Paramount DVD Synopsis: Vin Diesel returns in the most x-treme, x-plosive and x-hilarating xXx yet! When a group of lethal mercenaries steal a hi-tech weapon that poses a global threat, the world needs superspy Xander Cage (Diesel). Recruited back into action, Xander leads a team of death-defying adrenaline junkies on a mission to kick some ass, save the day, and look dope while doing it. Prepare for the high-octane thrill ride critics are calling 'one hell of a ride'.

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Views: To be perfectly honest, I couldn't really care less for any xXx movie – let alone Vin Diesel as an actor. I just find him hard to take seriously (and listen to) and don't really see the appeal. Of course, xXx: Return Of Xander Cage isn't exactly a movie you'd expect to find on a site called Invincible Asia, but when you have someone like Donnie Yen and Tony Jaa in such prominent roles, I think there's enough good reasons to make it worthy of a review. In fact, I think it's safe to say that the opening 10 or 15 minutes of this film is like something you would expect from Hong Kong cinema, with the hilarious cameo-death of the great Samuel L. Jackson to Donnie Yen's explosive and highly entertaining introduction, and Vin Diesel's shenanigans in high-jacking a radio tower so that the locals can watch football. It's nonsensical, it's crazy, it's fun and it's pretty much the main ingredients for xXx: Return Of Xander Cage – along with a terrible script, plenty of flat jokes, a collection of unlikeable characters, and a host of ridiculous situations that could really only appeal to a US audience. Diesel returns to the role after 15 years and, like many of his popular on-screen persona's, doesn't really have to do much acting in between his one-liners and cheesy smiles. The same can be said for the most of his co-stars such as Ruby Rose, Rory McCann, and the handsome Kris Wu who all think their boss is hilarious. These guys get to face-off against Donnie Yen and his team, who prove to be a much more interesting lot and a bit more professional than their counterparts!

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Yen plays Xiang, the leader of a team of warriors out to recover a 'seemingly' unstoppable weapon known as Pandora's Box – a device that can bring satellites crashing to earth. Vin and his team have been hired by NSA boss Jane Marke (played with cheese by Toni Colette) to find the very same device, which leads to a race between the teams to see who can find it first. Yen is joined by the wonderful Tony Jaa who, as with most of his Hollywood outings, is reduced to nothing more than a throw-away character that gets to show off some flips and kicks – although what he does here is a far cry from his performances in the likes of the Ong Bak Trilogy (2003-2010), Warrior King (2005), SPL 2: A Time For Consequences (2015), and SPL 3: Paradox (2017). Of course, Jaa had starred alongside Diesel only a couple of years before in Fast & Furious 7 (2015) and probably gets to do as much in this role – unfortunately. Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone plays Serena Unger, Yen's sharpshooter equivalent to Ruby Roses' character over on Diesel's side and MMA fighter and English actor Michael Bisping also joins the team, and went on to star alongside Jaa once again in the awesome Triple Threat (2019) only a couple of years later which (much like his co-star) gave him the chance to play about quite a bit more. And I have to say that the character played by Kris Wu Yi Fan is pretty pointless to be honest. Often stepping in as a DJ or to shoot a gun here and there, the popstar/actor is just there to look pretty and keep the Chinese investors happy as his fans hand over their cash to see him on the big screen.

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The movie is directed by D.J. Caruso, a television director and film producer who helmed episodes of shows like High Incident (1996), Martial Law (1998), Dark Angel (2000), Smallville (2001), and The Shield (2002), before making his feature film directorial debut in 2007 with the well-received Disturbia starring Shia LaBeouf. Following that up with Eagle Eye (2008) (also with Shia), Caruso went on to direct the fun I Am Number Four (2011) before slipping back into TV movies for a few years. He hit back with The Disappointments Room (2016), a thriller starring Kate Beckinsale – which was written and produced by Wentworth Miller, star of Prison Break (2005) and Legends Of Tomorrow (2016), which was enough to nail him the job of directing xXx: Return Of Xander Cage – but the divisive reviews upon its release quickly put a stop to anything else that was to follow. Personally, I don't think it's the worst movie in the world and it definitely has a lot to offer as an action movie – but I can totally see where it all went wrong. That said, and with the ending that brings both teams together along with the return of Ice Cube's XXX character from the original sequels – it would be interesting to see where they'd go if more chapters were to follow...

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As mentioned, the action is the big seller of xXx: Return Of Xander Cage and there sure is plenty to enjoy. While Vin Diesel's stunt double is definitely the star of the show, Donnie Yen steals the limelight a number of times and really should have gotten his own spin-off from this. There's a cool chase scene between Diesel and Yen as they race through on-coming traffic, jumping vehicles and landing hits on each other in a bid to reach Pandora's Box first, and we get to see him deliver a flurry of kicks and punches throughout from his aforementioned intro scene to the big finale in an aircraft carrier. While he says he kept his 'hands-off' when it came to the action and let the US team choreograph his fights, you can definitely see where Yen has made his mark and it doesn't disappoint. But we can't forget that the xXx movies were all about the extreme sports and this belated sequel offers plenty of that to enjoy, from jungle skiing to motorbikes on water-ski's, base jumping to skateboarding, with the film only slowing down to allow its main star to delver some terrible jokes and flirt with any female that appears on screen. While it seems that a group of horny teens on a diet of Red Bull attempted to deliver a James Bond movie, xXx: Return Of Xander Cage does offer enough to enjoy - as long as you don't take any of it seriously!

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Overall: Stupid Hollywood fun for the most part, Donnie Yen makes xXx: Return Of Xander Cage worth the watch!

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DVD Extras: Making of Documentary, Stunt Feature, Gag Reel