XXX: Return of Xander Cage will definitely be one of those bad movies you love to watch and love to hate.
XXX: Return of Xander Cage has everything you’d want from a cheesy action-packed spy movie: womanizing, extended shoot outs scenes, horrible one-liners and a somewhat delusional macho lead. The film has very little plot moving it forward accompanied with multiple fighting scenes and stunts that seem unnecessary most of the time. From intro to ending Xander can’t seem to get the ladies off of him. Without giving away any spoilers pertinent to the film, there is one scene where Xander manages to bed more than 10 women in one night. While Vin Diesel looks amazing for someone pushing 50, in no world could I imagine him having such a potent effect on anyone, especially women half his age. In this sequel Xander aids the government in retrieving a deathly satellite controlling gadget called “Pandora’s Box,” which underwhelmingly looks like a bulky PS2. Along the way Xander assembles a rag-tag team of misfits, none of whom have real strengths except for Ruby Rose’s character, Adele Wolff who never misses a target.
While the film was all these things, it was so much more. The dialogue was so stilted and the delivery was so off that there was an underlying element of satire that I must admit made it amusing to watch. Trying to appeal to international box offices might actually work for Xander Cage. The cast was refreshingly diverse for Hollywood and included international stars such as Bollywood’s Deepika Padukone playing the main female lead, Chinese superstar Donnie Yen, Kpop star turned actor Kris Wu and Thailand’s Tony Jaa. The film also starred Nina Dobrev, Toni Collette, Samuel L. Jackson and Ice Cube. Spoiler Alert: When Ice Cube shows up and saves the day, it was one of the coolest plot twists I’ve seen in a while.