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XXX: Return of Xander Cage

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A scene in XXX: Return of Xander Cage. (NuMetro)
A scene in XXX: Return of Xander Cage. (NuMetro)

What it's about:

Extreme-athlete-turned-government-operative Xander Cage comes out of a self-imposed exile and finds himself on a collision course with deadly alpha warrior Xiang and Xiang’s team – in a race to recover a sinister and a seemingly unstoppable weapon known as Pandora’s Box. Recruiting an all-new group of thrill-seeking cohorts, Xander finds himself enmeshed in a deadly conspiracy that points to collusion at the highest levels of world governments.

What we thought:

The whole film is filled with mindless, beyond unrealistic, video game type special effects, dull acting and no screenplay or proper story. Is this really what a money hungry Hollywood has come to?

Deepika Padukone (Serena Unger) feels completely out of place and just looks awkward for most of the screen time and it was as if the rest of the cast was only placed there to please producers "Shanghai Movies". It is quite clear that director D.J. Caruso spend most of the budget on special effects instead of compiling a decent screenplay and cast. 

Quite simply there isn’t much to watch in this film. It’s the same thing you’ve must have seen a hundred times before in other action films by now and there is definitely nothing special or any substance to this one. One of the things that irritated me the most is the actors reading their cheesy one-liners like robots off a teleprompter. Even the action scenes that were meant to make the film exciting seem boring and cartoonish, with fighting scenes just overlaid with loud electronic rave music. There is also no big climax to the film and after a lot of predictable fighting scenes the film just comes to an end. 

The best action scene seemed like a combination between the famous scene from The Matrix and a classic James Bond fighting scene, with no creativity from the filmmaker’s side. 

The film is edited in a very frantic and chaotic manner, almost as if you are watching a very long trailer of the film. This was probably done to make up for the poor acting and dialogue and to keep the viewer’s attention.

Actress Deepika Padukone is given a distinct South Indian accent even though she sounds nothing like this in real life or that it contributes to the story. Yet another out-of-place element that makes the film even more ridiculous. It’s cases like this where the actor/actress gets the blame for her bad acting where in actual fact it is the director’s fault. A pretty face indeed and a shame that this was probably the only reason director D.J. Caruso casted her.

The list of things wrong with this film is endless. I won’t advise this film for anybody. Rather save your time and money on this all together awful experience.

Just another meaningless action film you forget the moment you walk out of the cinema. There are definitely better movies doing the round, especially now that it’s Oscar season, that deserves your money more.

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