XXX: State of the Union

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

This is a B movie rooted in gut-level stirrings of power and retaliation.

LA Weekly Chuck Wilson

What's fun is that the road to that climactic Capitol showdown is paved with one ridiculous and relentlessly edited set piece after another.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

A smooth blend of visual special effects, exceptional stunts, fluid photography, sharp design and a possible best-selling soundtrack.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

Opens explosively and never lets up.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

There are really only two kinds of big-budget action movies: stupid, and good and stupid. Surprisingly, XXX: State of the Union is good and stupid, which makes it an immediate improvement over 2002's meatheaded "XXX."

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Theater of the absurd, masquerading as an action thriller.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

Thankfully, State Of The Union's pulpy, adrenalized blaxploitation spin on the secret-agent genre provides the dumb fun its predecessor should have dished out.

USA Today Mike Clark

At least this movie seems more aware of its trashiness than "National Treasure" was. It's therefore freer to have some off-the-cuff fun the way Steven Seagal's more tolerable vehicles once did.

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

Hilariously, gut-bustingly, mind-blowingly, jaw-droppingly stupid.

Dallas Observer Jonathan Kiefer

Director Lee Tamahori (Die Another Day) has a shruggingly action-intensive style, which feels at once heavy-handed and lazy.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

A big, loud, proudly brainless popcorn flick that blows up cars, trucks, tanks, boats, helicopters and even a train.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

This is a movie about guns blazing, men punching, speedometers straining and explosions exploding. On all those levels, it succeeds just fine - which makes for a great amusement-park ride, but perhaps not much of a movie.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Most of the movie is standard action fare, but the political commentary is interesting when it's allowed to surface.

Variety Robert Koehler

You'd half expect the Xbox logo to pop up on the credit roll for XXX: State of the Union, since what's on view is closer to a videogame than a movie. While that will be music to the ears of young gamers, it's noise to anyone hoping for a coherent action movie.

Miami Herald Peter Debruge

Basically the first movie all over again, with plenty more of the bridge-jumping, rocket-launching action that audiences loved about the original.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Of course the movie's real raison d'etre is watching Ice Cube tear up government facilities and blockades with a tank, spout Schwarzenegger-style kiss-off lines, and commandeer the kind of babes and high-tech cars that James Bond usually plays with.

TV Guide Ken Fox

It's even louder and dumber than the first XXX, but if watching things fall down and go boom in a very big way makes you cheer, you're in luck.

Film Threat Clint Morris

Thankfully, there's the relatively-charismatic and cheeky Ice Cube hogging the lens.

Village Voice Peter L'Official

The winking title X Cubed somehow eluded the makers of this sequel, along with plot coherency, character development, or clever explosions of genre convention.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

What isn't scary--or exciting, amusing or fun--is XXX: State of the Union, a movie so preposterous, cliché-packed and over the top that it makes the original "XXX" seem as good as the original "State of the Union."

ReelViews James Berardinelli

One can give Ice Cube props for attitude, but not much more.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

The special effects excite at first but wear out their welcome.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

Loud, dumb and obnoxious.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

10 times too much, a nonstop orgy of bullets, bombs, and booty that aims low and hits the bull’s-eye with enough firepower to sink the Bismarck.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

The most gratifying thing about xXx: State of the Union is that nobody wastes much time on character, motivation, plausibility, dialogue or sex -- all that slow stuff that drags down ordinary movies.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Has to be one of the most absurd of all big-budget action movies, and that's saying something. It's just a blink away from over-the-top self-parody, and I'm pretty sure it's not trying to be.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Critics are inclined to describe the action in films like "XXX" and Lee Tamahori's sequel, XXX: State of the Union, as "cartoon violence." I'll resist doing that out of respect for cartoons.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

The makers of State of the Union subscribe to the Jerry Bruckheimer big-bang theory of action (big, bigger, biggest), but they don't share that maestro's attention to detail, or apparently his deep pockets. The state of this cinematic union is shabby indeed.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

So primitive, it must have been written in lizard blood on animal skin.

Philadelphia Inquirer David Hiltbrand

Appalling sequel.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

How bad does it get? How far past the basement can one elevator go?