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XXX 2 - The Next Level [2005]


RRP: £19.99
Our Price: £1.85 (subject to change)

Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review

With a core audience of gameboys and hot-rodders aged 25 and under, xXx 2 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 2 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, Amazon.com


Standard action fare.
Review date: 2008-07-13 Rating: 6 out of 10

Sequel to xXx in which head of the NSA (National Security Agency) Samuel L. Jackson hires former and now incarcerated Navy Seal Ice Cube to be the next secret agent xXx (triple X) whose assignment is to foil a plot to assassinate the US president in a military coup d'état engineered from inside the US government. Ice Cube is efficient in the role played by Vin Diesel in the first xXx film and the action and fight sequences are good but this is standard action fare and you will have to suspend your disbelief at times.

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Reviews


Really poor
Review date: 2008-06-20 Rating: 4 out of 10

This is a bad film. Avoid it unless you intend to doze. It has a couple of good setpieces but you may still find yourself tuning out.

awful sequel to an awful original
Review date: 2008-06-07 Rating: 2 out of 10

and heres another noisey badly shot,badly written,badly acted mess and life is too short to waste time on this drivel

The 1st was good this was terrible
Review date: 2008-01-03 Rating: 2 out of 10

I bought this thinking this should be good with Ice Cube been in it turns out i was wrong it was boring the story just lost me as i lost interest. The effects are pretty bad as you can tell how fake they actually look

Like Boiling Hot Vomit
Review date: 2007-06-25 Rating: 2 out of 10

2002's "xXx" barely had a brain cell to brag about and couldn't quite escape the levels of ineptitude on hand with its excellent action set pieces. Enter 2005's ill-advised sequel "xXx 2: The Next Level", a pointless sequel that multiplies the clinical ineptitude of the first offering and in turn makes "xXx" look like the height of action ingenuity. If "xXx 2: The Next Level" is to be remembered for anything, and it won't be, it is for being another failed attempt by talentless rapper turned talentless actor Ice Cube to escape the clutches of family-oriented comedies. Thank God for small favours then, as it would seem Ice Cube isn't likely to crap all over the action genre for the time being. Naturally in a motion picture this downright terrible, nobody else involved escapes unscathed and each in turn now have a black mark on their resumes.

With Vin Diesel's first xXx agent behind him, Agent Augustus Gibbons (Samuel L. Jackson) wastes little time in locating his replacement. The new xXx in question is tough guy Darius Stone (Ice Cube), a man now charged with the task of defusing a power struggle raging amongst national leaders. Of course, this all serves to provide numerous action set pieces as Darius faces all kinds of danger in his first mission.

Ice Cube's acting career has yet to boast a single admirable motion picture. At least, not one in which he has featured heavily. As new xXx agent Darius Stone, Ice Cube is predictably awful, furrowing his brow as his only way of displaying some sort of disdain and donning his annoying little grin whenever things seem to be going his character's way. As Agent Augustus Gibbons, Samuel L. Jackson has absolutely no excuse to get involved with such awful movies as this uninspired sequel. One can only hope that his late promise of another xXx doesn't come to fruition. Also wasting his time is Willem Dafoe, not caring to inject any humanity into his one-dimensional Gen. George Octavius Deckert. Who can blame him when screenwriter Simon Kinberg couldn't be bothered either?

Directed with the ambition of a sheep by Lee Tamahori, "xXx 2: The Next Level" defies belief in being one of the most god-awful action flicks that you'll ever be unfortunate enough to witness. In a genre littered with downright detestable motion pictures, "xXx 2: The Next Level" somehow manages to surpass the vast majority of such attempts and carve itself an infamous position down in the doldrums of cinematic ineptness. Even a late action set-piece involving a runaway train is uninspired and dull. Overloaded with monologue speeches after another when it should be maintaining a breakneck pace, this scene surprisingly ranks amongst the worst of the entire motion picture. That it is part of the climax is even more disgraceful.

I could elaborate on my many quibbles with this retched piece of trash, but I'd rather not waste memory space on such a terrible film. "xXx 2: The Next Level" comes in a 21st century that has thus far seen dozens of cinematic catastrophes. Worse still is the fact that it ranks amongst the worst of those dozens. More putrid and disgusting than boiling vomit.

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Peter Strauss
Ice Cube
Willem Dafoe
Scott Speedman
Samuel L. Jackson

Creators:
Ice Cube (Primary Contributor)
Samuel L. Jackson (Primary Contributor)
Arne Schmidt (Producer)
Derek Dauchy (Producer)
Neal H. Moritz (Producer)
Rob Cohen (Producer)
Todd Garner (Producer)
Rich Wilkes (Writer)
Simon Kinberg (Writer)

Director(s):

Recording label: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
EAN: 5035822787032
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: Anamorphic, Dubbed, PAL,
Release date: 2005-08-29
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Audience rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 97 minutes
Theatrical release date: 2005-04-28
Language: Arabic (Subtitled)
Language: Bulgarian (Subtitled)
Language: Czech (Subtitled)
Language: English (Subtitled)
Language: Hindi (Subtitled)
Language: Hungarian (Subtitled)
Language: Icelandic (Subtitled)
Language: Romanian (Subtitled)
Language: Turkish (Subtitled)
Language: English (Original Language)
Language: Hungarian (Dubbed)

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