13 Movies You Really Wanted To Hate (But Actually Couldn’t)
9. XXX: The Return Of Xander Cage
The original xXx was sold as a next gen replacement for the Bond series, with Vin Diesel playing an extreme sports douche who also does spy stuff. It was mind numbingly dumb, and Diesel eventually passed on a sequel. Ice Cube took the reigns for that one, and the studio dropped the franchise like a hot brick once they saw the grosses.
Why You Wanted To Hate It: Diesel’s success revisiting The Fast And The Furious and Riddick franchises meant another xXx was inevitable, even though his character was killed off in an official DVD short movie. On the face of it The Return Of Xander Cage looked like a lazy cash-in designed to appease the ego of its leading man, and the trailers looked downright embarrassing.
The Reasons You Couldn’t: Because there’s something almost earnest in the movie’s commitment to having a good time. It knows how stupid it is, and commits to delivering wildly over the top action, characters and dialogue. Hell, it even has a great cameo from Ice Cube, which retroactively makes viewers think they enjoyed the second movie.