Best-selling
American films often have a lot of action in which a maverick
hero defies everyone but nevertheless gets the job done spectacularly.
XXX, directed by Rob Cohen, is
the quintessential action film, with the hero Xander Cage
(played by Vin Diesel) somehow evading gunfire while riding
a motorcycle, skiing ahead of an avalanche on a snowboard,
and performing many other impossible feats that Jackie Chan
would never have attempted; although animals were well treated
in the film (they are absent), one human (a stuntperson) died.
The plot is familiar: To save the world from disaster, the
American government recruits a misfit. If he fails, he will
be imprisoned for life at Leavenworth on trumped-up charges;
if he succeeds, he presumably will be paid handsomely, though
he only talks about the motive of doing something "for
his country" before climbing into bed one night with
a sexpot. The recruiter is Augustus Gibbons (played by Samuel
L. Jackson) of the National Security Agency, who accepts the
premise that only a person with a devious mind can infiltrate
a band of criminals. Xander's first assignment is Colombia,
where the drug war is in full swing. But the reason for the
assignment is to test Xander. After he passes the test as
an unwitting decoy, the real assignment is to find about a
suspicious gang operating in the Czech Republic thought to
be developing biological weapons. Xander indeed makes inroad
into the gang, Anarchy 99, whose leader Yorgi (played by Marton
Csokas) is building a solar-powered submarine that will eventually
fill the atmosphere of major world cities with poison gas,
hoping to provoke a nuclear confrontation that will result
in his goal of world anarchy, a variation on the plot in this
year's The Sum of All
Fears. However, it takes some time before
Xander can discover Yorgi's aims, for which he needs the assistance
of Yelena (played by Asia Argento), a secret agent sent by
the Russians but later bureaucratically forgotten and, left
on her own, Yorgi's bookkeeper and mistress. Of course, the
outcome is predictable, but box office receipts were calculated
to swell as teenagers return to view XXX
several times so that they can see the special effects again.
Those who have never been to beautiful Prague will doubtless
book a flight after seeing all the sights in the magnificent
cinematic postcard of the city and surrounding countryside
throughout the film. MH
I
want to comment on this film
