Born to Be Blue
Sky Premiere HD, 10.25am & 6.10pm/sky Premiere+1, 11.25am & 7.10pm
The troubled life of legendary jazz trumpeter Chet Baker, played by Ethan Hawke.
ACTION THRILLER Friday, Sky Premiere HD, 12.05pm & 8pm
VIN DIESEL LANDED with a bang when he launched the character of extreme-sports athlete-turned-secret-agent Xander Cage in 2002’s xxx. A scruffy, streetwise answer to the suavity of James Bond, Diesel’s bruiser of a spy proved a hit with audiences but failed to launch the cinematic franchise Hollywood might have been expecting.
Indeed, Diesel had bailed by the time it came to the underwhelming sequel, replaced by Ice Cube for 2005’s xxx2: The Next Level, and the would-be series sputtered to a halt.
Since then, however, the world has fallen in love with Diesel’s brand of big, dumb action movies – witness the unstoppable success of the Fast & Furious films. Which means it’s time to bring Xander back from the dead and hurl him into another adventure, dispatched by Toni Collette’s hard-as-nails spy chief to retrieve a top-secret gizmo that can send satellites plummeting lethally to earth.
His new mission is as big and dumb as anyone could wish – but this time it’s not a solo affair. Taking a leaf from the Fast & Furious book, the movie has Diesel’s hero recruit a multinational crew of outlaws, including Ruby Rose’s crackshot sniper and Rory Mccann’s dementedly reckless stunt driver.
They are up against a similarly multi-ethnic gang – a sign of the film’s global box-office ambitions – whose members include Bollywood star Deepika Padukone, Thai martial arts icon Tony Jaa and, most charismatic of all, Hong Kong star Donnie Yen.
The plot doesn’t make a lick of sense, but the audacious silliness of the action sequences will put a smile on most faces. Indeed, the outrageous cheek of the action sequences actually brings to mind Roger Moore-era Bond.
Diesel’s cocky maverick, on the side of the rebels rather than the establishment, is the antithesis of Bond in so many ways, but he is winking at the camera just as Moore did. And they both share a relish for ridiculous gadgets – Moore’s 007 had a car that turned into a submarine, while Xander’s vehicle of choice is a motorbike that transforms into a jet ski. 2016, 12, 107min