Xander Cage, aka Vin Diesel, aka the original xXx is back in the third installment of the extreme sport, action franchise. After the mess that was xXx: State of the Union it’s nice to Vin Diesel back in the helm of this ridiculously over the top action franchise.

Joined by a hugely diverse cast including; Samuel L Jackson, Donnie Yen, Deepika Padukone, Kris Wu, Ruby Rose, Nina Dobrev, Rory McCann, Toni Collette, and even footballer Neymar. Its great to see a mainstream blockbuster starring so many minority and non-American actors. It’s also a good collection of action stars, even if there is a bigger focus on the action ability over acting ability. Donnie Yen in particular is great in the action sequences. His first scene is one of the best pure action scenes I’ve seen in a while. There’s one action scene in particular on a plane in zero gravity that is fantastic.

The plot of the film is complete nonsense. It felt like more time was spent on thinking up one-liners for the characters to say than thinking about the plot. There’s a device that will allow people to drop a satellite out of orbit on wherever they want, and Xander and his team have to get it back. It gets a bit confusing with who is who’s side, but let’s be honest here, you’re not going to see xXx 3 for the plot, you’re going for the over the top, fun action. And at no point in the film did it feel like it was taking itself too seriously, whenever it came close to lecturing on morality it quickly switched gear to another action set-piece, or one liner.

xXx: Return of Xander Cage certainly isn’t going to be winning any awards. The story is all over the place and silly, and the acting is nothing to write home about. But what the film is, is completely mindless fun. So if you want to go and see an action film where you can switch your brain off for an hour and half, then this is it.

6/10