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Technical Information
Studio:
Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment
Year of Theatrical Release: 2002
Disc Format: 1 single-sided, Dual Layer
Image Format: Anamorphic (16x9 enhanced)
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Region Encoding: 1
Sound Format: Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital 2.0 (pro logic)
Running Time: 124 minutes
Director: Rob Cohen
Stars: Vin Diesel, Samuel Jackson, Asia Argento, Morton
Csokas
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Disc Supplements:
- Feature length commentary
by director Rob Cohen
- A Filmmaker's Diary production
documentary
- Building Speed: The Vehicles
of XXX featurette
- Designing the World of XXX
featurette
- Diesel Powered featurette
- The GTO is Back commercial
- Three visual effects breakdowns
- 10 deleted scenes
- Music Video for Gavin Rossdale's
Adrenaline
- Filmographies
- Theatrical trailer
- DVD-ROM content
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With an unfortunate title that seems more
appropriate for an adult film, XXX comes on to the scene as
an attempt to reinvent the secret agent genre.
This is what would be called a "high
concept" film. High concept is what happens when movie
producers think it would be a neat idea to take two or more
things that are popular and combine them. In this case, a combination
of the world of extreme sports and the secret agent / James
Bond genre.
The funny thing is, despite sounding like
a sure disaster, the high concept idea actually works.
What's surprising is that this film wasn't
made before now. The super spy genre, particularly the James
Bond films have always featured stunts bordering on X-Games
outrageousness, so the combination of the two seems like a no-brainer.
I would be remiss in my duty as a reviewer
if I didn't honestly report that this is a very silly film.
It's also highly implausible, often illogical and most certainly
absurd. Of course, the same thing can be said of the best of
the Bond films, too.
I keep comparing this to the Bond franchise,
because in many ways, that's exactly what this film is paying
homage to, in its own extreme way. Every Bond cliché
is served to us with an absurd, X-Games twist. Even the plot
of the film could have been taken right from Ian Flemming's
notebook.
The best of the Bond films are never remembered
for the quality of their plots, but rather for the charisma
of the characters and the spectacular stunts. Using that as
the standard, XXX contains some of the most eye-popping stunts
I've seen in a long time and is literally exploding with charisma,
most if it coming from the lead, Vin Diesel.
Vin Diesel is one of those rare stars who
can take over a scene simply by walking into it. He may look
like just a tough guy, but he's remarkably articulate and shows
great range as an actor. Perhaps XXX isn't the sort of film
that allows him to flex his acting muscles, but you can sense
his depth. He plays his role exactly right, as someone who doesn't
have all the answers. But what he's good at, he's prodigiously
good at and what he doesn't know, well, he can fake his way
through.
The character he plays is Xander Cage, an
extreme sports junkie with severe anti-establishment leanings.
He's an X-Box playing, base jumping, hard core punk who just
wants to do his own thing. He is recruited by the government
as part of an experiment. The government has become aware of
an anarchist terrorist group in the Czech Republic, but their
Bond-like spies have had no luck infiltrating the extreme lifestyle
of the terrorists. Cage is sent in with the thought that he
will be able to blend in and gain the trust of the anarchists.
Naturally, Cage meets the villains in secret
lairs, aligns with a beautiful woman (Asia Argento -- who reminds
me a lot of Uma Thurman, which isn't at all a bad thing), busts
out over-the-top stunts (including racing an avalanche) and
figures out a way to escape from overly elaborate traps and
defeat end-of-the-world devices that are far too complex for
their own good.
There are a lot of fun moments as we watch
Cage adjust to being a secret agent. For instance, he turns
out to be an excellent shot, but all of his experience is with
a light gun attached to a video game console. When the bullets
start flying, he has no clue how to work the safety.
The fact that this film is fun to watch is,
in many respects, some of the highest praise I can give it.
No, XXX won't satisfy your intellect, but it is an effective
form of escapism.
I'm sure that XXX will spawn a new franchise
of Xander Cage films. If they can maintain this level of fun
and energy, you can bet I'll be along for the ride.
:::back to
top |
How Columbia managed to cram this two-hour plus
film, and a rather large array of extras, all onto one disc is one
of those great mysteries of the universe.
The baffling thing is just how good this film
looks on disc. Not that I'm complaining, mind you.
What you'll find is an amazingly sharp image,
full of details and rich, saturated colors. Flesh tones are very
accurate, and the contrasts and black levels offer excellent visual
punch. Some grain is evident, but it's all source related, so nothing
to complain about. Edge enhancement is at a minimum and I spotted
no digital artifacting.
All in all, this is an excellent transfer, although
there is some room for improvement, which I'm sure we'll see in
an eventual Superbit treatment.
:::back to top |
A loud film deserves a loud soundtrack and that's
exactly what you'll find on this disc. The 5.1 mix is aggressive
with deep, furniture shaking bass and tons of surround effects.
While not necessarily a reference quality mix, this is certainly
a quality soundtrack and one to burst the eardrums. Despite the
nearly continuous assault of noise and music, dialog is always clear
and understandable.
Undoubtedly, a higher bitrate Dolby Digital or
DTS track will offer an improvement, but until (if) then, this track
is entirely serviceable.
:::back to top |
For a single disc DVD, XXX is pretty well packed
with extra materials. However, there does seem to have been some
haste in putting the material together as the presentation of some
of it (particularly the DVD-ROM content) isn't handled very well.
This is definite proof that when it comes to extra content, more
is not always better.
First up is the feature length commentary by director
Rob Cohen. This track is filled with information, but it did tend
to get on my nerves a bit. Cohen is a decent director and he seems,
for the most part, likable enough, but he tries too hard to appeal
to the gen-X age group the film is aimed at. Cohen may, as he claims,
attend raves, but it's rather silly for a man his age to be going
on about it in a commentary track. Additionally, Cohen has an ego
that's larger than the stunts in this film and he gives himself
credit for "inventing" techniques and ideas that any competent
film fan knows have been around for a long, long time. Still, despite
Cohen's ego and apparent mid-life crisis, the track does contain
a fair bit of trivia and behind the scenes information and he does
fill the time well.
Next up is a documentary called A Filmmaker's
Diary. The feature is broken up into two parts, one covering the
filming and other looking at the post production.
Once again, Cohen gives himself credit for coming
up with something new, in this case, the notion of bringing in cameras
to document the entire filming process.
He apparently is hoping that no one has heard
of The Beginning from the Star
Wars Episode I disc, which is still the best of this sort
of documentary I've ever seen. A filmmaker's Diary is not nearly
up to the same standards as The Beginning, but it takes the same
approach by following the production through the filming and post
production process. These are the sorts of features that I like
to see on discs, because this is where you get a real sense of the
enormous amount of work that goes into every aspect of the filmmaking
process. As icing on the cake, this documentary is also presented
in anamorphic widescreen.
In addition to the documentary are several featurettes
that are divided into two sections. The first section gives us four
to look at. Building Speed: The Vehicles of XXX, the first on tap,
takes a look at the villain's submarine and Xander Cage's GTO. The
second is Designing the World of XXX and shows us the various sets
and locations used for the film. Both of these are relatively short,
given their content, but they are also thankfully devoid of EPK
fluff and actually pretty interesting.
Unfortunately, that isn't the case for the next
two pieces, Diesel Powered and The GTO is Back. Diesel Powered amounts
to little more than about 6 minutes of the cast and crew kissing
Vin Diesel butt.
The GTO is Back is, to be frank, one of the most
blatantly offensive "extra features" I think I've even
seen on a disc. This is even worse than HBO First Looks. There is
no other way around it, this is just a commercial for Pontiac and
really has no place on this DVD.
The next group of features are a series of three
pieces on visual effects. Essentially, they are shot breakdowns
showing not so much how the effects were created, but rather how
all of the elements were put together. There is also a commentary
you can listen to while watching this section.
Next up are a group of deleted scenes. The specs
for the disc claim 11 scenes, but there are only 10 on the actual
disc. Either this is an error, or there's something hidden somewhere.
Almost all of these scenes are simply extensions
to existing scenes and as such are best not included in the film
-- they would have hurt the pacing. There are a couple of entirely
new sequences, such as a bit with Xander on the plane to Europe,
but none of them really tell us a whole lot about either the characters
or the plot that we don't already know. These are interesting to
look at, but wisely not integrated back into the film. Rob Cohen
also offers a commentary for these scenes.
Rounding out the main features are a music video
of Gavin Rossdale's Adrenaline, a theatrical trailer and filmographies.
As mentioned above, the DVD-ROM content is somewhat
misleading. As far as I can tell, none of the content listed is
actually on the disc. You must access it by putting the disc in
your computer and then following the links to the XXX website. While
this is fine for some features, it's almost something of a bait-and-switch
for consumers. Columbia is free to pull this content off the site
at any time, leaving discs on store shelves that claim content that
is no longer available.
I imagine that all of the problems with the disc,
from missing listed content to the issues with the DVD-ROM materials,
all stem from the speed with which Columbia Tristar put this disc
together. I realize they wanted to put this thing out in time for
Christmas, but realistically it would have been better for them
to wait another month or two and get the content right. Still, what
is on the disc isn't too bad.
:::back to top |
Will XXX become a 40-year franchise as widely
respected as the Bond series? Probably not. But it's a lot of fun
anyway. The DVD presentation is, despite a few problems, decent.
If you like action, if you like extreme sports, if you like Vin
Diesel, then you'll probably be happy adding this one to your collection.
:::back to top |
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| This is probably a little
too much for the younger kids, but the teens might get a kick out
of it. |
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| -- By Robert Wurth. Copyright
© 2003. |
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