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List Price: $14.94 | | Label: Sony Pictures
Salesrank: 24765
Released: July 26, 2005 |
| Our Price: $2.67 |
| Used Price: $0.34 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
In this action-packed sequel to the box-office smash xXx, Ice Cube stars as Darius Stone, a thrill-seeking troublemaker whose criminal record and extreme sports obsession make him the perfect candidate to be the newest xXx agent. He must save the U.S. government from a deadly conspiracy led by five-star general and Secretary of Defense George Deckert (played by Willem Dafoe). Only a renegade xXx agent like Stone has the Xtreme skills to stop Deckert's dangerous military splinter group from taking over the government in America's capital.
Description of XXX - State of the Union (Widescreen Edition):
With a core audience of gameboys and hot-rodders aged 25 and under, xXx: State of the Union is the kind of action movie that requires literally no thought to enjoy. With Vin Diesel's original character just killed in Bora Bora (for details, see the uncensored unrated director's cut of xXx), Ice Cube steps in to play bad-ass, and the whole franchise takes on a hip-hop edge that's almost admirably absurd. The asinine plot is anarchy in Washington, D.C., as an insanely hawkish Secretary of State (Willem Dafoe) plots a Capitol coup just as the President (Peter Strauss, playing it straight) is giving his state-of-the-union address. All of this is prefaced by Cube's recruitment as a former Navy SEAL turned new-xXx, escaping from jail (Dafoe's character put him there), hooking up with an old flame who runs a chop-shop full of the world's hottest wheels, and reuniting with his old commander (Samuel L. Jackson) for a bullet-train climax that feels like Mission Impossible Lite. You could argue that Diesel's the smartest guy in the franchise for cashing out early, but xXx: State of the Union gets the job done in passable fashion, with action veteran Lee Tamahori delivering the goods while he waits for a grown-up script to come along. --Jeff Shannon
XXX - State of the Union (Widescreen Edition) Reviews:
Good product 
2009-05-23 - Shipped out really fast and was in excellent condition for a used item, no scratches.
WORST SEQUEL EVER! 
2009-04-04 - And i mean it. This movie is so bad that it makes the first film look better than any bond film ever(not that the first one was bad though). Ice cube gets so annoying trying to have a "though guy" look. First, action heroes aren't fat or gangster, second, just don't watch this movie!
XXX State of the Union
2009-03-17 - I think the second XXX is an okay sequel. I was surprised they didn't have same actor portray agent XXX. Ice Cube is unlikely in an action hero role, just doesn't seem the right body type, but I thought he did a good job. I liked the prison break, one of my favorite parts of this movie. I thought the movie was a tad too long, like most movies these days, but there was plenty of action to carry it through. My overall opinion, Not bad.
ICE CUBE SUCKS!!!
2008-12-27 - This guy is ugly, fat/chubby... all he can do is give a gay "mean look"... but it looks more like he needs to use the bathroom. Ice Cube (as dumb a stage name as one can get by the way) is actually a pretty talented writer. Maybe he should stick to that. Because no one, and I mean no one, buys his attempt to be a tough guy. He just looks soft, like a dough boy, minus the ugly face. So glad Vin passed on this dog of a movie.
State of Confusion & Convolution 
2008-11-24 - I haven't seen the original "xXx" , but I'm doing my best not to be prejudiced by the lazy mediocrity that is its sequel. As big and competitive as the modern action/adventure genre is, "State of the Union" brings surprisingly little to the table, with promises of big fights, big guns, big shootouts, and big excitement left unfulfilled by a director (Lee Tamahori, " Die Another Day" ) who seems to have thought that simply putting rapper/actor Ice Cube ("Three Kings") into the starring role would be good enough to account for everything the film lacks. When judged against everything else that was and is on the market, "Union" brought a peashooter to a gunfight and was swiftly and rightfully forgotten by most folks.
The story: when the xXx program is infiltrated by an insurrectionary splinter faction headed by a corrupt general (Willem Dafoe, "Spider-Man" ), a new agent is chosen in the form of an incarcerated Navy SEAL (Ice Cube). With aid from both new and returning allies, he must uncover the insurgents from within to thwart a plot to overthrow the US government and assassinate the president.
As I understand it, the original film's premise was to mix action with extreme sports. "State of the Union" has no such foundation; it's simply your run-of-the-mill "gotta-stop-the-bad-guys" take that has been done about a thousand times throughout cinema history. Absolutely nothing about the film stands out: no high-risk stunts, no extraordinary special effects, no revolutionary characters...nothing. I can't help but go on about how little action the film has to show: there are approximately two hand-to-hand fights, about the same number of shootouts, a car chase or two, and a somewhat cool encounter between two tanks - almost completely by the book. Ice Cube makes a decent (if somewhat stereotyped) action hero, but with so little to work with, he's got no chance to live up to Vin Diesel.
There's nothing much to fall back on: with the performance of Samuel Jackson, there's nothing beyond decent that Dafoe, Scott Speedman ("Underworld"), Peter Strauss ("Men Don't Tell"), Xzibit, or Nona Gaye ("Ali") bring to the table, and there's no meaningful underlying message or even particularly good humor to divert our attention. While the movie is competently made, technically, it feels nothing short of toothless: before the end of the first half, you'll have seen just about everything there is to see, and unless the producers choose both a different star and a more competent writer, there'll be little to look forward to for the inevitable "xXx 3" .
Unless you're a fan of either Ice Cube or Xzibit (or a particularly diehard fan of "Sam the man"), there'll be no need to pick up this poorly-conceived actioneer. The two stars you see at the top of this review acknowledge that the film was shot in English and was in focus; if I were basing my review on how memorable the flick was, it'd get less than one star.
