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When James Bond just ain’t enough, you’ve gotta go for the bad boys. ”xXx: State of the Union” the sequel to “xXx” features a new leading man in the form of Ice Cube. It seems the first xXx (played by Vin Diesel in the first movie) was killed in the line of duty. When the headquarters for the NSA is compromised Agent Augustus Gibbons (Samuel L. Jackson) must find a fresh recruit to find out who compromised their security and what they were after. Gibbons recruits Darius Stone (Ice Cube) who was throwninto prison after an undercover operation went bad to rejoin the NSA and be the new xXx. What xXx discovers is a military splinter group led by powerful figures within the government. Featuring a strong supporting cast, “xXx: State of the Union” starts strongly with a great opening sequence but quickly devolves into a standard thriller. Ice Cube has powerful screen presence and plays his role convicingly. It’s a fun way to spent two hours but hardly as good as most of the other thrillers that Tamahori has directed. ---

The black levels feel authentic in the dark scenes and the details are clear. Ultimately, this DVD offers a good image.

The sound is far better than the image, as it provides some exercise for the home theater equipment. Several aspects of the sound provide this excellent sound such as the surround, the base, and the music. The surround sound provides moments when it feels as if the audience is present on location during the action scenes. A pounding experience flows from the subwoofer, and it essential to have it located in an appropriate place for best effect.

The featurettes are interactive and allow you to navigate between various screens. “Bullet Train Sequence” features director Lee Tamahori discussing how the sequence was created and why it’s important to have early previsualization for helping the director to visualize how the final film will look. We get glimpses of the storyboard, behind-the-scenes shots, early and finished CGI footage for this sequence. The main window features the storyboard with the option to choose from three versions of the sequence from previsualization to finished product with the visuals completely and seamlessly integrated into the sequence with music and sound effects. “Top Secret Military Warehouse” features screen writer Kinberg, the producer, costume designer and other production crew joining Tamahori in discussng the look of the military base and all the fun gadgets in the film. Lasting all of about 9 minutes, it’s a cool look behind-the-scenes into the movie. ***

“XXX According to Ice Cube” allows director Tamahori, producer Neal Mortizand Ice Cube discussing the changes from the first movie (they don’t have Ice Cube playing the same character instead suggesting that the first XXX was killed in action prior to the start of the film). There are lots of talking heads discussing why the filmmakers decided to go in this direction vs. continuing on with the character from the previous film and just changing actors for the role. We also get three deleted scenes with optional director commentary. ---