Review: 'XXX' delivers one more time

Posted Wednesday, April 20, 2005 at 11:43 AM Central

by John Couture

In 2002, XXX hit the box office jackpot with its unique combination of the James Bond spy adventure and the world of extreme sports. The result, Xander Cage, propelled Vin Diesel to mega-stardom and Columbia Pictures to box office supremacy with the $144 million blockbuster. Three years and four DVD versions later, Sony Pictures is ramping up the sequel (XXX: State of the Union) with the ultimate marketing tool, the Uncensored Unrated Director’s Cut.

By now, everyone is familiar with the extreme spy storyline and it doesn’t make sense to spend a bunch of time rehashing the action driven plot. Needless to say, the unlikely American anti-hero saves the day and blows up a ton of stuff along the way. Studios are starting to realize the marketing potential of re-releasing DVDs to correspond with the release of the movie’s sequel. Normally, they just repackage the same content with new art work and throw a theatrical voucher inside.

Not so with XXX: The Uncensored Unrated Director’s Cut. Yes, Sony included the voucher (genius marketing trick if you think about it, not only does the studio get the money from the DVD sales, but it also collects at the box office for the sequel – to quote the Guinness gods “Brilliant!”), but it also did something that very few studios do. It gave you a reason to buy this DVD no matter what.

If you bought the “Special Edition,” “Superbit” or “Sony PSP” incarnations, there is still plenty of value on this double disc set to make you march back into the store and buy this movie again. And, if for some unknown reason, you didn’t pick this up on DVD three years ago, the Uncensored Unrated Director’s Cut is the definitive collection.

VIDEO The new transfer of the film looks incredible. It’s right up there in terms of quality as the Superbit version. The nice thing about this release is that director Rob Cohen went back and edited 8 minutes of deleted scenes back into the cut. This new cut of the film maintains the integrity of the original movie and the best compliment you can pay to them is that you don’t even notice them. Often when they reinsert scenes into a cut for the DVD release, the new scenes stand out either from an audio standpoint or a lesser quality video. Here, the scenes are flawlessly added back in. And, having not seen XXX in a couple years, the new scenes appeared that should have been there all along.

AUDIO About the only thing that is missing from this offering is the stunning DTS audio track that was included in the Superbit version. While yes, this film relies heavily on the awesome audio track, especially in the action heavy avalanche and drug farm scenes, the Dolby Digital 5.1 track is more than sufficient to carry the movie. When you think of the trade-off for not having the DTS track (all the special features below), it makes the existing 5.1 track even more competent.

SPECIAL FEATURES Believe it or not, XXX: The Uncensored Unrated Director’s Cut really delivers in the one spot where you didn’t think it was possible to surpass its predecessors, the special features. Sony Pictures made the correct decision to go to two discs and include all the extra content from the “Special Edition” version and then add a GTO load of new stuff.

All of the previously available featurettes and documentaries are repackaged on this set. The stand out continues to be “A Filmmaker’s Diary,” which was shot concurrently with pre-production, principal photography and post-production. Rob Cohen offers amazing commentary on the whole process of making a movie and invites the viewer into the most intimate moments that the average film fan never sees.

The majority of the new features relate to the sequel, XXX: State of the Union, and really help to bridge the two movies together. The toughest part about selling a sequel in which the main cast person is not returning, is making the connection between the two movies so that they don’t feel like complete autonomous entities. The new scene “The Final Chapter: The Death of Xander” helps to complete Xander Cage’s story arc as well as set up the action in XXX: State of the Union. While they weren’t able to get Vin Diesel for the short, they used a stand-in and some interesting camera angles to pull off the rouse convincingly.

The other two inclusions relating XXX: State of the Union are the sneak peak at the making of XXX: State of the Union and a complete scene from XXX: State of the Union where NSA Agent Augustus Gibbons is recruiting the next agent. These two gems complement the original movie and offer the audience yet another reason to go out and see XXX: State of the Union. Combine these with the XXX: State of the Union movie voucher and you have a complete theatrical and home movie experience.

As I touched on earlier, this is truly a director’s cut of the film in that 8 minutes of footage was re-inserted into the movie. These scenes fall seamlessly into the movie and really add more to the depth of the entire movie. One scene in particular, Xander’s interaction with the boy on his plane trip to Prague, really helps to complete Xander’s character. The scene opens up a vulnerability in Xander that is only hinted at in the original cut of the movie. The only thing lacking about these scenes is that the commentary from director Rob Cohen is the same one from the “Special Edition” version, so the gaps in conversation over the new scenes are noticeable.

There are plenty of smaller nuances that continue to add value to the set including the new music video for Hatebreed's "I Will Be Heard" and the raw and uncut end credit sequence. Overall, while they keep all the good stuff from the previous versions, they added a bunch of new things that will make the DVD feel like a new offering.

RECOMMENDATION

It is rare that I will bestow our highest recommendation on a re-release version of a movie, but this offering is special and more than deserving of a purchase. Not only is the movie voucher an instant $7.50 savings off the price of the DVD (because really, who isn’t going to see XXX: State of the Union), but the added content especially the short connecting the two movies is a must-see.

If you don’t own XXX on DVD, there is no reason not to buy this disc. If you have one (or more) different versions of it already, the added content and the movie voucher go a long way in support of another purchase.