Star: Asia Argento

It’s no wonder this movie spawned into a trilogy (2002, 2005, 2017) which unravelled adjacently alongside the Riddick trilogy (2000, 2004, 2013). Although not perfect – although having slight downsides – this is actually a decent action movie pretty much from start to finish. It’s like a cross between James Bond and Rush Hour, in genre, since it’s got that secret agent touring the world element to it, but it’s also got a bit of a cheesy slapstick gangster element to it.

Vin Diesel holds this movie down almost singlehandedly. There are some decent supporting cast members including Samuel L Jackson (Vin Diesel’s boss), and the lead female (Asia Argento as Yelena), as well as Marton Csokas (chief muscle of the baddies from The Equalizer) as the main baddie here. But Vin Diesel is by far the main focus of the show in this movie – a role he handles very well.

Although early there is slight promotion of being dismissive of those criticising violence in video games and movies, and later on there is a bit of a bioweapons fearmongering theme, this is still relatively mild conditioning compared to what we get in most mid-budget Hollywood action movies these days. Considering this, and its successful execution of a simple concept, I would say this movie is about equal to Bloodshot – a more modern movie by Vin Diesel which has a more fascinating concept but darker undertones. I put it on a par with the best James Bond movie (Living Daylights) since that’s a bit slow & dated but a richer and more intense classic so it kind of balances out with the faster, smoother, high budget, lighter weight, more modern movie that is XXX. As such, it gets a rating of Decent.