xXx: State of the Union (2005)

Regisseur:

Lee Tamahori

Drehbuchautoren (WGA):

Rich Wilkes (characters)
Simon Kinberg (written by)

Premierendatum:

29. April 2005 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Krimi | Abenteuer | Thriller

Werbezeile:

Prepare for the next level

Plot:

Darius Stone, a new agent in the XXX program, is sent to Washington, DC to defuse a power struggle amongst national leaders.

Plot Keywords:

Violence | Shot In The Back | Faked Death | Box Office Flop | Car Chase

Filmpreise:

1 nomination

Nutzerkommentare:

Much funnier than "Johnny English" - too bad it's not supposed to be a comedy.

Besetzung

Ice Cube	...	Darius Stone / XXX
Samuel L. Jackson	...	Agent Augustus Gibbons
Willem Dafoe	...	General George Deckert
Scott Speedman	...	Agent Kyle Steele
Peter Strauss	...	President James Sanford
Xzibit	...	Zeke
Michael Roof	...	Agent Toby Lee Shavers
Sunny Mabrey	...	Charlie Mayweather
Nona Gaye	...	Lola Jackson
John G. Connolly	...	Lt. Alabama 'Bama' Cobb
Ramon De Ocampo	...	Agent Meadows
Barry Sigismondi	...	Bull
Michael Don Evans	...	Conductor
David Rountree	...	Agent
Ned Schmidtke	...	General Jack Pettibone

Alternativ:

xXx 2: The Next Level (Australia) (Hong Kong: English title) (International: English title) (Malaysia: English title) (UK)
xXx²: The Next Level (Singapore: English title) (UK)
Cold Circle & Intersection (Philippines: English title) (review title)
xXx Squared (USA) (working title)
xXx² (USA) (working title)
xXx²: State of the Union (USA) (working title)
xXx: The Next Level (Philippines: English title)
xXx 2 - The Next Level (Deutschland) [de]

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for sequences of intense action violence and some language.

Länge:

101 Min

Produktionsland:

USA

Sprache:

Englisch

Farbe:

Farbe

Seitenverhältnis:

2.35 : 1

Tonverfahren:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Altersfreigabe:

Brazil:14 | Taiwan:R-12 | South Korea:12 | Malaysia:U (cinema release) | Switzerland:16 (canton of Zurich) | Malaysia:U | France:U | Malaysia:18SG | Canada:14A | Malaysia:U (re-rating) | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:PG (British Columbia/Ontario) | Chile:14 | Finland:K-15 | Germany:12 | Hong Kong:IIA | Ireland:12A | Netherlands:12 | Norway:15 | Peru:14 | Philippines:PG-13 | Sweden:11 | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | UK:12A (cut) | USA:PG-13 | Singapore:PG (original rating) | Singapore:NC-16 (DVD rating)

Drehorte:

Alameda Naval Air Station, Alameda, California, USA

Firma:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Dies und das:

To build a so-called "stealth tank" for one of the sequences in the movie, the production designers took a used truck chassis, shortened it and placed a Freightliner diesel truck engine onto it. "Stealth" panels were then placed on top of it to give the tank its unique look. Tracks were taken from another piece of heavy equipment and fitted onto the "tank". Even a double barrel turret was constructed that could counter rotate.

Pannen:

Fehler, die von Charakteren gemacht werden (möglicherweise Absicht der Filmemacher): When Steele and Darius are discussing the presidential chain of command, Steele says, "President, VP, Speaker of the House, Secretary of State..." as the chain of command to leave the Secretary of Defense as President. That skips President pro tempore of the Senate (after Speaker of the House) and Secretary of the Treasury (after Secretary of State) so it would require six leaders be assassinated, not "just" four.

Dialogzitate:

[after he kills Charlie]
Agent Augustus Gibbons: I told you you shoulda killed that bitch!

Bezüge zu anderen Titeln:

Verweis/Anspielung/Erwähnung in "Goedemorgen Nederland: (2005-04-28)" (2005)

Soundtrack:

The March

Much funnier than "Johnny English" - too bad it's not supposed to be a comedy.

"xXx2: The Next Level" (Revolution Studios and Columbia Pictures changed the subtitle from "State of the Union" for international territories, for obvious reasons) comes from the director of "Die Another Day," which was terrible; producer Neal H. Moritz, whose last credited project was the dire (and thankfully now-cancelled) "Point Pleasant"; is a sequel to the dreadful "xXx"; and comes equipped with Samuel L. Jackson's stated dislike of making movies with rappers. On this showing, you can't blame him.

Trading in Vin Diesel (his character is written out by someone saying that he got killed in Bora Bora) for Ice Cube is no improvement; not only is he not the most expressive actor, but he's not that convincing in action (when he's being chased by Scott Speedman you just KNOW that Speedman would catch him like that (snaps fingers) in real life). In fairness to Mr. Cube, he's far from the only thing wrong with this; Simon Kinberg's screenplay seems not only to have been aimed at emotionally and intellectually stunted 13-year-olds but written by them as well, with the plot starting idiotically and continuing from there - the villainous Secretary of Defence played by Willem Dafoe is so pantomime villainous that when he makes a speech to Jackson you're surprised he doesn't laugh maniacally.

Suspending disbelief is one thing, but when you have a movie that expects people to believe that tanks can be handled like motorbikes... and which works in such daft plot turns as characters having their deaths faked just so they can be around for the climax (why not just kill them there?)... and that has a finale which depends on a car and a Presidential bullet train being able to fit on the same track despite the car being a compact if speedy sports car... in this case it's just impossible. Admittedly it doesn't help that said scenes are incompetently executed thanks to shockingly bad special effects and shoddy direction; some of the miniatures are glaringly obvious, and I particularly hope that lead effects house Industrial Light and Magic didn't do the CGI bullet train shots. And as for the way some of the shots go from film to what looks like video and back again...

The cast isn't much good either, although it's fun to see Peter Strauss as the President (in spite or because of his not sounding like he believes a word of this); Xzibit not only helps parts of this seem like "Pimp My Ride: The Movie" but he can't act, Dafoe is Special Guest Villain level, and Jackson phones it in. As for the female characters, Nona Gaye and Sunny Mabrey are pretty much defined by their cleavage and by the fact that one's good and the other (the one who looks like a cross between Nicolette Sheridan and Rachel Bilson) isn't. (The movie can't even be laddish properly; for some reason the sexiest woman in the movie (Masuimi Max, who plays Xzibit's girlfriend and who helps out with the robbery of the artillery-carrying cheese truck) isn't listed in the credits.) And the tiresome, crowbarred-in rap numbers don't help, certainly not compared to Marco Beltrami's score. (Ironically, at one point on hearing the female string quartet Bond our hero complains about the music; they are not to blame for the aural wrongs.)

"xXx2: Whatever" is so unexciting and so absurd that despite its stabs at relevance (our hero claims Dafoe is hatching "World War IV"), the only way to get through it is as a laugher; the sight of Ice Cube in a suit and tie (with umbrella!) is funnier than his intentional attempt at comedy later in the same scene. To make it worse, the last scene leaves the door wide open for a third movie... if it does happen, why not cast Scarlett Johansson or Charlotte Church as the new Triple X? It's not like realism is a key factor here.