Adventures Of The Chubby Rapper

Given that the original xXx made about $280 million at the worldwide box office it came as a bit of a surprise that Sony Pictures wanted to ,pursue a sequel. But pursue they did, this time without the director/star combo of Rob Cohen and Vin Diesel. At first glance their replacements, Lee Tamahori and Ice Cube, seemed like second rate choices. After all, Tamahori had just directed Die Another Day, the worst Bond movie since A View To A Kill and Ice Cube was a B-list actor, not to mention a chubby rapper. It came as a bit of a shock then that the sequel, xXx - State Of The Union (or xXx2 - The Next Level to give its international title) was a vast improvement over the original.

The first xXx movie wanted to be Bond so bad you could taste it on every frame of film. xXx, right from the start, realises it's never going to compete and so relishes the chance to revel in it's own identity; that of an ultra bullshit Spyz In Da Hood action flick. Minimal plot, amped up anti-authoritarian attitude, loud hip hop, a bullshit but fantastic Marco Beltramio score, ultra glossy photography, unbelievable gadgets, zero character depth, and huge expensive action sequences every few minutes...all better paced, choreographed and directed that the first film.

There's glamor in the shape of Nona Gaye (urgh!) and Sunny Mabrey (yummy!), Willem Defoe once again goes on bad guy duties (so reliable in Speed 2 and Spider-man), Scott Speedman blandly chases Ice Cube around in the familiar story of "good guys being set up and having to clear their name while law enforcer discovers their innocence and teams up with them to bring down the true villain" and Sam Jackson is back for more glaring and snappy one-liners ("I told you to shoot the bitch!")

Best of all is star Ice Cube as the new xXx. He might be a little out of shape, but he's got more 'fuck you' attitude and raw charisma than (the normally good) Vin Diesel displayed first time around. xXx2 might be the dumbest, most expensive blockbuster since forever, but at least it knows what it is and positively celebrates its dumbness.