Howdy from the Great Lone Star State! Father Geek here, just back from an advance screening of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy... a very very FUN flick...This was in my morning mail from a Honolulu reader...
Aloha from the 50th State! Just back from an advance screening of XXX: STATE OF THE UNION. My wife and I “lucked” into this screening as we were leaving the theater having just watched the wonderfully sublime KUNG-FU HUSTLE. A radio station flunkie (radio stations often sponsor advance screenings here in Honolulu) intercepted us in the lobby on our way out, waving the screening passes in front of our faces. We made an abrupt 180 and headed into the auditorium that was screening the film. It was barely half full, with five minutes to go until show time. Apparently, a lot of people knew what we didn’t.
Let me just say that seeing XXX: STATE OF THE UNION right after KUNG-FU HUSTLE was a little bit like scarfing down a Twinkie for dessert after a fine filet mignon main course. Here’s the quick and dirty:
Top Three Things That Worked
* The opening sequence, featuring a bunch of black-ops type soldiers (who look a lot like Snake Eyes from G.I. JOE) converging on a farmhouse which turns out to be the headquarters of the NSA’s XXX division was pretty cool, albeit too brief (unlike this run-on sentence).
* Samuel Jackson. True, his ubiquitous presence seems to be diluting a bit of the man’s star power as of late, but what the hey, he’s Samuel Jackson fer cryin’ out loud!
* Scott Speedman, in the role of NSA Agent Kyle Steel, was surprisingly effective. Probably the second best performance in this film.
Top Three Things That Didn’t Work
* Ice Cube. He’s comfortable in front of the camera, that’s for sure, but he’s 100% completely unbelievable as an ex-Navy Seal/super-soldier/badass.
* Willem Dafoe. It’s as if Norman Osborn had wandered into this film; the look, the diction, the mannerisms, EVERYTHING! I half-expected to see a wall panel slide away, revealing the gleaming Goblin armor.
* The pacing. Following the aforementioned opening sequence and the prison break sequence shortly thereafter, the pace slows to a crawl until the ending assault on the Capitol sequence. But by then, I (and most of the audience, it seemed) didn’t care anymore. Blame it on the poor direction by Lee Tamahori. Shame really, as this is the man who brought us DIE ANOTHER DAY, easily the best of the Brosnan-era Bond films.
Bottom Line:
Do yourself a favor and SKIP this film. If you are desperate to see something this weekend, and you’ve already seen everything out there, go see KUNG-FU HUSTLE again. You’ll be glad you did.
If you use this, I am Rhavokk
