XXX: The Return of Xander Cage aka XXX:3 return of Vin Diesel
- Thread starter Captain Craig
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I'm getting a vibe from you Pingy.
XXX was pretty trashy but it did have some good stunts. The recruitment sequence even had some LOL moments. It was meant to be tongue in cheek and sometimes it almost made it but the Bond references were horribly laboured. Not the worst I've seen. Never saw the second one.
XXX was pretty trashy but it did have some good stunts. The recruitment sequence even had some LOL moments. It was meant to be tongue in cheek and sometimes it almost made it but the Bond references were horribly laboured. Not the worst I've seen. Never saw the second one.
One of the DVDs actually included a 'death of Xander Cage' mini-movie. To save you the time of watching it (unless you want to do so for comedy value), it's a colossal FUCK YOU! by the studio to Vin Diesel, featuring a body double whose face is never seen and whose only dialogue is a line dubbed from the first movie being literally blown to pieces in as cartoonishly graphic a manner as they could get away with.
Amusingly, it doesn't even match up with the second movie (despite I think featuring one of its minor villains) since it doesn't kill Cage in some exotic tropical location as said on screen, but rather in the famous warehouse district of Los Angeles.
Actually a 3rd Riddick is already on the way. Twohy was writing the script last I heard a few months ago.
Is that fairly new news? Due to F&F?
There was a time I really liked Vin Diesel and thought he'd be a must-see action star.
Then he made "The Pacifier" and a tore up my Vin Diesel poster and bedsheets, set them on fire, and gave up on the guy.
I really liked "XXX" and the first Fast and the Furious movie and figured this is what Vin is capable of that he'd pretty much be like the 00s' version of the 80s' Bruce Willis.
Then the fucking PACIFIER! Seriously, what was he and/or his agent thinking with THAT paticular career move?
Sure, Arnold Schwarzenegger had a degree of success with "Kindergarten Cop" but, ugh, that was after much more kick-assery.
(And, IMHO, the Riddick movies are only slightly entertaining but otherwise forgetable.)
The latest F&F movie was pretty good only because of his return teaming up with Paul Walker. I'd probably go see a XXX movie with Vin in it too.
Vin? Keep doing hard-core kick-assery action movie. Leave kiddie nonsense cutsey comedy movies to retired football and "professional" wrestling stars.
Then he made "The Pacifier" and a tore up my Vin Diesel poster and bedsheets, set them on fire, and gave up on the guy.
I really liked "XXX" and the first Fast and the Furious movie and figured this is what Vin is capable of that he'd pretty much be like the 00s' version of the 80s' Bruce Willis.
Then the fucking PACIFIER! Seriously, what was he and/or his agent thinking with THAT paticular career move?
Sure, Arnold Schwarzenegger had a degree of success with "Kindergarten Cop" but, ugh, that was after much more kick-assery.
(And, IMHO, the Riddick movies are only slightly entertaining but otherwise forgetable.)
The latest F&F movie was pretty good only because of his return teaming up with Paul Walker. I'd probably go see a XXX movie with Vin in it too.
Vin? Keep doing hard-core kick-assery action movie. Leave kiddie nonsense cutsey comedy movies to retired football and "professional" wrestling stars.
I wasn't too interested in seeing the second movie, but I did see it eventually and I enjoyed it. No Vin Diesel star power, but it was a good ride. As for pretending it didn't happen, I think that's a terrible idea. I hate the whole idea of ignoring previous installments in general. I don't see a problem with them coming up with some sort of "he didn't die" explanation.
I did a little search and found where I had read it.
Vin Diesel talked about it in an interview with Gamespot back in early March. The interview was about The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena game.
He said Twohy was actually finishing the script, not just writing it.
http://www.gamespot.com/news/blogs/...om_act=convert&om_clk=picks&tag=picks;title;1
Agreed. Personally the only time I have bought Vin Diesel as an actor is as Riddick. All his other movies I found his acting teeth bearingly bad. I would much rather see Riddick return than as xXx which is in my top 10 worst movies list.
Some stars make really bad job decisions early in their career. Others think that one or two hit movies will propel them to stardom, but actually doesn't. Vin Diesel is the victim of both those factors. He was a rising star in the action films genre but failed to make it because the audience of today do not find action movies to be that enjoyable.
The 80's and early 90's had great stars - Schwarzenegger, Willis, Stallone and their likes - most audiences loved those kind of action. The movies had some solo hero taking on a gang or even an entire army and live to get the token babe at the end. Today the only 'action' is found in science fiction movies, that's about it. Some movies make it for nostalgia factors such as Die Hard or Rambo, but otherwise the audience today is either too watered or get their fill of action from video games.
And who's to blame? Some video games have better action AND stories than many movies today. When the public gets their fill by being in the action rather than just watch it, why would they go and spend upwards of over 15 dollars to watch a movie? If you don't believe it just try playing up some Halo 2, Crysis and Gears of War. That's why Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson had to shift towards comedy action pieces even though he was being touted as the 'next Schwarzenegger'. The type of action Vin Diesel would go into has no audience anymore.
The 80's and early 90's had great stars - Schwarzenegger, Willis, Stallone and their likes - most audiences loved those kind of action. The movies had some solo hero taking on a gang or even an entire army and live to get the token babe at the end. Today the only 'action' is found in science fiction movies, that's about it. Some movies make it for nostalgia factors such as Die Hard or Rambo, but otherwise the audience today is either too watered or get their fill of action from video games.
And who's to blame? Some video games have better action AND stories than many movies today. When the public gets their fill by being in the action rather than just watch it, why would they go and spend upwards of over 15 dollars to watch a movie? If you don't believe it just try playing up some Halo 2, Crysis and Gears of War. That's why Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson had to shift towards comedy action pieces even though he was being touted as the 'next Schwarzenegger'. The type of action Vin Diesel would go into has no audience anymore.
That makes sense. It is tied into the April F&F release excitement around Vin and his character revivals he had mentioned.
I liked the first one. If you don't take them seriously and realize they don't take themselves seriously, it's actually not a bad movie. The second one was completely the opposite in tone. It felt like it was pissing all over itself and I was disappointed Ice Cube would be in that trash. I was disappointed Samuel L. Jackson was in it too but the man was in almost everything at that time.
edit: I just saw his "death" and wow, that was a big fuck you at Vin Diesel.
edit: I just saw his "death" and wow, that was a big fuck you at Vin Diesel.
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It seems like comic book movies have pretty much taken the place of more traditional action flicks. Personally, I consider most of the Marvel/DC adaptations to be action films. Bad ones, by and large.
I never could get into the 1st 'Fast & the Furious', mainly because 'Point Break' is a favourite of mine and it's hard to like a rather blatant rip off, even if they swapped gimmicks.
xXx...it was a little too lowest common denominator for my taste, but I can see it's appeal to those with a mental age of 14 and under.
As for Riddick. Well Pitch Black was a great little B-Movie, but Chronicles...well I can't really say since on the two separate occasions that I tried to watch it I fell asleep about half way through (seriously, no joke.) Though I suppose that says something in and of itself. On the other hand I really liked 'Butcher Bay' back when it came out on PC, in no small part due to Vin's performance. In fact if you look back over what I've just said at no point do I criticise the man's performances, because I honestly don't have a problem with them. The problems I do have appear to stem from the writing/directing end of the business, or in the case of Babylon AD, the studio.
Though I honestly (and without malice) couldn't care less about further instalments of F&F or xXx, I'd be interested to see more of Riddick, however I don't hold out much hope since part of what made Pitch Black (and Butcher Bay for that matter) work so well was the confined storytelling. A character like Riddick is just too shallow to really work on the large canvas that was 'Chronicles'. Like trying to spread one of those single serve packets of strawberry jam on a piece of toast the size of a football field.
xXx...it was a little too lowest common denominator for my taste, but I can see it's appeal to those with a mental age of 14 and under.
As for Riddick. Well Pitch Black was a great little B-Movie, but Chronicles...well I can't really say since on the two separate occasions that I tried to watch it I fell asleep about half way through (seriously, no joke.) Though I suppose that says something in and of itself. On the other hand I really liked 'Butcher Bay' back when it came out on PC, in no small part due to Vin's performance. In fact if you look back over what I've just said at no point do I criticise the man's performances, because I honestly don't have a problem with them. The problems I do have appear to stem from the writing/directing end of the business, or in the case of Babylon AD, the studio.
Though I honestly (and without malice) couldn't care less about further instalments of F&F or xXx, I'd be interested to see more of Riddick, however I don't hold out much hope since part of what made Pitch Black (and Butcher Bay for that matter) work so well was the confined storytelling. A character like Riddick is just too shallow to really work on the large canvas that was 'Chronicles'. Like trying to spread one of those single serve packets of strawberry jam on a piece of toast the size of a football field.
Here's a question: Which action star was more emasculated by their Disney kiddie movie? Vin Diesel in The Pacifier or the Rock in The Game Plan?
The action market is also a lot more glutted now than it was in the 1980s. Prior to the 1980s, I don't recall a whole lot of action movies around outside of the James Bond franchise. But now, current action movies have to compete not only against their contemporaries but against the DVDs of the great action films of years past. Why gamble on something new when Die Hard & The Terminator are just as good now as they were 20 years ago?
If it were Statham vs. Diesel, Statham would have to be the bad guy because he has a British accent.