XXX: Return of Xander Cage
There are big differences between Rocky and Rambo, but I’m not sure what the difference is between Dominic and Xander Cage, the roles Vin Diesel plays in his two big movie franchises, “Fast & Furious” and “XXX.” They have the same hair. They both are thrill seekers. They both often find themselves outlaws. And they both invariably end up in some international intrigue, upon which rests the fate of the human race.
Perhaps the difference is that Xander Cage is a smiley kind of guy. He smiles a lot. In fact, the last movie action hero who smiled as much as he does was Douglas Fairbanks, and that’s going back 100 years. Xander smiles when he’s piloting a plane into an exploding satellite. He smiles as he’s riding a motorcycle over water (don’t ask). And he smiles as he’s about to go to bed with six beautiful women at the same time. He’s a smiley guy with lots to smile about.
“XXX: Return of Xander Cage” is not in the same league as the original “XXX,” which Rob Cohen directed with vigor and force in 2002. That was a movie that could persuade an audience of skeptics to embrace the action genre. “XXX: Return of Xander Cage,” directed by D.J. Caruso, is a more modest achievement. You’ll like it if you’re already in on the joke.
The joke is that Xander Cage can do anything. In his first appearance here, he is stealing a satellite receiver from the top of a tower. To escape the authorities in pursuit, he dons skis, jumps 100 feet, and skis down a wooded hill. There is no snow on the ground. Then he borrows a skateboard and rolls down a busy road, at one point leaping up and skating across the side of a passing truck.
It’s all supposed to be in fun, and it is mostly fun. Yet, it’s an odd thing, the difference between crazy and ridiculous. Crazy is the audience thinking, “I can’t believe they think they can get away with this.” Ridiculous is the audience thinking, “They’re not even trying to get away with this.” This is not to say that Xander Cage here is like Fonzie jumping the shark, but when his motorcycle suddenly becomes a flotation device, there is a distinct whiff of shark in the general vicinity.
So, anyway, somebody has invented a device that causes satellites to drop from the sky, and then enter the atmosphere and explode into the ground. Even better, this device can aim the satellite to explode on a specific target. Yes, it’s a very dangerous weapon, and it seems that the people doing this are totally off the grid. To find them, the government — embodied by Toni Collette — decides it needs someone equally off the grid, someone with underworld connections, someone who is daring and unconventional and has a deep voice, shaves his head and has tattoos all ...
So Xander goes to work for the government. He recruits his team, some equally outrageous people, and he starts looking around the kind of places he knows best. In Vin Diesel movies, there is invariably some packed nightclub, where everyone really dangerous and really good-looking gathers, not to dance, exactly, nor to talk. Basically, they’re just there waiting for Vin Diesel to arrive.
Soon, in one such entertainment establishment, he meets up with his kind of people. He sits at a table with a couple of desperate characters, a man (Donnie Yen) and a woman (Deepika Padukone), and to test and tease each other, they pull pins out of hand grenades and start rolling them quickly to each other. The trick is to catch the hand grenade in time to stop it from exploding. This is probably the best scene in the movie, in that it’s nutty and yet illuminates the characters, instead of crossing the line into absurdity.
Following the story line of “XXX: Return of Xander Cage” is easy, as long as you don’t try. Don’t worry about it. Toward the end, the action becomes repetitive and tiresome, but there are pleasures to be had. Diesel is a terrific action star, in that he can give a movie a lift just by being there. Collette embraces the cold-blooded extremes of her role as a government suit, so she knows she’s in a comedy.
Sometimes, it’s useful to know.