With a core audience of gameboys and hot-rodders aged 25 and under, xXx 2 is the kind of action movie that requires literally no thought to enjoy. With Vin Diesel’s original character just killed in Bora Bora (for details, see the uncensored unrated director’s cut of xXx), Ice Cube steps in to play bad-ass, and the whole franchise takes on a hip-hop edge that’s almost admirably absurd. The asinine plot is anarchy in Washington, D.C., as an insanely hawkish Secretary of State (Willem Dafoe) plots a Capitol coup just as the President (Peter Strauss, playing it straight) is giving his state-of-the-union address. All of this is prefaced by Cube’s recruitment as a former Navy SEAL turned new-xXx, escaping from jail (Dafoe’s character put him there), hooking up with an old flame who runs a chop-shop full of the world’s hottest wheels, and reuniting with his old commander (Samuel L. Jackson) for a bullet-train climax that feels like Mission Impossible lite. You could argue that Diesel’s the smartest guy in the franchise for cashing out early, but xXx 2 gets the job done in passable fashion, with action veteran Lee Tamahori delivering the goods while he waits for a grown-up script to come along. —Jeff Shannon
What a waste. What were they thinking. Having Ice Cube playing an action hero. The dialogue is limp. Some of the special effects leave a lot to be desired. The only good bits worth watching the film for are the nice array of cars and trucks used in the film.If you want to see an action film that makes sense…don’t get this film.
Dry but active Well since I had seen Triple X with Vin Diesel, I thought that this next title was going to be good. How wrong I was. The story line was there, the action was there (in a few places) but the acting was dry well except for Samuel L. Jackson who was the same, but his lines could of been better. But to choose Ice Cube as the next XXX agent was half/half. Image was alright, but his acting was terrible.