xXx: Return of Xander Cage

The latest attempt to reignite a moribund franchise to tank at the domestic box office, D.J. Caruso’s xXx: Return of Xander Cage returns Vin Diesel to the role of Cage, a sort of anti-establishment, extreme sports James Bond. Hiding out in the Dominican Republic and presumed dead, Cage is recruited back into the spy game when a shadowy government agent (Toni Collette) tells him a team of rogue agents (including martial arts superstars Tony Jaa and Donnie Yen and the stunning Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone) are behind the murder of his mentor Augustus Gibbons (Samuel L. Jackson, reprising his role and fulfilling his contractual obligation to appear in literally every film). Return of Xander Cage distills the James Bond model to its base elements—beautiful women, teeth-gnashing villains, goofy gadgets and ridiculous stunts—and pumps it full of Mountain Dew Kickstart. It’s sophomoric and occasionally slapdash, but also quite entertaining. D.B.