Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Guilty Pleasures: xXx


xXx was released in theaters in August of 2002, which was the beginning of my senior year in high school. I watched in the local dollar theater with my family and some friends, if memory serves, and I sorta fell in love right away. It's not particularly good, and it's PG-13 which means it's not really violent or dirty enough to be as violent and dirty as it pretends to be.

The movie has a pretty thin premise, and so it hands out action scenes like candy at Halloween. It's actually my favorite thing about the film- it knows it's not good so it makes sure there are plenty of explosions. The action scenes are deliberately gratuitous, as are most of the scenes featuring any woman who isn't Asia Argento.

She shows surprisingly little flesh, actually.

It's a film that features style over substance, and if you don't dig the style then it's just not going to be a film for you. It was a perfect storm for me, I'd discovered Rammstein before the film, and thought it an awesome coincidence that they showed up at the beginning. I later learned that I probably wouldn't have heard of Rammstein if Feuer Frei! hadn't been released as a single due to being on the xXx soundtrack, but it seemed coincidental at the time. It's just kinda dumb and fun for me, something I enjoy because all it's trying to do is be dumb and have fun.


I really like almost all of the music in the movie.

According to IMDB as well as other things I've read around the net, there will be a xXx sequel that once again stars Vin Diesel, which I am looking forward to. I liked Vin Diesel in this one and I've liked him in a couple of other things. I avoided (wisely, I'm told) the Pacifier, but I like watching him blow shit up and kill people.

Among other things.

It's not something I'll argue has a whole lot of merit, and I admit it's not for everyone. I know plenty of people who don't like it, but it's a film I sit down and watch every few months, just because. There's an unrated director's cut that I don't believe I've seen, but it is my intention to own it at some point.



 
 

If you have any guilty pleasure movies, tell me about them in the comments. It's the sort of thing I love discussing, and I'm always out to find new ones.