xXx: Return of Xander Cage

The trailer for this threequel promised dumb fun, but in reality the phrase 'dumb fun' barely covers the sort of bombastic action entertainment this extreme sports-themed flick delivers. The Fast and Furious franchise appears steeped in rock-solid physics by comparison. Yet there's a heavy tongue-in-cheek tone that ensures the utter ridiculousness of it all is playful and enjoyable, rather than eye-rolling and pretentious, á la the recent Point Break remake. The light-heartedness goes so far as to include cheeky cameos, colourful character intro screens and a few meta-jokes about The Avengers, which, along with the amount of fun the entire cast seem to be having, gives licence to the sheer insanity of the set pieces. There's a grenade party game, skateboarding on the side of a bus, sniping whilst hanging from a tree, fighting in a free-falling military transport plane, jumping over moving cars on a highway, and motorbike skiing at the beach. And that's only a tiny glimpse of what's on display. Headlining the titular comeback, Vin Diesel is clearly having a blast in hero-with-an-attitude mode—think Dominic Toretto but without the solemn family-first moral code—whilst his multicultural co-stars do their best to ham it up in the best way possible. Bollywood star Deepika Padukone is full-on femme fatale, martial arts legend Donnie Yen is a laidback arse-kicker, Aussie Ruby Rose oozes next-gen sexuality, acting vet Toni Collette snarls with glee, Nina Dobrev gives good perky nerd, and Samuel L. Jackson does, well, Samuel L. Jackson. The guiltiest of guilty pleasures, xXx: Return of Xander Cage offers up an unapologetically ludicrous action film that earns bonus points for poking fun at itself.

I went to the movie as a way of waiting for my kid who was seeing a different movie, my wife came with me. I honestly was not expecting anything buy explosions, impossible stunts and a bad story. Boy was a wrong, what we got was 2 explosions, stunts that should not be in any movie because they are not possible by any shape or means in real life, and a story that was far worse than i originally expected. The acting and script were really bad to boot.

I guess they took the Michael Bay philosophy, i.e. who needs story and script when you can dazzle them with action and stunts, but you really cant.

I cannot make up my mind if most of America is really dumb in liking this stuff, or they just manage to switch off their intelligent part of their brain when they do, i seem to be unable to switch off however.

There is no story build up in this movie - and the action scenes are unbelievable ~ aka too many bulls#it and impossible unrealistic sequence. The "glorification of Xander Cage" is way too arrogant to a point that your passion and interest for the character simply fades away.

After the movie, I have less respect for the character that Vin Diesel plays. If you are the type that likes to watch the action sequences; you might enjoy this.

Been cursing myself to have watched such mindless video game movie.

Deepika Padukone is completely misfit and she looks awkward for most of the screen time. Vin Diesel should stick to Fast and Furious franchise, 2002 XXX was much better. Rest of the star cast is assembled to just please the producers "Shanghai Movies".

There is no story, no screenplay, improper acting, it seems like director has wasted his most of the time in VFX labs than on actual story and screenplay.

Disgraceful start to 2017, if you want to watch mindless graphical action, better play video game. Disappointed to the core, save your time, money and if you still want to see then be ready to curse yourself...backed by big production house, critics and fake reviews will start floating soon appreciating the movie, beware.

I'm not quite sure why Xander Cage returned, I just wish he hadn't.

This movie is so low brow, you might mistake it for a caterpillar. It's devoid of anything that looks like a plot or decent character development.

Instead its cheesy show off time with lots of tat's, juvenile bravado, sparkly overstated jewelry and guns from "da hood". This is a film that feels, in my opinion, like it was made by a 15 year old nick-named "flipper" (as in hamburger flipper) and his gormless, pimply friends. We all know thats not true but you get the idea.

In short a genuinely excruciating experience that puts the S in Stupid.....one out of ten from me.