xXx
Metascore
48 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 33 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 33
  2. Negative: 7 out of 33
  1. 88
    A threat to the Bond franchise? Not a threat so much as a salute. I don't want James Bond to turn crude and muscular on me; I like the suave style. But I like Xander, too, especially since he seems to have studied Bond so very carefully.
  2. Reviewed by: Nancy deWolf Smith
    80
    To top it all off, no matter where you sit in the theater, no matter how far you arch back in your seat, there's no escaping the sensation that all the action on the screen is taking place about three feet from your face. I loved it.
  3. 80
    Director Rob Cohen supplies plenty of gore, attitude, loud music, and extreme-sports action -- in particular, a thrilling aerial drop that's followed by a crushing avalanche.
  4. In terms of adrenaline, XXX is one of the most satisfying entries this summer.
  5. 75
    It's too ridiculous, too flatly acted, too action-packed, too, well, fun.
  6. 70
    Brash, chaotic and jostlingly entertaining.
  7. 70
    Diesel clearly has fun playing a character so bullish that his skin seems to be made of leather, and he's self-conscious enough to pull it off even after the film surrenders to formula.
  8. As junky as the movie is, you've gotta love its immersion in the preposterous and its naive hope that street credibility and attitude, along with a need for speed, are all that's really necessary in this big, bad world.
  9. 63
    As Diesel says, ''I like something fast enough to do something stupid in.'' Mission accomplished.
  10. In Hollywood, and perhaps beyond, there's nothing more predictable than a rebel with a cause. XXX pretends otherwise, but isn't really fooling anyone -- ultimately, this is a movie as generic as its title.
  11. Reviewed by: Robert Koehler
    60
    A brawny commercial attraction strategically tapping into the auds for extreme sports, spy pix, thrill rides, popcorn actioners and anyone looking to see Diesel kick butt, blow stuff up and/or take his shirt off.
  12. Doesn't hit a home run on every action sequence -- an early bit set in Colombia is too long and too disjointed -- but there are one or two bits in the movie's latter third that are guaranteed to hook action fans.
  13. Momentum, motivation and story are all swallowed by simple sensation, and the film finally exhausts itself for lack of stylistic imagination.
  14. Suit #3: But what will we call the sequel? Suit #1: "XXXX"? Suit #2: Brilliant!
  15. 50
    XXX may be a celebration of jock culture stupidity, but it's also guaranteed not to produce any ZZZ's.
  16. Pumped-up, dumbed-down Bond, with tattoos instead of brains.
  17. Less a movie than a collection of pretty cool action set-pieces, linked together with some seriously awful acting and dialogue that even Dr. Evil couldn't deliver with a straight face.
  18. 50
    For Vin Diesel, starring in XXX is a wonderfully smart career move. Too bad neither "wonderful" nor "smart" are applicable adjectives to describe this film.
  19. Can I admit XXX is as deep as a Petri dish and as well-characterized as a telephone book but still say it was a guilty pleasure? Because I have to confess, when special agent Xander Cage tossed two detonators onto a mountainside and outran the ensuing avalanche on a snowboard, I was digging the action.
  20. 50
    The film gives good action (amid more tired spy business) but comes riddled with contradictions.
  21. 50
    It's hard to hate a movie, even one this droolingly crass, that knows how to laugh at itself.
  22. Built of action-sport stunts, has adrenaline to spare. But, c'mon. Where is its sense of fun?
  23. 50
    Action fans will watch their adrenaline levels redline, and those not at ease with this climax-after-climax style will white knuckle their way through to the end.
  24. 40
    The irony is that for all its "not your father's spy movie" posing, it's exactly like the later James Bond pictures: predictable, lightweight and 100 percent disposable
  25. Reviewed by: Eric Campos
    40
    There's a lot of goofy spy game crap going on, peppered with lesser quality action sequences. Ugh. I'm just so depressed and disappointed right now. I need a shoulder to cry on.
  26. 40
    Honestly, at this point in time there's no legitimate reason to confuse “bad ass” filmmaking with just plain bad. Nice GTO, though.
  27. Reviewed by: Mike Clark
    38
    All you get here for paid admission is a long and terrific avalanche scene -- state of the art, no question. Then it's over and ready to melt away, much like memories of this movie.
  28. 38
    The movie's own style is strictly an anti-style, all pre-packaged post-punk.
  29. Diesel himself has the personality of a golem and a knack for dialogue delivery that suggests recent oral surgery.
  30. Essentially a dumb guy's day in Heaven. The movie's retrofitted with stunts, fights, explosions, drugs, babes and cars -- not necessarily in that order.
  31. 30
    In itself, XXX is not worth getting bothered about -- a half-dozen big pictures as bad as this one come out every year. At the very worst, it will kick off a pointless new movie franchise. [19 & 26 August 2002, p.174]
  32. The infuriating thing about XXX isn't that it delivers thrills and spills to moviegoers who don't know any better, but that its Hollywood hype reinforces the notion that brain-dead entertainment is what movies are all about.
  33. Even in the summertime, the most restless young audience deserves the dignity of an action hero motivated by something more than franchise possibilities. Movies like XXX -- a big 000 -- don't deserve our $$$.
User Score

Mixed or average reviews- based on 65 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 24 out of 40
  2. Negative: 13 out of 40
  1. JasonQ.
    7
    This was a nice action movie. Although it was not one of Vin Deseil's best movies.
  2. WillR
    0
    Vin Diesel belongs in videogames, not movies. I don't know how anyone could stand watching this putrid movie. Some of the worst acting I've ever seen, terrible plot, and offensively bad dialogue. Somebody would say that the movie isn't meant to be taken seriously. Neither are James Bond or Die Hard movies and I liked them a hell of a better than this garbage. Avoid this movie like the plague. The ending was an embarrassment to any action movie. Vin Diesel needs to make another Riddick game and drop his acting career. The Boiler Room was the best acting he's ever had and he didn't even play a significant role in that movie. He is convincing as the Riddick character, too bad the only thing the last Riddick movie had going for it was the fantastic Sci-Fi environment. I would give XXX a negative score if I could. Full Review »