10 Terrible Movies That Got ONE Thing Right
4. XXX - The Stunt Choreography
xXx (that's actually how it's written) is the quintessential early '00s action movie. Imagine a 2-hour Mountain Dew commercial from the '90s mixed with a PS2 game and you get xXx.
Vin Diesel plays Xander Cage, an extreme sportsman and (early) social media star coerced into becoming a spy. The movie is a mishmash of action tropes - guns, explosions, fast cars, exotic locales, and a hero who triumphs in the end and gets the girl.
The movie does, however, have a few things going for it. It knows that it's a piece of mindless cotton candy for the senses, and the stunt choreography. While Diesel actually did many of his own stunts, his stunt double Harry O'Connor deserves a ton of accolades. Sadly, O'Connor died in an accident during the filming of the para-sailing scene in Prague.
Through the course of the film we are treated to high-end sports car chases, the aforementioned para-sailing, snowmobiles, skydiving that turns into snowboarding, motocross, and a boat chase.
The crowing piece is the Corvette-off-the-bridge-with-BASE-jump that opens the film. It's a banging way to start the show and a technical triumph of stuntwork, accompanied by an anthem of the early oughts, 'Let The Bodies Hit The Floor.'