XXX
REVIEWED 08/02, © STEPHEN BOURNE
www.ofrb.gov.on.ca | www.rcq.gouv.qc.ca


REVIEW:

Holy cripes. If you can imagine what would happen if a rebellious New York tough guy was indoctrinated in to the secretive and dangerous world of a powerful far-reaching corporate machine, you can probably figure out this character and the gyst of this astounding Summer blockbuster. Although, I'm not really talking about the archetypal anti-hero and extreme sports athelete Xander Cage, who's enlisted to flex his heavily tattooed street savvy and Herculean ego as a not-so inconspicuous mole for a clandestine U.S. intellegence agency. Doing that would likely just send me down the same uninteresting road of making lazy and shortsighted comparisons to James Bond and that handful of Connery stand-ins.

The corporate machine I'm citing is Hollywood. I'm referring to Vin Diesel, the Academy Award co-nominee who plays Cage in this high octaine-fuelled, two-fisted testosterone-drenched adventure. This is a rising star who will surprise most of his would-be critics - to the glee of yours truly. For instance, did you know that after devoting a good chunk of his early years to cutting his teeth in theatre, instead of relying on chance to further his career, he took the initiative and produced his own movies? One of which was accepted at Cannes. With this kind of ballsy attitude and relentless determination to the man himself, it's no wonder that what you see on the screen in this self-described 'new breed of secret agent' flick clicks so beautifully. Vin Diesel and Xander Cage truly do seem to be cut from the same untamed cloth. There is no comparison to the James Bond franchise. This romp is as fresh as the first low budget-looking 'Madd Max' or 'Terminator', and is as breakneck thrilling as the first 'Indiana Jones'.

Sure, at it's roots, 'XXX' is an unadulterated formulaic action vehicle of fast cars, big shiney weapons, and mildly groan-inducing dialogue. And yeah, there are holes in this feature's story. The wild contrivance that the N.S.A. would rely on a snarky loose cannon civilian and felon as it's last hope to foil a gang of disenfranchised ex-Soviet soldiers turned anarchists turned terrorists in Prague being the biggest hole. However, it doesn't really matter. It feels right. They pull it off. Where it counts, this film succeeds in suspending your jaded disbelief by rewarding you with a pyrotechnic rollercoaster ride of pulse-pounding stunts weaved in to an entertaining guns 'n' gadgets epic. One that I found to be relatively well-paced and impressively cranked to maximum overdrive.

home: http://www.moviequips.ca | index: http://www.moviequips.ca/#QUIPSOGRAPHY

X-Men 2
REVIEWED 05/03, © STEPHEN BOURNE
www.ofrb.gov.on.ca | www.rcq.gouv.qc.ca


REVIEW:

This X gets a check mark. Loosely based on the superhero comic book series originally created by Marvel Comics pioneers Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1969, and carrying on from the plotlines established in the first movie released in 2000, 'X-Men United' once again pits big brained telepath Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and his Upstate New York boarding school of mutants against formidably puny-minded foes (namely, the rest of us) who can't or won't sit still 'til these kids quit shooting laser beams from their eyeballs and screwing around with the weather. This time out, Military commander William Stryker (Brian Cox) easily manages to finagle a Black Ops-like invasion of Xavier's wooded sanctum shortly after the President of the United States (and pretty well all of his security agents) is attacked in the White House's Oval Office by a short, dark and strangely reptilian figure named 'Nightstalker' (Alan Cumming). Meanwhile, short-fused cigar-chomper and adamantium-clawed Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) continues pining for Famke Janssen's telekinetically marvelous Jean Grey (who wouldn't?) while loping through the Yukon mountains in search of clues to his murky past - which coincidentally lead him to Stryker's super secret Doctor Moreau-like laboratory and the main story surrounding Cerebro, Charles' powerful mutant-finding gizmotronic techno-doodad.

Okay, I'll admit it. This was a fun, action-packed flick. The X-Men were initially borne out of Malcolm X's rage against social injustice and blatant racism, and you can sense it and the undercurrent of resistance here. However, just as this franchise's first big screen offering got sidetracked by hokey fight scenes, 'X2' spreads itself too thinly in attempting to flesh out too many sub-plots featuring an ensemble of fascinating individuals, diminishing the full impact of its main story. As though you're expected to read thirty years' worth of comics to see how, for example, Cyclops actually isn't a rather lame excuse for a leader after-all. At any rate, I found that Cummings' heavily skin-branded (thanks to eight hours a day of post-shoot make up) ex-Munich Circus 'freak' who can teleport himself in the blink of an eye deservedly stole the show, whenever Jackman wasn't gnashing and slashing his way into the spotlight. If you're not a fan of this sort of fantasy adventure - where semi-mortal-looking people walk the Earth with demi-God-like powers and a straight face - you've likely already made up your mind to take a pass. However, if you do enjoy a spot of melodramatic yet hard-boiled whimsy to spark your imagination the next time you can't find the TV remote or wish you could stop time, this slightly complicated adventure is well worth checking out.

home: http://www.moviequips.ca | index: http://www.moviequips.ca/#QUIPSOGRAPHY

XXX 2
REVIEWED 05/05, © STEPHEN BOURNE
www.ofrb.gov.on.ca | www.rcq.gouv.qc.ca


REVIEW:

The secret Virginia headquarters of the National Security Agency has been breached, left bullet-riddled and soaked in the blood of sixteen dead operatives by a hooded platoon of heavily armed attackers. To grizzled Agency boss Augustus Gibbons (Samuel L. Jackson; 'Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones' (2002), 'Coach Carter' (2005)) - who narrowly escaped that daring raid - it looked like an act of homeland terrorism masterminded by someone close to James Sanford (Peter Strauss), the President of the United States of America. Possibly four-star General and Department of Defense Chief George Deckert (Willem Dafoe; 'Spider-Man' (2002), 'The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou' (2004)). But, why? Gibbons needs answers, fast. So, with gadget master Toby Shavers in tow, he goes off the grid and recruits court marshaled maximum security prisoner number three six five five, former Navy Seal Black Ops Lieutenant Darius Stone (Ice Cube; 'Anaconda' (1997), 'Barbershop 2: Back in Business' (2004)), to infiltrate his underground base and target any leads as the new, more dangerous Triple X. However, acting NSA commander Kyle Steele (Scott Speedman; 'Dark Blue' (2002), 'Underworld' (2003)) has an agenda of his own, given orders to bring in the elusive Gibbons on grounds of treason and to track down any members of Augustus' old military unit who might pose a threat. Deckert is also working behind the scenes, apparently amassing a coordinated effort to stop Gibbons at all costs before the President announces his new plan to use compassion and compromise instead of rockets and brute strength against the enemies of the US. That impending State of the Union address marks certain doom to Deckert and his warmongering cronies. The clock is ticking, and Stone is quickly running of time, finding himself on his own, framed for murder, and in the sights of police snipers and trigger happy agents led by Steel. It's a brutal world of deadly options that just got a whole lot more explosive with Darius back in town...

Well, this much anticipated sequel to 'xXx' (2002) is certainly packed with high velocity gun play, pulse pounding action, and enough cars and boats and people being tossed around by things being blowed up real good for an eager paying audience to easily get caught up in. Director Lee Tamahori ('Mulholland Falls' (1996), 'Die Another Day' (2002)) pulls out all the stops to deliver a rollicking roller coaster ride of whiplash adventure and mayhem throughout, even though there's really not too much to writer Simon Kinberg's screenplay that gives reasons for this new Triple X to be recruited in the first place. Sure, this one's clearly a noisy, live action cartoon vehicle for Ice Cube to basically relive his enjoyably snarly character from 'Torque' (2004) in the wake of original 'xXx' actor Vin Diesel opting out for whatever reasons - uh, I mean, because we're told that the NSA's former James Bond-like operative Xander Cage was killed on assignment in Bora Bora (yeah, right) - but, this talent wasting wonder seems to really be all about the studio's pyrotechnic department needing to write off most of its flashy, ear splitting inventory before tax time. The cast is merely more prop material. A sponge mop could have starred here, frankly. It still would have been just as much fun in a switch your brain off and kill some time at the matinee kind of way. Much like the first one, 'xXx: State of the Union' (its international title) is just as ridiculously enjoyable on that level and well worth the price of admission at the big screen. Sometimes you just want to see extremely cool special effects unburdened by such boring stuff as story or character development, right? This hundred and one-minuter doesn't even try to make sense, but definitely delivers the eye candy. Check out this adrenaline charged confection as the furiously guilty pleasure that it's meant to be taken as, and you're bound to have a great time. Good stuff.

home: http://www.moviequips.ca | index: http://www.moviequips.ca/#QUIPSOGRAPHY

X-Men 3
REVIEWED 05/06, © STEPHEN BOURNE
www.ofrb.gov.on.ca | www.rcq.gouv.qc.ca


REVIEW:

Essentially picking up where 'X-Men 2' (2003) ended, director Brett Ratner ('Rush Hour' (1998), 'After the Sunset' (2004)) takes the helm of what appears to be the final cinematic chapter of Professor Charles Xavier's (Patrick Stewart; 'Dune' (1984), 'Star Trek: Nemesis' (2002)) secluded New York State School for Gifted Youngsters, when battle lines are drawn between the disenfranchised mutant army of aged Eric "Magneto" Lensherr (Ian McKellen; 'Six Degrees of Separation' (1993), 'The Da Vinci Code' (2006)) in readiness to ravage and rule the world as humanity's evolutionary superior race, and Xavier's band of super heroes - including Wolverine (Hugh Jackman; 'Swordfish' (2001), 'Van Helsing' (2004)), Storm (Halle Berry; 'Boomerang' (1992), 'Catwoman' (2004)), Rogue (Anna Paquin; 'The Piano (1993), 'The Squid and the Whale' (2005)), Iceman (Shawn Ashmore; 'Underclassman' (2005), '3 Needles' (2005)) and Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page; 'Hard Candy' (2005)) - who wrestle with the advent of a government endorsed anti-body developed to "cure" the unique genetic mutations that make them different than the rest of Mankind.

This is such a great-looking flick from beginning to closing credits that I hated feeling somewhat ripped off by co-writers Simon Kinberg and Zak Penn's screenplay throughout. Sure, it's a comic book movie based on one of Marvel Comics' most successful decades-old series that's full of wonderfully weird characters wearing wonderfully weird costumes, and that apparently takes great pride in nudging at your ability to suspend disbelief that what you're watching is actually happening in front of you. The superior CGI wizardry is absolutely amazing, and much of the ear-splitting pyrotechnics truly are astounding here. However, the original 'X-Men' (2000) was one of Hollywood's first graphic novel adaptations to purposely flesh out these characters from a dramatic standpoint in order to make them seem more realistic than their mighty, big screen predecessors adorned in bright spandex and shiny super powers. Once the smoke clears, 'X-Men: The Last Stand' (its official title) forgets that, opting for heaps of superficial brooding from an otherwise capable cast that does little more than exercise their eye brows in the hopes that a paying audience will remember all of the actual character development done in the first two movies, probably watched as pre-screening refreshers before sitting through this one. It's pretty well expected that you at least see 'X-Men 2' again, in order to know what's going on in the peripheral story regarding Jean Grey's (Famke Janssen; 'GoldenEye' (1995), 'Hide and Seek' (2005)) miraculous resurfacing here, because nobody bothers to remind you what she's doing in that lake (for instance) or why Wolverine and Cyclops (James Marsden; 'The Notebook' (2004), 'Superman Returns' (2006)) are both so upset about her. All the same, it doesn't really matter in the final cut if you don't care about those specifics. She's a different character this time out - although, the circumstances revolving around that are left aggravatingly vague as a wealth of missed opportunities to give Janssen something interesting to do that's unaided by special effects. Xavier shrugs an explanation, instead of you being given a potentially intriguing scene that actually should have been included. That's how this picture fails. It goes for the obvious and easiest take until the post-production artists pour in the cool visuals, instead of letting these actors surprise you with what they're capable of bringing to the set. Everything about this feature apparently has more to do with your over-imaginative inner child living vicariously through these mutants' oftentimes wild abilities, rather than you actually being entertained by a thoughtfully crafted script that maturely echoes the comic book's basic theme of facing and fighting intolerance. The ethical issue of a cure is raised, but then they just go fight some bad guys instead. It's for diehard fans who just want to have fun seeing a blue and furry, live action depiction of Dr. Hank "Beast" McCoy (Kelsey Grammer; 'Toy Story 2' (1999), 'The Big Empty' (2003)) in the absence of the second sequel's Nightstalker character, not particularly for moviegoers who value insightful portrayals of captivating motivations complicated by subtle emotional betrayals. Stuff blows up real good, and there's a lot of fleeing and bravado, before more stuff goes kablooie. Kinda like in the comics.

Switch off above the neck and 'X-Men 3' is definitely an intensely fun guilty pleasure of eye-popping mayhem and carnage, but it's an easily forgettable and talent-wasting disappointment underneath for the most part.

home: http://www.moviequips.ca | index: http://www.moviequips.ca/#QUIPSOGRAPHY