xXx: State of the Union (2005)

Darius Stone, a new agent in the xXx program, is sent to Washington, D.C. to stop a coup attempt against the President of the United States.

Director:

Lee Tamahori

Writers:

Rich Wilkes (characters), Simon Kinberg

Stars:

Ice Cube, Samuel L. Jackson, Willem Dafoe

1 nomination.

Cast

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

Storyline

Agent Augustus Gibbons has selected an imprisoned former US Navy SEAL Darius Stone, a new agent in the XXX program, travels to Washington D.C., where they track a splinter faction of the U.S. military that attempts to overthrow the U.S. government and assassinate the President, led by Secretary of Defense and former 4-Star General George Deckert, Stone's former commanding officer whom he once led a mutiny against. But he's been targeted for assassination by a radical splinter group of dissenters deep within the United States government. The new XXX agent must uncover the insurgents from within. It is the nation's only hope to stop the first coup d'etat in American history.

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Plot Keywords:

man wears eyeglasses | slow motion scene | spy | stabbing | reference to johnnie cochran | 

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Taglines:

Prepare for the next level

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Crime | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

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

Did You Know?

Trivia

In the UK, the subtitle, "State of the Union" was changed to "The Next Level" for DVD and Blu-ray releases.

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Goofs

During the chase on board the aircraft carrier Stone manages to push the 'Abrams' tank that is after him to the side with his 'M2 Bradley'. The 'Bradley' is literally half the weight of the 'Abrams' and would be incapable of actually doing so.

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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.

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Alternate Versions

For the UK DVD release Sony kept the cut version instead of submitting the uncut version. They even went a step further and used this cut PAL master for all countries where this standard is used.

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Connections

Referenced in Film '72: Centenary of the Birth of James Bond Producer Albert R. Broccoli (2009)

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Soundtracks

Here We Go
Written by Jermany James and Timothy Z. Mosely
Performed by Dirtbag
Courtesy of Violator Records
By Arrangement with Sony BMG Music Licensing

User Reviews

Mediocre following about one army man incarnated by Ice Cube and with intense action scenes

Darius Stone(Ice Cube:BarberShop,Ghost of Mars,Three Kings) is recruited by the government on a special mission.NSA Agent August Gibbons(Samuel L Jackson)forces him to cooperate with the government and avoid returning to Prison.Betting Darius can succeed where other conventional agents have failed .Gibbons sends Stone to investigate in the high politic world,using his natural abilities and a whole lot of position.He's helped by agent Kyle Steele(Scott Speedman).His mission to gather information on a deadly conspiracy led by Secretary of Defense(William Dafoe) that may just be planning the taking over US government and substituting the President(Peter Strauss).Darius must combat an intelligent organization and a powerful enemy far beyond his possibilities.

It's a standard actioner with no much sense where there are suspense,thriller,pursuits,struggles, explosions and minimum characterization. The film is plenty of macho man incarnated by Ice Cube who makes an embarrassing acting.The picture contains fights,gun-play,chases,firepower and frenetic pursuits with bounds and leaps as when a water-motorcycle runs afoul.It's tense and exciting at time though also a routine unstopped action film less than memorable.Colorful cinematography by David Tattersall and appropriate music adjusted to the action by Marco Beltrani.The film is lavishly produced by the great producer of action genre Neal Moritz(Prison break,Torque,Swat,Stealth,Skulls,Fast and furious I,II).The motion picture is regularly directed by Lee Tamahori(Along came a spider,Once were warriors) who made much better in James Bond series(Die another day) .Rating : Below average

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

29 April 2005 (USA)

Also Known As:

xXx Squared

Filming Locations:

Naval Air Station Alameda, Alameda, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$113,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$12,712,272, 1 May 2005

Gross USA:

$26,873,932

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$71,022,693

Company Credits

Production Co:

Columbia Pictures, Revolution Studios, Original Film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

101 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1