Reviews
XXX: State of the Union - Brought to you by James Wormald -
The Director of XXX: State of the Union Lee Tamahori claims he ‘doesn’t like movies that don’t make sense, stupid things happen, people react differently than they would in reality, and you can’t watch for 5 minutes without falling down a plot hole. I wonder if he knew which film he was giving an interview for. The final chase scene is the worst, however if you’re willing to accept that XXX: State of the Union happens in a complete fantasy world, as long as you decide you want to watch a bad film, you’re in luck. See when I saw it, I knew it was going to be bad, but I wanted to watch a bad film. As long as it was fast paced, and action packed. With guns, cars, explosions and jumping off buildings, I would be happy.
The story is that the old XXX, Xander Cage (Vin Diesel) has been killed (Presumably on another mission which wasn’t a film) so when the XXX branch of the NSA is invaded and 16 agents killed, Samuel. L. Jackson’s (Augustus Gibbons) is faced with finding another XXX. The last one had to be able to perform a wide range of extreme sports to be able to do the job of an agent. (I never understood why, all the things Xander had to do, would have been included in an American Government Agent’s specialist training, be them FBI, NSA, Army, Navy Seal, or what have you) Turns out XXX: State of the Union just cut out the middleman, and recruit Darius Stone (Ice Cube) an ex-Navy Seal currently in prison for disobeying his General George Deckert (Willem Defoe), who is surprisingly the man who is now trying to kill everyone.
Throughout the chase, General Deckert tries to kill Agent Gibbons and Stone, along with the president. Meanwhile Stone recruits an army of his ‘hood’ friends, chases down Deckert and the big end chase/fight scene ensues.
Like I say, very simple plot. No twists, no surprises. But one advantage, you know what you’re gonna get. If you’re watching with someone who likes to talk over every single important plot point get this film, it doesn’t have any.
It won’t challenge you on any level, or induce any kind of feelings or thoughts on any matters. But you wont look at your watch once, and you can always see how many plot flaws you can spot. Or turn it into a drinking game, and drink every time there is one. Although if you do that, you’re gonna be in no state to return it before 6 hours. And it’s not really worth £3.00.