petr Jakl
Jordan King: Leila Arcieri
xXx,
is to action films, what the original Turok: Dinosaur Hunter
was to video games. It sets up a scenario with a spectacle that at first
seems impressive, but is a little bit lacking all the way through and you hope
that when the sequel comes along, they'll build upon the original.
I just hope that it doesn't continue the trend, though, as Turok 2
was a dull, meandering mess, and how the hell would Xander ever get off level
3? ...but I digress.
The premise of xXx is to make an action flick which overtakes James Bond
in the fun stakes for those under 20. A car thief, an extreme sports junkie
who feels the need for a constant adrenaline rush, Xander Cage (Vin Diesel),
or "triple-X" and even "X" to those who know him best, tests the police in a
manner of ways with his stunts, until the day when he's captured by the NSA
and, under the tutilidge of Agent Augustus Gibbons (Samuel L Jackson),
put through his paces in one exercise after another, each beginning with having
woken up after being drugged with a dart in the neck, only when he wakes up
in one and realises the bad guy is just a little too real... perhaps he should
stop trying to take the piss.
X is taken to Prague, a city I'd love to go back and see, where a splinter
faction, Anarchy 99, is plotting to wreak dreadful havoc on the world (how many times have
we been here before?) and are led by the bearded Yorgi (Marton Csokas),
who has a token sultry girlfriend in tow who you just know will end up with
X, namely Yelena (Asia Argento), although while she's set out to be
incredibly sultry and sexy, she does come across a little too much as a bit
unsavoury.
Anyway, back to the plot and X has to stop Yorgi and his henchmen in their
plan to set off a number of rockets that will disperse a toxic gas over the
whole country to kill everyone off. It doesn't take a genius to realise,
especially with a sequel planned for 2004, that X will save the day, kill
the baddies and make off with the girl to a remote exotic location. However,
it's a bit piss-poor when Yorgi is offed and when X does take care of the
explosive device, along with his catchphrase for this series, "Welcome to the
Xander Zone!", I kept thinking that that gas has still got to go somewhere...
A dangerous way to scratch the back of your neck.
That's not to say it doesn't have a very entertaining finale, which it does -
and there are some impresssive and suitably far-fetched stunts along the way,
such as driving a car off a bridge, nearly doing the same thing again so as to
land on the top of a boat towards the end, a high motorcycle jump accompanied
by explosions plus gunfire from X as he should be concentrating on where he
might land and, my favourite, the avalanche. Outstanding.
It's just that afterwards you feel the whole thing was more cliched than they
could comfortably have got away with and that it wasn't as good as it could've
been and let's hope the sequel does indeed improve upon this.
This film was given a "12a" in the cinema and was cut for one second for a
headbutt ("an uncut '15' was available to the distributor", according
to the BBFC's website), so why didn't Columbia go for an uncut 15-cert for
the DVD? The BBFC's site also lists a 15-cert trailer - and it's rare that
a trailer will be rated higher than the film, so perhaps that included the
headbutt uncut. Madness.
All the credits for this film appear at the end. It took a while into the
film before I realised we hadn't really had any at the start and, while they're
brilliantly done, many cinema patrons will have missed them because you know
what people are like there. As soon as the main action's over they're up out
of their seats as if they've got ants in their pants.
The transport of the future.
Both the picture and sound quality are first rate. The film was shot and
is presented in an anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen ratio, with crisp
detail apparent throughout, even in those dark and dingy Prague streets.
The sound is in Dolby Digital 5.1 and is well-used throughout. Warn your
neighbours, as this does get loud. Dialogue is still clear, apart from Vin
Diesel's mumblings... (no, they're okay really).
The sultry Yelena...
All the extras come on the same disc and are located in the "Xander Zone".
The features go split-screen at times, but are all within a 4:3 frame and any
film clips are non-anamorphic:
xXx: A Filmmaker's Diary (41 mins):
Split into two sections - one for the US and one for Prague, cameras were
trained on director Rob Cohen throughout the whole 82-day shoot. Comments
from the major cast and crew members are here and it looks like everyone had a
ball filming it and this comes across perfectly.
Building Speed: The Vehicles of xXx (7 mins):
Although X has to get ten cars together in an early scene, this short takes
a look at his own weapons-laden GTO and Yorgi's Ahab, the submersible which
carries the deadly missiles.
Designing the World of xXx (14½ mins):
What you saw and how it came to life, focusing on the set design, weapons
and gadgets.
Diesel Powered (7 mins):
A profile of the main actor, talked-up by the other cast and crew, as well
as the man himself.
Visual Effects "How To"s (3 mins):
Split into three sections, each with optional filmmaker commentary,
this is just a brief look at the CGI work and how it was put together to look
reasonably realistic, but enough to create the adrenaline rush, for the
avalanche snowboarding effect.
Deleted Scenes (15 mins):
Ten here, all in 2.35:1 letterbox. mostly adding a few seconds of unimportant
extras here and there, the two long scenes being X on a plane talking to a
young lad about the 'computer game' he's playing called "Anarchy 99" and
divulging all the secrets about the mission, but which the lad will think is
just a game; and an extended version of X's night-time pole dancer.
It would've been an idea to keep in the "Attack of the Czech Police" scene
because of all the explosions and can anyone explain why in the "Girls" scene,
those lying on the bed have their faces blurred out??
Music Video (4 mins):
Gavin Rossdale from Bush performs the film's main track, "Adrenaline".
The video's a bit lame though and you're better watching the closing credits
with the track accompanying it.
Filmographies:
"What they've all done before" for director Rob Cohen, writer Rich Wilkes
and key cast members Vin Diesel, Asia Argento and Samuel L Jackson.
Trailers:
Three. One for xXx, one for the Eddie Murphy remake, I Spy, plus
a comedy that hasn't seen the light of day over here but was a Top 5 hit in
the US, National Security.
Director's Commentary:
Does exactly what it says on the tin.
The menus are well-animated and scored, in keeping with the theme of the movie
and there are subtitles in English and Hindi, with the main feature being
divided once again into 28 chapters.
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
