Susan Granger’s review of “XXX: State of the Union” (Columbia Pics/Revolution Studios)
There’s obviously a market for this kind of senseless violence that continues the “XXX” series which started with Vin Diesel as an extreme sport athlete who was recruited as a federal agent. In this preposterously simplistic sequel, Ice Cube plays Darius Stone, who escapes from a maximum-security prison cell to battle a power-hungry Secretary-of-Defense (Willem Dafoe), intent on toppling the U.S. President (Peter Strauss), who is threatening to cut military spending. It seems Stone has unique credentials to prevent the coup. He was once a top Navy SEAL, then worked with covert NSA agent Augustus Gibbons (Samuel L. Jackson) in Special Ops. Stone wound up in the slammer for breaking the jaw of a sneering general who ordered a war crime in Kosovo – the same general who has now become the Secretary-of-Defense. Ah ha! “Don’t do this for the red, white and blue,” Stone says to motivate his buddies who are assembled in a local chop shop, preparing to commandeer tanks for an assault on Washington, D.C.. “Do this for the right to hack and jack cars!” Basically, as Ice Cube observes, the fate of the Free World lies in the hands of “a bunch of hustlers and thieves.” From the opening sequence, director Lee Tamahori (“Die Another Day”) layers on the non-stop, gratuitous violence/explosions/crashes that are so implausible that this tedious thriller resembles an arcade video-game more than a movie. To its credit, burly Ice Cube is a far more amusing and, therefore, appealing hero than menacing Vin Diesel. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “XXX: State of the Union” is a stunt-filled, clichŽ-crammed, brainless 2. Mercifully, it lasts only 92 minutes – hardly enough time to finish your popcorn. Wait for the video.
