xXx (2002) PG-13

An extreme athlete with a bad habit of punishing senators by stealing their cars and jumping them off bridges gets shanghaied into infiltrating a Czech anarchist group bent on demolishing the world's governments with bio-weapons.

This movie is what the James Bond franchise would be if he started out as a disrespectful tattooed thug.  Um, wait...

The first time I saw this movie back in 2005 I wasn't terribly impressed.  The humor was a little weak, the villains just a bit too stereotypical, and it really wasn't apparent what a threat this group was until very late into the picture.  It's grown on me, however, since the introduction of Daniel Craig's version of Bond.  There's a definite feel to this film, and you get the sense that we were making a bid for our own American Bond knock-off.  It was just a touch too early, and promoted poorly.

In any event, as a background movie for makers, it rocks if you like action pictures.  We have gadgets, explosions, Samuel L. Jackson, and classic cars.  Not a lot of exposition, and a smidge of romance added in, although I could do without the skanky stripper chicks, and prefer the angry Czech intelligence woman who looks like she could have been an extra vampire in Blade.

Two generic laugh out loud moments (probably when someone was being extra snarky) and one holy crap moment when someone dies a surprisingly sudden death.  Three and a half stars, and that's after I warmed up to it.  This originally came out when we were just getting to know Vin Diesel, and I don't think he'd really gotten the acting thing down just yet.  His love for pictures involving American muscle cars is very evident, though, and you can just see the glimmer of what's to come.

It's on Netflix for a short time longer, otherwise you can add the disc to your action collection at a very reasonable price point.