xXx: Return of Xander Cage

It plays better than it reviews — the watch lands harder than the write-ups suggest.

• “Quibbles dissipate in the face of the giddiness of the action, which builds to such a relentless head that even the serious stakes of the film’s motivation give way to a largely pleasant vibe.”

  Jake Cole, Slant Magazine · 75

• “It may be messy, but the parts that matter go for broke with breakneck ambition.”

  Matt Donato, We Got This Covered · 70

• “It’s fun and mostly inoffensive, never taking itself too seriously while it rewards its inexplicable fans. Better still, it makes every effort to borrow from the Fast series’ latter-day push for more diverse heroes, something the action genre needs right now.”

  Kwame Opam, The Verge · 67

• “Pure spectacle has since been subsumed into narrative filmmaking, but the cinema of attractions is always present, especially in modern action movies, and there may be no greater current example of this than xXx: The Return of Xander Cage.”

  Katie Walsh, Chicago Tribune · 63

• “Speaking strictly for myself, Vin Diesel, here coming back to play Xander Cage, the James Bond of skateboarding character he originated in 2002’s “XXX” is the least exciting component of this 3D slam-bang fest.”

  Glenn Kenny, RogerEbert.com · 63