Secret Agent to the xXx-treme
Diesel Makes Spy Game an X-Sport

The teaser posters for xXx set the tone, promising "a new breed of secret agent." They weren't kidding. This isn't Bond, Jack Ryan, or even Matt Damon's earlier foray into the genre this summer with Jason Bourne. Vin Diesel is a super spy for the X-sports generation. He's tough, cool, and completely American.

The beginning of xXx builds the background for a story that is hard to believe. The National Security Agency, having lost yet another field agent trying to infiltrate a Prague crime ring, brings in Agent Augustus Gibbons (played by the ultimate-in-cool Samuel L. Jackson). Gibbons has a new game plan he wants to try. Rather than waste another seasoned pro, he wants to try recruiting someone more "compatible" with the mission parameters. In short, he's looking for someone who is more criminal than stellar citizen.

Enter Xander Cage (Diesel), a man who promotes his own warped justice by punishing people whose politics differ from his own. Video taping these stunts for his Web site, Xander is both an outlaw and underground hero. In a HUGE violation of civil rights, the NSA kidnaps Xander and other so-called dregs of society and drop them into test scenarios to see how they handle the situations. The winner gets to play super spy for his country. Gibbons takes a shine to "Triple X" and offers the young man a chance to avoid Leavenworth by helping the NSA. So a reluctant spy is born.

Diesel is more than another Bond candidate, he's a poster-boy for extreme sports. In the course of the film, he embraces every sport from mountain climbing to motor biking, skateboarding, parachuting, and snowboarding. His physical feats are more exciting than the traditional spy gadgets, but he has the toys too. Outfitted with enough weapons and communications gear to make any secret agent salivate, Triple X may seem like a traditional spy, but this guy wears tattoos not a tuxedo. The hook for xXx is in "doing the Dew" (if you know what I mean).

Of course, what would a spy be without a beautiful femme fatale? To increase Diesel's sexual tension, there is the lovely Asia Argento playing Yelena, a member of the Anarchy 99 faction that Triple X has been ordered to infiltrate. Argento heats up the screen merely by being in view of the camera lens. Her act slips between innocence and temptation, but she always looks capable of turning men into pudding.

While the dialogue in xXx tries a little too hard to be hip at times, most of the coolness seems genuine. Diesel tries hard to be the aloof "I'm too cool for this" kind of stud, but when he starts playing with binoculars with "Penetrate-o-vision" he looks like a kid new bike. That's part of his appeal. Triple X isn't a veteran Cold War spy. He's a man of the 21st century who is still new to the whole global politics scene. That makes him innovate, unpredictable, and someone you want on your side.

There's no doubt that xXx has room to grow. Rumor on the Net says that a sequel is already in the works. No surprise there. Putting Vin Diesel in an action movie is the closest thing Hollywood has to a sure thing these days. Bond may live forever, but Triple X lives for now.

MY RATING: 7 out of 10.

RATED:
RUN TIME: 110 min.