Saw this tonight, and I have to say that for the most part it was pretty good. It was definately a “light, frothy suffle” of a movie, but it didn’t have hugely gaping plot holes like most of the movies I’ve seen of late, though it did have some parts that were flawed. (The whole nerve agent being neutralized by water thing, being the main one.) Diesel did an excellent job in the role, and his character was a good mix of brain and brawn. My favorite line was, “Stop thinking Czech police and start thinking Playstation!”
The weakest part of the movie, I have to say was the opening sequence which was supposed to be a Bond spoofe, but was horribly done. Shockingly so. It took me several minutes to realize that it was supposed to be part of the events of the film and not a faux-music video segment or something.
Samuel L. Jackson was great, though I have to admit that his acting abilities were so far above most of the other cast members that it detracted from the film. Sadly, he didn’t get to use the F-word at all in this movie, but they were going for a PG-13 rating (which also ruined the bar scene, because it looked like they were wanting to put in some girl on girl action, but didn’t for fear of getting slapped with an R).
The action sequences were very well shot and stylistically well done without an excess of camera effects. The CG used in the film for the avalanche sequence was believable and not overdone. All and all, I have to say it was one of the best “popcorn” movies I’ve seen all year.
After getting over the depression I felt when my critique of this movie refused to post yesterday, I am compelled to agree with you, Tuckerfan. At first, I thought the opening sequence was a “JackAss” type of stunt. The avalanche sequence was breathtaking. I liked the fact that Vin Diesel wasn’t just a thug with concrete for brains. I’m looking forward to this franchise.
I have to admit, I enjoyed the thing tremendously. Which isn’t to say it wasn’t a steaming load of crap, because it was. But it was an intensely entertaining load of crap, man. Much like The Scorpion King, for a lot of the same reasons - Diesel seemed very fresh, looked like he was having a good time. And oh my stars and garters, the women behind us! Now, my friends and I have been known to get a little squeaky at, say, Antonio Banderas (okay, so we’ve seen almost all of his movies, and some of them really, really, amazingly suck ass) or our anime bishonen, but these girls! No, women! They weren’t 16, they were at least in their twenties, and every time he took his shirt off (woefully rare, I must admit) I’d hear “Oh my Lawd!” moaned from behind me. It was great! And then in the ladies’ room after, all these women who didn’t even know each other were yelling from stall to stall:
“Man, Vin Diesel is the hottest thing evah!”
“Oh, I know! He’s my boyfriend!”
“Uh-uh, girl, he’s my husband! We gettin’ married!”
“Lord have mercy, did you see his nipple tattoos?!”
It was absolutely breathtakingly hilarious. I mean, yeah he’s kinda sleazy hot, but ladies! I feel sorry for the guys who had to miss the show in the women’s bathroom - it was just as much fun as the film.
According to Asia Argento on her interview that just aired on Fox News about 5-10 minutes ago, he was her best acting kiss and possibly her best kiss ever.
And she couldn’t possibly have said this just to get people to see the movie.
I can’t wait for XXX[sup]2[/sup] to come out. It’s basically just Bond with attitude. All the same dumb stunts, the crazy villians, spy gear, and sexy ladies, just without “class”. Cool and fun, let’s have a few more.
Having seen some real avalanche footage on TV, I thought the scene was remarkably well done, very realistic. Though I kept saying to myself “you can’t out ski an avalanche”
The film had me grinning and occasionally cackling throughout. Big dumb loud entertainment–my inner 13-year-old boy was well pleased.
Really, about the only beef I had with the film was the lamentable scenes of our hero attempting to be stealthy. Outracing avalanches and riding motorcycles over the roofs of exploding buildings is well and good, but that huge slab of walking beef tiptoeing and slipping from shadow to shadow? No way. Didn’t work, didn’t fit.
But after that, it get absurd in a good way again, so all was well.
My friend and I laughed out loud during that (suspenseful) scene. The image it immediately brought to mind was Bugs Bunny using the “moving by just wiggling your toes with the rest of your body perfectly still” sneak around method, with the toe-wiggling music that I can’t duplicate in writing (but you’d definitely recognize it as soon as you heard it), while hiding behind a post skinnier than his body, then toe-wiggling to the next skinny post where he remains perfectly hidden from view until he sneaks across the background a third time.
Bugs has nothing on Vin Diesel, except Vin was missing the cartoon music.
Of course, this just added to the enjoyment of the whole movie!
I didn’t like the movie for the simple reason that the climax really, really sucked. I won’t go into details because there’s no reason to add another spoiler, but it was a relatively poor action sequence as compared to the rest of them. And frankly, the device XXX has to destroy looked positively idiotic, even by the dismal standards of Hollywood spy movies. A bad closing sequence just sort of ruins the whole experience.
I was also a little unimpressed with the consistency of XXX himself. He wasn’t quite bad enough.
The avalanche bit WAS terrific, though. And I do like Vin Diesel.