Dir: Lee Tamahori. US.2005. 99mins.

Atrocious but notable in its own warped way, xXx: StateOf The Union (known as xXx: The Next Level internationally) says alot about what's wrong with some American studio film-making today, in that itsays absolutely nothing at all, doing so both loudly and with the phoney,purchased conviction of a well-to-do university student who bought their termpaper online.

Careening from one wildlyimplausible scenario to the next, the bombastic secret agent sequel might aswell be set up simply as a series of filmed minefield challenges, given thatevery single explosive set-piece achieves climax through sheer happenstance andno character at any point evidences a clear and cogent plan beyond engaging infingers-crossed, kick-in-the-front-door confrontation.

The film's PG-13 rating andstatus out of the gate as the first big-budget action flick of 2005 will nodoubt win it a welcome reception amongst teenage audiences looking to kick offthe American - and international - summer movie season with a bang on Apr 29.

Even loyal fans ofrapper-actor Ice Cube - who takes over the franchise for a departed Vin Diesel- will likely enjoy a few tailored-to-fit indulgences that the script offersup, but still find the movie overall strangely restrictive and binding withregards to Cube's own brand of surly charisma.

A large, smash-and-grabopening weekend, followed by steep and steady decline, seems the natural courseof evolution for this brawny, pea-brained action flick.

In 2002, the original XXXmade roughly half of its $275m haul internationally, but given this movie'sheavily American plot, lack of overseas star power and presence of more robustand buzz-worthy summer franchises the sequel seems highly unlikely to matchthat total.

As mentioned, Ice Cube starsas the brand new Agent XXX, an ex-army lieutenant named Darius Stonecourt-martialled and imprisoned for refusing to obey an order from (and thenbreaking the jaw of) General George Deckert (Willem Dafoe), now the gung-hoSecretary of Defence.

When an opening assault onan underground National Security Administration bunker leaves 16 agents dead,Augustus Gibbons (a returning Samuel L Jackson) breaks Stone out of jail, intheory to get to the bottom of the attack.

This quickly spins into amassive conspiracy operation involving Deckert and a splinter faction of theAmerican military that he is amassing to perpetrate an overthrow of thegovernment. The plan involves assassinating the dove-ish President Sanford(Peter Strauss) and others, and installing Deckert in a media-friendlycoup-d'etat that paints him as the brave survivor in a vicious attack.

Once Stone uncovers a markedmap of Washington DC and magically infers this scheme, he turns to two oldfriends - chop shop pal Zeke (rapper Xzibit, in his big-screen debut) andfence/ex-girlfriend Lola (a bland Nona Gaye) - and a new one, sceptical NSAAgent Kyle Steele (Scott Speedman), to stop Deckert and save the day.

While the original XXXmight not have been built on impregnable logic, it at least featured characterstaking overblown action in a somewhat deductive manner. The characters in xXx:State Of The Union, on the other hand, act out of a sense of wild abandon,with virtually nothing rationally following based on the manner in which theaction unfolds. Scenes and settings are arbitrary, mere dominoes to get us justaround the corner to the next action sequence.

The film would have you attimes believe (but hopefully forget, in any quiet post mortem) that Deckertanticipates both Gibbons breaking Stone out of prison and the latter catchingonto his plot, since one explosive sequence hinges on Stone overhearing a keypiece of conspiratorial gossip at a banquet that it later turns out Deckert andhis baddies knew he would be at, and in fact led him to. That the movie goes tosuch lengths to create convoluted, sleight-of-hand tricks that it then abandonsis indicative of its serial absentmindedness.

Early on, the movie givesIce Cube a few moments to showcase his brusque charm, but outside of the first15-20 minutes there's nary a moment of human expressiveness that connects, theremainder of the flick consisting of massive detonations, wan double entendresand a mostly CG "presidential bullet train" chase that comes across as arip-off of Spider-Man 2's far more thrilling commuter train sequence.

Prod cos: Original Film Prods, Revolution Studios, ColumbiaPics
US dist: Sony Pics
Int'l dist: Sony Pics ReleasingInt'l
Exec prods: Rob Cohen, DerekDauchy, Todd Garner
Prod: Neal H. Moritz, ArneSchmidt
Scr: Simon Kinberg, fromcharacters by Rich Wilkes
Cine: David Tattersall
Prod des: Gavin Bocquet
Ed: Mark Goldblatt, Todd E Millerand Steven Rosenblum
Mus: Marco Beltrami
Main cast: Ice Cube, Samuel L.Jackson, Willem Dafoe, Scott Speedman, Xzibit, Sunny Mabrey, Peter Strauss,Nona Gaye, Michael Roof