xXx: State of the Union (2005)

I must confess, I haven't seen the first xXx movie. Which is probably a good thing. If xXx: State of the Union is any indication, it probably sucked as well. What was wrong with this movie? Everything. What was right about it? Nothing -- although it may have succeeded in killing a franchise that should have been killed. The bad news with this movie starts with the choice of lead: Ice Cube. Ice Cube doesn't have cool. He has angry. He's very good at playing a dude with a big chip on his shoulder. Don't get me wrong, I think he does have some acting ability, but apparently the script in this movie just called for him to sneer a lot, show us that he's angry and be there when stuff gets blown up. A lot of things get blown up as you might expect, but even so, moving from one explosion to another to tell a story ... well, that just suck.

Avoid this movie like you would avoid a plague.