When the third movie from the xXx franchise premiered in cinemas worldwide six years ago, it was a smashing hit. The movie written by F. Scott Frazier and directed by D.J. Caruso brought Vin Diesel back to the franchise along with a neverending stream of explosive action shots.
Where can you watch xXx: Return of Xander Cage in the UAE?
xXx: Return of Xander Cage is now streaming on Netflix in the UAE. If you don’t have one, you can create a Netflix account to watch this movie and other shows on Netflix. Unfortunately, Netflix does not offer any free trials in the Middle East, so you’ll have to subscribe for at least one month.
xXx: Return of Xander Cage Review
THE GOOD
+ Hilarious one-liners
+ Fun action shots
+ Samuel L. Jackson, Vin Diesel, Donnie Yen,
and Toni Collete
THE BAD
– Awful dialogue and plot
– No character development
The film starts with Samuel L. Jackson’s character, Augustus Gibbons, trying to recruit a skilled football player to his top-secret Triple X program. Unfortunately, Gibbons doesn’t get to finish his exciting speech before a satellite falls from orbit and apparently kills him. Everything about the opening scene is hilarious, and Jackson proves he’s one of the best actors of his generation. It’s a shame his character had to be killed off so early.
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Behind the attack on Gibbons was a device known as Pandora’s box that has the power to hack into any electronic device.
As CIA lead Jane Marke tries to figure out who was behind Gibbons’s assassination, her super-secret meeting is crashed by a group of highly skilled agents, including Talon (Tony), Serena ( Deepika Padukone), and Hawk (Michael Bisping), led by Xiang (Donnie Yen).
Because the unknown group managed to steal Pandora’s Box from Jane, she seeks out the presumed dead Xander Cage (Diesel) for help.
Very much alive, Xander has been hiding in the Dominican Republic, where the most action he gets involves skying in the summer, stealing television signals from the satellite company, and sleeping with beautiful local women. At first, he’s hesitant to return to working for the U.S. government, but the news of Gibbons’s death shakes him into agreeing.
Xander does ask to work with his chosen team, however, consisting of fun-to-around DJ Nicks (Kris Wu), car crash enthusiast Tennyson (Rory McCann), and sharpshooter Adele (Ruby Rose). To everyone’s surprise, when Xander does manage to catch up with the group that stole Pandora’s Box, he learns there’s more to them (and the device) than initially thought.
Action escapism at its finest
xXx: Return of Xander Cage is a high-octane action extravaganza reminiscent of everything that made the 2002 original successful. The plot, character development, and performances come second to the explosions and fight scenes. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
For what it is, this movie offers escapism entertainment at its finest. This isn’t the type of film that takes itself too seriously. There are some genuinely funny scenes, and while the one-liners can get old, they are expected in a Tripple X movie.
Vin Diesel is in top form as Xander Cage, he was dearly missed in the first sequel. Watching a constant stream of gorgeous models throwing themselves at the main character would be a bit much for most movies. But with this one, the silly aspect of it works well.
Tony Collete is always a joy to watch on screen, she has a way of stealing every scene she’s in. And the rest of the cast, including Nina Dobrev as the geeky IT specialist with a crush on Cage, Becky, do a good enough job with the script they’re given.
Overall, xXx: Return of Xander Cage is exactly the type of film you expect it to be. The dialogue doesn’t always make sense, but the one-liners are on point. The plot isn’t the most elevated, but the action scenes are a lot of fun.
What are other critics saying about xXx: Return of Xander Cage?
Chris Stuckmann enjoyed the action scenes but wasn’t too keen on the characters.
Sucharita Tyagi, for the channel Film Companion, described the movie as “The Suicide Squad without the cool superpowers.” She did enjoy Donnie Yen’s performance and the opening scenes but wasn’t impressed with the movie overall.
GoodBadFlicks felt the film was “so absurd” that he enjoyed it.
