XXX 2 2005

Critics score:
16 / 100

Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes

John Monaghan, Detroit Free Press: This is just a warm-up as the summer movie season gets an early start. Big, loud and stupid, XXX: State of the Union isn't so much a sequel as a preview of coming attractions. Read more

Peter Debruge, Miami Herald: The part of me that wasn't rolling my eyes really wanted to know which media bad boy would be next in line. Read more

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: This new XXX has a story that may break all recent records for rampaging cliches and utter nonsense. Read more

Tom Keogh, Seattle Times: A crisp adventure that grows increasingly audacious (the story climaxes with a huge battle waged in the Capitol) if only lightly enjoyable. Read more

Ebert & Roeper: Read more

Bob Townsend, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Like the original, it's ultra loud and often looks like a PlayStation game. But when the fast and furious bludgeoning and blow-ups wane, the screen may as well be tuned to channel zero. Read more

AV Club: Read more

Bill Muller, Arizona Republic: As a rating, XXX is used to warn people away from objectionable material. For this movie, it's more like ZZZ. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: There are really only two kinds of big-budget action movies: stupid, and good and stupid. Surprisingly, XXX: State of the Union is good and stupid. Read more

Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times: Opens explosively and never lets up, with Lee Tamahori (Die Another Day) in full command of the action and Simon Kinberg an equally astute writer with a flair for linking socko action set pieces with terse characterization. Read more

Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: Functions less as a movie than an overactive adrenal gland. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: A humorless foray of noise and fast-cuts signifying nothing much. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: This is that rare B movie that's rooted in gut-level stirrings of power and retaliation. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: This xXx seems to know exactly how stupid it is, and this kind of self-knowledge helps nudge it toward the guilty pleasure bracket, even if it never quite makes that leap. Read more

Chuck Wilson, L.A. Weekly: James Bond's producers aren't going to like Die Another Day director Lee Tamahori delivering a sleeker, more contemporary thriller than he made for them. Read more

Lisa Rose, Newark Star-Ledger: There are bound to be pictures bigger, dumber and more punishing than this one released during the summer, but at least the warm weather also will bring a wider range of alternatives. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: The chases, shootouts and explosions in this deafening, lamebrained wreck of a movie make the Road Runner cartoons look like National Geographic specials. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: The producing team behind this sequel to XXX has apparently decided that the only place to go is over the top way over the top. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Perfectly mindless fun, where the emphasis is on the mindless. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: There isn't a fresh moment in the entire 100-minute running time. The tediousness is impossible to dispel. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Did I enjoy this movie? Only in a dumb mindless way. It has whatever made the original XXX entertaining, but a little less of it. Does it make the slightest sense? Of course not. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Its action scenes are too absurd and too computer-generated to produce any kind of rush. The dialogue, not just amateurish, fails even to approximate something resembling human interaction. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: This flashy atrocity, clearly a lost cause from the first five minutes, offers viewers no option but to assume crash position and brace themselves for the worst. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: The most gratifying thing about xXx: State of the Union is that nobody wastes much time on character, motivation, plausibility, dialogue or sex -- all that slow stuff that drags down ordinary movies. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: So devoid of craft, it looks as though it were filmed by robots. Read more

Time Out: Read more

Mike Clark, USA Today: At least this movie seems more aware of its trashiness than National Treasure was. It's therefore freer to have some off-the-cuff fun the way Steven Seagal's more tolerable vehicles once did. Read more

Robert Koehler, Variety: The only thing that really matters is whether the action scenes push the envelope -- and they don't, especially compared with the extreme sports style of the first XXX. Read more

Peter L'Official, Village Voice: Explosions abound, along with expository dialogue and a ham-tastic triad of performances from Sam Jackson, Willem Dafoe, and Peter Strauss. Read more

Stephen Hunter, Washington Post: So primitive, it must have been written in lizard blood on animal skin. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: The film's story remains as defiantly impervious to logic as its hero is to bullets. Read more