By now, I think most of you know I work at a theater. The most popular one in town, lucky me. :-/

Today, we got 3 prints of XXX.

Like everyone else, I'd seen a million trailers for it, and thought it looked cool. Too much testosterone, even though I love "guy movies" (Try and take me to a 'chick flick,' you walk away scratched and verbally scathed).

One of the main reasons I wanted to see it was because I'd heard one of my favorite bands, Rammstein, had a scene (they do. Band in the opening scene).

Anyways, my shift ends, and I go get my ticket (can't use my pass for two weeks [this is standard]). Dammit, though I expected it. Paid the adult evening price of $7.25.

I got a coke and snuck in my own dang food.

I was impressed with the stunts and the camera action & angles.

Bottom line: AWESOME. I wasn't expecting something too good, but I loved it.

I was rather disappointed by it. My problem was that it seemed too sanitized. The plot is a pure exploitation plot but to get a PG-13 rating they didn’t get to go all the way and be unredeemable trashy & exploitive (think Desperado, From Dusk Till Dawn, Wild Things< & Swordfish) None of these tough guys did any real swearing (even “Mr. Bad Mutha F**ker“ Samuel L Jackson), the violence was not very harsh (It‘s supposed to be an ACTION movie for the love of God) some of the bumbling cops stuff seemed like it came from the “kiddies will love it” school of thought Sexy Asia Argento seemed completely wasted in her role (both as a sex symbol and a strong female action hero)

That being said I did like the stunts, epically the bridge jump, wonderful touch making it an anti-free speech senator’s car. Nice to see Danny Trejo make an appearance, as one of the Columbians. CC is right the soundtracks rocked. Onto the nits:

The avalanche knocks down all of those buildings but leaves that antenna tower that X grabs standing.

If that boat was going at about 80 MPH (which X figured it was and seeing as he was driving a car to keep pace with it I‘d assume he‘d know) and he hit the water at the end it would have killed him. Hitting water at 80MPH is like hitting solid concrete.

As Roger Ebert pointed out. How much do you think all of that stuff cost for the delivery system for the gas. They had to make that underground base in the mountain, and develop all that technology for the boat. And of course how far can that boat get from it’s base in the landlocked Czech Republic. Given all of that why not just put the gas canisters into a car and drive into town? Yorgi is the kind of bad guy who is beloved by the architects of the "star wars" defense, staging an attack that is cumbersome, costly and visible, instead of just delivering the goods by FedEx.

Brian--

I agree; it was thin and pointless in places.

But the stunts were great, the music is AWESOME (lots of heavy metal, some rap [ugg], and a splash of techno-rave).

And like I said, one of my favorite bands is in the very first scene.

I guess it also helps being female, you can... er... appreciate vin Diesel.

I enjoyed the movie, it kept me watching, but like every other spy/action flick I was rolling my eyes through the whole thing. Very unbelievable. Oh well.

I did like the fact that Diesel's character wasn't a completely rotten guy and that he was a big video game player.

One of the big nits I noticed was during the battle in Columbia. X is riding the bike and somehow from the ground leaps it onto the tower that holds the guy with the automatic. There didn't appear to be a ramp large enough to get him up there. I may have to see it again just to see how he did this.

Josh--you're right.

And it goes through gaps in a barbed wire fence. It was too narrow to get the bike (and him) through. He should have gotten caught on one of the barbs.

There's more than a few nits, but...

Several of hit bike jumps dont' seem to have ramps (or ramp-like debris) large enough for him to do that. Also using a heat seeker to pick up a guy's cigarette would not give off enough heat, espicaly with all of the machines around.

I enjoyed the movie, it was a lot like a remake of the old Bond movies with a modern twist.

Nit:Well, this may not really be a nit, but, in the Columbia scene the Federales shoot a building, the one that Xander is riding on. The building is consumed in a huge explosion. What was in this building? A life time supply of propane?

Mr. Little, remember the golden rule of action movies: one shot from a gun causes all cars, buildings, and any other unspecified vehicles or structures to explode in a fiercely large fireball, traditionally from which the hero is running or driving away a la Sylvester Stallone.

Ehat i thought was explosive was the boat the bad guy is driving ast the end hits the canyon wall and explodes at the back end first then is engulfed in a hugh ball of flame. Boats dont have much explosive stuff in the front.

What, no Barbara Bach?!