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XXX: State of the Union is a rip-roaringly funny action flick. That may not be what the producers, director, writer and stars intended, but that's what's up there on the screen.
Even the action sequences are laughable especially anything that happens in the final 30 minutes.
State of the Union is the sequel to Vin Diesel's XXX, which grossed $277 million US worldwide in 2002 explaining why this one exists.
Diesel pulled out as covert American agent Xander Cage, so the franchise was restructured to bring in a new agent in the person of Darius Stone (Ice Cube).
Stone, so the new story goes, used to serve under Augustus Gibbons (Samuel L. Jackson), Cage's boss, but is languishing in a military prison.
Stone and Gibbons have to put their mutual hate aside when the life of President Sanford (Peter Strauss) is threatened by none other than George Deckert (Willem Dafoe), his secretary of defence.
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So far so good.
The attack on Gibbons's secret intelligence bunker and Stone's escape from prison are pure James Bond and for good reason. New Zealand filmmaker Lee Tamahori directed the last Bond outing, Die Another Day.
These initial action sequences are exciting and the plot doesn't seem all that much more preposterous than most action flicks, but it's clear very quickly that Ice Cube is not the man for the job.
He doesn't look like a suave action hero and screenwriter Simon Kinberg saddles him with a joke that's silly.
Stone prefers burgers and shakes to sex and martinis.
His old buxom chop-shop queen Lola (Nona M. Gaye) keeps propositioning him, but Stone either doesn't have the time or lacks the inclination.
By this point in his career, Dafoe can play villains in his sleep -- which he seems to be doing this time around. Instead of chewing up the scenery, Dafoe sleepwalks through Deckert's villainy.
When Stone learns that Deckert is putting together an arsenal of weapons on an aircraft carrier, he rushes to destroy it and destroy he does.
Stone commandeers a tank and merrily smashes planes, tanks and armored cars.
Tanks are not exactly the most agile machines, but Stone manages to zip it around the aircraft carrier as if it's a skateboard.
Not dumb enough yet?
Just wait until he needs to stop Deckert from assassinating the president by getting past the most elite soldiers in the American army.
Of course, he drops in old pal Zeke (rapper Xzibit) and his army of homeboys, who run the local Washington, D.C., underground chop shop.
Hey, Zeke knows all the back alleys, so the boys and Stone can sneak their Hummers past the soldiers.
To its credit, State of the Union is so loud and so saturated with action that no one is going to fall asleep for the 100 minutes it takes Stone and his friends to kick butt and save America.
(This film is rated PG)