To quote a certain Organic Chemistry professor, "I am perplexed." I have labored extensively trying to figure out why a movie like XXX performs so well at the Box Office while movies like Resident Evil and Final Fantasy perform so poorly. These cinematic examples all share a common thread: They're just video games. So if they're all just video games, why does one excel where the others fail? It's certainly not an issue of better quality; in fact, I think XXX is pretty lame when compared with other video game movies like Mortal Kombat and Resident Evil. The answer, I believe, is two-headed. The first reason is that XXX does not advertise itself as a film that's been created in the image of a video game (doing so today is almost assured failure for a movie). The second reason is that XXX doesn't pull any muscles straining to adhere to a preconceived storyline; it just makes it up as it goes. The plot framework merely provides an opportunity to cram as many explosions and special effects and stupid lines as possible into two hours.
This is not necessarily a horribly bad movie.... it's just, oh how do I put it.... "extreme". Some of the special effects and stunts are pretty bad-ass (worth the matinee price), albeit a few are rather far-fetched (skateboarding down a rail on a serving tray, locking onto a lit cigarette with a heat-seeking missile, and using a dirt bike to ramp a 15-foot chainlink fence without a ramp). You do have to endure stupid dialogue about how the government oppresses extreme snowboarders and their asphalt brethren and how video games comprise the only source of education to which the youth of today can relate, but you can always engage in a little nose mining or crotch scratching to keep yourself interested. Yes, the movie's silly and at times, fucking stupid, but it is after all a movie about an extreme sports stuntman turned superspy. When it comes to such a plausible storyline, you should damn well know what to expect. If action gets you off, go see XXX for the deafening stunts and booms and, of course, to see Vin Diesel act the badass. |
