“xXx Return Of Xander Cage” Movie Review: Deepika Padukone, Vin Diesel Rocks

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Firstly, an honest confession, like every Bollywood-crazy Indian, I decided to watch xXx – RETURN OF XANDER CAGE (ROZC) purely for the super debut act of gorgeous Deepika Padukone in her premier Hollywood outing. Cheers !!

But to my astonishment, it is Vin Diesel and Co, who have left me amazed with their ‘super-duper creativity’ and ‘business acumen’. I mean, how could you, sitting somewhere in Hollywood, visualize our Indian sensibilities? You actually made one (American) masala potboiler with all Indian ingredients. Bravo !!

Check, we love over-the-top and in-your-face kinda films…Check, we don’t mind ridiculous storyline….
Check, we get cheap thrills by watching scantily clad firangs…check, we enjoy utterly bad humour…
Check, we worship our actors as demi-god (defying laws of nature in every scene is their forte`)…
Check, last but not the least, we idolize our film stars and are ready to pay every obscene amount to watch them act. Voila !!

Director, D.J Caruso seems to have tick marked all the boxes to deliver a double whammy. It is suffice to say that xXx ROZC is a lethal combination of Mithun and Rohit Shetty films. So we begin our new year with a bang i.e. all-style-no-substance film.

Ok, like most illogical films, here too, Vin Diesel has an ‘impossible-to-imagine’ task of saving the mother earth from a satellite that could explode and cause destruction with a click of a button on a device called ‘Pandora’s Box’. So our super spy, Xander Cage Diesel, with a normal day job, hops countries and continents with his eccentric but efficient team to get hold of Pandora’s Box. Whoa…. tough job. But the Man-on-mission finds enough time to romance our leggy lass, Deepika aka Serena Unger in an unabashed fashion. In between, he also plays around with Bikini babes, only to obtain some crucial information, you see…throws in some guttural dialogues, zips around in snazzy and swanky cars and finally beats the hell out of the bad boys.

Well, which was that last Bollywood film with similar track??? Ok, never mind, they all look same.

Still, all is not lost. As a saving grace, the film does score on few points. Donnie Yen’s martial art action sequences are worth a mention…great work. Even, chasing-and-blowing-up-the-cars routine is superbly choreographed. And then, in a signature Vin Diesel style, we have some serious adrenaline pumping and jaw dropping stunts performed under water, in the mid-air, amidst Amazon jungles and Australian desert… a treat for our eyes.

Performance wise, Vin Diesel is his burley self and is still, basking in the glory of Fast & Furious series. Obviously, he sticks to only-action-no-emotion tag.

Deepika Padukone appears ultra-glamorous and definitely stands tall in the crowd with her sleek act and knock-out punches…well done gal, Of course, she is not spread out all over the film but does justice to her limited length. More to Indian talent but strictly in more cerebral and sensible films, please.

Watch if fan of Deepika Padukone and of typical Masala movie

In the nutshell, xXx RETURN OF XANDER CAGE is strictly for die-hard Deepika fans. Frankly, it is more of a commercial than a creative attempt with majority of the motley bunch of actors, that forms Vin Diesel’s fighter squad, belonging to different countries and who will obviously bring in more moolah than US itself. Aren’t we contributing ? Thanks to Deepika Padukone.