'XXX' Threat

摘要

Sony pictures has long tried to launch its own James Bond movie, once even wooing an elderly "Thunderball" producer, only to be sued by 007 studio MGM. So rather than steal the veteran secret agent, Sony partner Revolution Studios has come up with another approach: offing him. The new "XXX" opens with a spy in formalwear trying to blend in at a heavy-metal concert. He's immediately picked out and picked off. In his place strides chiseled troublemaker Xander Cage (Vin Diesel), with quite an assignment: to save the world and reinvent a Hollywood icon. There's no hiding the fact that these days Bond seems about as lively as Queen Elizabeth. The series celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, and star Pierce Bros-nan is about to turn SO. Everything about "XXX" (pronounced "triple-X") is pitched in the opposite direction, at Hollywood's most important audience: teenage boys. There's a cool car, but it's a he-man GTO, not an Aston Martin. There's a beautiful girl, but she has tattoos from here to Bora Bora. There's a ton of music, but in place of Monty Norman's famous Bond theme, there's pulsing techno from Orbital. The result is a transparently calculated diversion that owes more to ESPN's "X Games" than to anything that ever came put of Hollywood, except 007 himself.