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May. 6th, 2005 10:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
molly_oI saw XXX last night and ... I loved it! There are a couple reasons for this that have nothing to do with the quality of the film: 1) I had very low expectations; I was mostly going because Robomark wanted to; 2) It's set almost entirely in DC, and while some aspects of that are less successful than others (the houses that make up the backdrop to the ghetto scenes look more like Baltimore than DC; someone talks about Southside DC -- say what? Southeast DC, very much so. Southside DC? Not so much. That's like saying Southside LA instead of South Central), I'm still enough of a Taxation-Without-Representation girl that I **loved** the prospect of a bunch of guys from a chop-shop in SE advancing on the US Capitol in souped-up trucks. (No really, they do that.); and 3) the film itself had no pretensions whatsoever -- to the point that every stirring speech is followed by a self-deprecating disclaimer. Its reach did not exceed its grasp.
The acting throughout is ... fine, but not better than that. Samuel L. Jackson and Willem Dafoe could play their roles in their sleep. Ice Cube was kinda stone-faced, but it worked. Scott Speedman adequately conveyed the things he needed to convey, and Xzibit was competent enough for what he was called on to do. And certain aspects of the plot are smarter than they seem at first glance. Dafoe says something about knowing Jackson's moves before he makes them, and if you think about it, he really *does*, his whole plan is based on correct prediction of Jackson's behavior. And I really liked Nona Gaye (though I hated, *hated*, the Cleopatra wig they kept making her wear): She looked like a real-live woman, not a crazy Hollywood babe.
But the last 30 minutes of the movie were ... well, suspension of disbelief is just not adequate. My disbelief was put into some kind of cryogenic stasis, like whatever they did to Han Solo in SW:Ep 5. Because when the aforementioned chop-shop guys advance on the Capitol, Dafoe and his loyal sergeant take the president and make a run for it in the presidential bullet train, and Cube goes after them in some crazy half-million-dollar car. And FIRST, they tell you that the train is going NNE, paralleling I-95, which doesn't make any sense, because that's a dumb escape route -- it should be going to West Virginia (not to mention, the landscape they travel through doesn't look like anything between here and New Jersey, it *looks* like West Virginia). And SECOND, it's not going in some underground tunnel like the TGV in MI:2, it's traveling on regular above-ground train tracks, which is a) vulnerable and b) there is no way they could rely on a track in Amtrak's northeast corridor being clear of other trains. (But, see, they NEEDED it to be aboveground, so then Jackson can bring Speedman over in a helicopter.) And THIRD, Cube manages to drive the tires right off the car and then drive ON THE RIMS on the railroad tracks. And FOURTH (and I'll admit this last one is getting kind petty), there's a whole fight scene in the kitchen on the train in which the gas line to the stove figures decisively -- except, wouldn't a kitchen on a train use electric power, generated by the engine, rather than gas? (Or is the presidential chef a temperamental sort who won't cook on electric?)
Oh, and I can't forget the music: During a very pumped-up scene, I suddenly realized I recognized the words to the background track -- it was a cover of "Fight the Power." (I checked the credits, and it was Korn with Xzibit.) And then later there was song that I just knew had to be Chuck D, and it turns out it was Moby and Public Enemy doing something called MKLVFKWR. I don't know that I'll actually want the soundtrack album, but I just might get those two off iTunes.
The acting throughout is ... fine, but not better than that. Samuel L. Jackson and Willem Dafoe could play their roles in their sleep. Ice Cube was kinda stone-faced, but it worked. Scott Speedman adequately conveyed the things he needed to convey, and Xzibit was competent enough for what he was called on to do. And certain aspects of the plot are smarter than they seem at first glance. Dafoe says something about knowing Jackson's moves before he makes them, and if you think about it, he really *does*, his whole plan is based on correct prediction of Jackson's behavior. And I really liked Nona Gaye (though I hated, *hated*, the Cleopatra wig they kept making her wear): She looked like a real-live woman, not a crazy Hollywood babe.
But the last 30 minutes of the movie were ... well, suspension of disbelief is just not adequate. My disbelief was put into some kind of cryogenic stasis, like whatever they did to Han Solo in SW:Ep 5. Because when the aforementioned chop-shop guys advance on the Capitol, Dafoe and his loyal sergeant take the president and make a run for it in the presidential bullet train, and Cube goes after them in some crazy half-million-dollar car. And FIRST, they tell you that the train is going NNE, paralleling I-95, which doesn't make any sense, because that's a dumb escape route -- it should be going to West Virginia (not to mention, the landscape they travel through doesn't look like anything between here and New Jersey, it *looks* like West Virginia). And SECOND, it's not going in some underground tunnel like the TGV in MI:2, it's traveling on regular above-ground train tracks, which is a) vulnerable and b) there is no way they could rely on a track in Amtrak's northeast corridor being clear of other trains. (But, see, they NEEDED it to be aboveground, so then Jackson can bring Speedman over in a helicopter.) And THIRD, Cube manages to drive the tires right off the car and then drive ON THE RIMS on the railroad tracks. And FOURTH (and I'll admit this last one is getting kind petty), there's a whole fight scene in the kitchen on the train in which the gas line to the stove figures decisively -- except, wouldn't a kitchen on a train use electric power, generated by the engine, rather than gas? (Or is the presidential chef a temperamental sort who won't cook on electric?)
Oh, and I can't forget the music: During a very pumped-up scene, I suddenly realized I recognized the words to the background track -- it was a cover of "Fight the Power." (I checked the credits, and it was Korn with Xzibit.) And then later there was song that I just knew had to be Chuck D, and it turns out it was Moby and Public Enemy doing something called MKLVFKWR. I don't know that I'll actually want the soundtrack album, but I just might get those two off iTunes.