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xXx
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The publicity campaign for xXx proclaims a 'new kind of hero' in Xander (Vin Diesel). But what's so new about him? He comes straight from the 1980s. Like Mad Max, he's a wandering mercenary who only slowly comes around to the political commitment, or "putting boot to ass for your country" as his boss, Gibbons (Samuel L. Jackson), so daintily puts it. Like Snake Pliskin (Kurt Russell) in Escape from New York (1981), Xander has a strong streak of anarchistic nihilism. And, reaching further back in time, he's like any member of The Dirty Dozen (1967), a criminal turned into a government soldier because he has no choice in the matter. Xander is novel in one respect. When, at the start of xXx, he rips off an expensive car and trashes it, he does so not only for the extreme-sports thrills. In fact, he is an Internet hero, broadcasting on webcam his immense distaste for the high and mighty who ban rap lyrics or video games. Xander is a radical dude. This film's trendy grasp on contemporary politics stops dead at the end of Xander's first webcast. Once this anti-hero has been flung into the criminal cesspool of Eastern Europe, the heavy-set, ill-shaven, winter-coat-wearing bad guys snarl what they have snarled in a hundred, previous action movies: "You Westerners should keep out of our affairs!" The filmmakers, meanwhile, seem a little culturally and geographically confused. On the streets of Prague we hear the "Harry Lime Theme" from The Third Man (1949), a tune usually associated with the underworld of Vienna. Xander may be hip to cyber-politics, but the chief villain, Yorgi (Marton Csokas), speaks in the vaguest, old-fashioned terms about the 'freedom' that will arrive for his lost generation once weapons for mass destruction are at his evil disposal. This quaint spiel is, however, quite enough to bring dark frowns upon the face of Yorgi's mysterious lover, Yelena (Asia Argento). xXx is an action blockbuster in the vein of Mission: Impossible (1996). The plot-switches are less convincing than the spectacular set-pieces. Xander is a guy who will try anything with whatever prop is to hand. He slides down a stair railing on a drink tray. He launches himself into the sky by driving up a steep roof. He figures that, when in the snow, the best tactic is to start an avalanche and try to outrace it. Digital special effects have reached a paradoxical point. Anything is now visually possible, but the effect is so patently unreal that it ends up often being cartoonish rather than genuinely thrilling. Xander is comically rendered invulnerable to any explosion, bullet or tidal wave. Yet director Rob Cohen, honing his skills far beyond his previous effort, The Fast and the Furious (2001), realises that the best way to re-inject tension is to orchestrate many converging lines of action, as in the jaw-dropping finale. This is the triumph of what George Miller calls "classic montage filmmaking". At the bottom-line, a film like this needs appealing, good-looking stars, and in this department xXx possesses an unlikely but winning duo. Diesel has yet to develop the rough, amoral charm of his '80s counterparts, but his brawn is perfectly complemented by the sleek, punk-Gothic posturing of Argento, European cinema's reigning 'scarlet diva'. Their love-match keeps the movie hot and bubbling between stunts. MORE Cohen: Daylight, A Small Circle of Friends © Adrian Martin September 2002 |
