Triple X (aka XXX) & Triple X: The next Level [DVD]

XXX: Triple X - Xander Cage (Vin Diesel)--an extreme sports daredevil recruited by a spymaster Gibbons (Samuel L. Jackson) for a covert mission in Prague--may be Blofeld-bald, pumped-up with testosterone, tattooed like a graffiti-covered wall and given to driving sports cars off bridges for fun, but come the quips and bullets start flying, Xander Cage is hero like no other. Even the slinky heroine (Asia Argento), a double agent within a mad ex-Soviet gang called Anarchy 99, laughs at the idea that a walking cue ball with three Xs tattooed on his neck could ever be a secret agent.

XXX: The Next Level - NSA agent Gibbons (Samuel Jackson) finds his group under attack by well-armed, well-informed combatants, forcing him to activate a new XXX, Darius Stone (Ice Cube), an old Navy Seal buddy currently cooling his heels in an army prison. It turns out there's a plan to whack the president (Peter Strauss) and a deranged secretary of defence played by Willem Dafoe is behind it. What's more important is the cool way Darius knows how to land a speeding boat on a bridge, then walk away in slow motion as it blows up behind him. Other great scenes include a tank battle on an aircraft carrier and a race with a bullet train that makes THE FRENCH CONNECTION look like a turtle race. There's some hilarious dialogue, such as when Darius recruits his old DC car-jacking buddies to ride into battle against the corrupt militia, leading to the 'first tank-jacking in history'. Scott Speedman plays a sympathetic Fed.

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