Columbia Pictures presents a film directed by Rob Cohen. Written by Rich Wilkes. Running time: 111 minutes. Rated PG-13 (for violence, nonstop action sequences, sensuality, drug content and language).
Critics, by and large, critics don't think much of XXX, the movie, but they generally believe that Vin Diesel has snared the X-factor in spades as a movie star. Diesel is a natural, Joel Siegel commented on ABC's Good Morning America. Tough and tender, smarter than you think, as believable as any actor could be doing the things he's asked to do. Stephen Hunter in the Washington Post writes that Diesel is the film, and watching him -- he's got a big cat's athletic moves, a New Yorker's smart-guy attitude and all them scuzzy 'toos -- is a lot more fun than staying with the ever-feebler Pierce Brosnan in his decrepit adventures in the James Bond movies. Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times makes a more benign comparison. XXX is as good as a good Bond movie, and that's saying something, he writes. And Vanessa Sibbald in the Los Angeles Daily News writes that Diesel has become the James Bond for the 21st century ... 007 taken to the X-treme. Elvis Mitchell in the New York Times gives this description of the actor: With a voice that sounds like gravel and biceps almost as big as his self-regard, Mr. Diesel bestrides the screen like a giant. He's all charisma and disaffection. And he manages to deliver every single line as if he didn't care, a combination of DMX and Humphrey Bogart.