XXX: The Return of Xander Cage (2017), PG-13, ★★1/2

"Damn, it feels good to be back."

Look...I have a question about Vin Diesel...why does he return to franchises that we're or we're not craving for? I understand he is a star in some households but for example, he came back in Fast & Furious: Tokyo Drift at the end of the movie which was a surprise and basically he came back in the fourth movie which was ok. But, the franchise turned around in the fifth movie. He returned in the Riddick series in the movie called Riddick which I thought was muddled at times but I thought it was ok. Now, he returns to the xXx franchise with the first movie being fun at times but I thought it was a ridiculous mess as it was being self-serious with its material and the movie with Ice Cube was ridiculous. I have to say that the movie knows that it is ridiculous that I had fun for most of the time, however, it is pretty much generic and forgettable.

The movie opens in Brazil with Augustus Gibbons (Samuel L. Jackson) trying to recruit someone for a position in the xXx program. However, a satellite crashes down the same place where Gibbons is and blows the place up. At the CIA Headquarters, Jane Marke (Toni Collette) is telling her colleagues about what caused the satellite to crash: a military device known as Pandora's Box. Meanwhile, four people consisting of Xiang, Serena, Talon and Hawk (Donnie Yen, Deepina Padukone, Tony Jaa, Michael Bisping) steal Pandora's Box and Marke tells her superior that Gibbons knows somebody from the program.

It is Xander Cage (Vin Diesel) who has been living in the Dominican Republic with his girlfriend, Lola (Ariadna Gutierrez). Xander goes to Santo Domingo and while he was in a ruse with a "bomb", Marke starts trying to get Xander back into the xXx program and mentions that Gibbons is dead. Xander joins Marke in church to discuss the situation about Xiang and his team. Even thought Xander is hesitant to come back because of his enjoyment of peaceful exile, he comes back along with some other people that he and Marke recruit.

This movie is a good cable watch when you're bored and do not want to think about anything and just go on for the ride. The action sequences defy logic but are still entertaining. The plot is all over the place because, without giving any spoilers away, one's intentions does not make any sense as to why this person was setting up the mission all along and then the climactic action sequence becomes uninteresting and meanders through silliness and difficulty that when my fun basically was steamrolled like Deadpool was about to do with a zamboni.

Vin Diesel does what he can and provides the charm and fun with this movie but he is committed with this project. His team consisting of Ruby Rose, Rory McCann and Kris Wu provide some comic relief and some good, stylistic action. It is also great to see Donnie Yen kick some butt in this movie. Toni Collette, however, is underutilized as the CIA specialist. When the action kicks in, it is entertaining. When the plot and twists kicks in, it is cornball and destroys the fun. So, I'm giving it a mixed review because it is half-fun in a cartoonish kind of way but becomes so self-serious and stupid in the last third that any excitement is empty. However, it's not bad for a January release.

**1/2