xXx: State of the Union (2005)

Director:

Lee Tamahori

Writers (WGA):

Rich Wilkes (characters)
Simon Kinberg (written by)

Release Date:

29 April 2005 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Adventure | Thriller

Tagline:

Prepare for the next level

Plot:

Darius Stone, a new agent in the XXX program, is sent to Washington, DC to defuse a power struggle amongst national leaders.

Plot Keywords:

Washington D.C. | NSA | Helicopter | Violence | Bullet Train

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Ice Cube	...	Darius Stone / XXX
Samuel L. Jackson	...	Agent Augustus Gibbons
Willem Dafoe	...	General George Deckert
Scott Speedman	...	Agent Kyle Steele
Peter Strauss	...	President James Sanford
Xzibit	...	Zeke
Michael Roof	...	Agent Toby Lee Shavers
Sunny Mabrey	...	Charlie Mayweather
Nona Gaye	...	Lola Jackson
John G. Connolly	...	Lt. Alabama 'Bama' Cobb
Ramon De Ocampo	...	Agent Meadows (as Ramón De Ocampo)
Barry Sigismondi	...	Bull
Michael Don Evans	...	Conductor
David Rountree	...	Agent
Ned Schmidtke	...	General Jack Pettibone

Also Known As:

xXx 2: The Next Level (Australia) (Hong Kong: English title) (International: English title) (Malaysia: English title) (UK)
xXx²: The Next Level (Singapore: English title) (UK)
Cold Circle & Intersection (Philippines: English title) (review title)
xXx Squared (USA) (working title)
xXx² (USA) (working title)
xXx²: State of the Union (USA) (working title)
xXx: The Next Level (Philippines: English title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for sequences of intense action violence and some language.

Runtime:

101 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Taiwan:R-12 | Canada:14A | Switzerland:16 (canton of Zurich) | Malaysia:18SG | Malaysia:U (re-rating) | France:U | Malaysia:U (cinema release) | Malaysia:U | South Korea:12 | Brazil:14 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:PG (British Columbia/Ontario) | Chile:14 | Finland:K-15 | Germany:12 | Hong Kong:IIA | Ireland:12A | Netherlands:12 | Norway:15 | Peru:14 | Philippines:PG-13 | Sweden:11 | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | UK:12A (cut) | USA:PG-13 | Singapore:PG (original rating) | Singapore:NC-16 (DVD rating)

Filming Locations:

Alameda Naval Air Station, Alameda, California, USA

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

The converted truck chassis used for the "stealth tank", was later redressed and used for the alternate mode of the Decepticon Brawl/Devastator in Transformers (2007).

Goofs:

Factual errors: When Darius jumps from the presidential bullet train on the bridge, he is in free fall for 41 seconds before hitting the water below. The bridge looks to be only a couple of hundred feet high. In reality, a human body in free fall would fall approximately 6000 feet in 41 seconds, assuming a stable skydivers body position. The distance fallen would be greater if falling in any other body position.

Quotes:

Toby Lee Shavers: You want me to hack in? Into The U.S. Department of Defense? We're talking 500 acres of hardware. Cray supercomputers, encryption chips, not to mention more firewalls than the NSA, CIA and the IRS combined.
Darius Stone: Exactly.
[hands his bag of chips to Lola]
Toby Lee Shavers: Hold my chips.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Dialogue: An Interview with Screenwriter Simon Kinberg (2007) (V)

Soundtrack:

Fight the Power

At least Vin Diesel wasn't in this one

I had no idea what State of the Union was going to be about when I went to see it last weekend. Once inside the movie theater I was told that it is a sequel to the movie XXX. Stunned that I was about to see a Vin Diesel (have nothing personal against him but I found that odds are high that if he is in a movie I won't like it, especially after the dreaded "Man Apart") movie I almost got up to leave. I was reassured, however, that he was not in it. Sitting through the first few minutes I saw names that I liked--Ice Cube and Samuel L. Jackson--and decided to give this one a shot. I didn't see the first XXX. I wish I hadn't seen the sequel. But I did. At the end I was wishing that Vin Diesel would come and save the day by shooting the characters of Willem Dafoe, Samuel L. Jackson, Ice Cube, the College Boy and the entire biker crew. To say this movie doesn't have a plot would be insulting movies which don't have a plot but at least attempt to have one. A tyrannical Secretary of Defense who wants to kill everyone, starting with the President, in order of succession so he can lead the country? A crew of DC thugs who come to the rescue of the country so they can live in a country where they are "free to jack cars"? This movie has the same effect on a viewers intellect as does junk food on his body. It kills it slowly. And with enough Whoppers and curly fries like this one one could become brain dead. Hollywood really should put warning labels on these prepackaged cookie-cutter action movies "This movie may kill your brain cells!"