"The tone of the film suggests the classic saying 'they don't make them like this anymore', however expect a sequel in the near future, without the 15 year wait"

Vin Diesel returns as Xander Cage after 15 years in a sequel to the original 2002 xXx and the 2005 Ice Cube outing xXx: State Of The Union. Xander Cage is a former extreme sports athlete who was coerced into working for the National Security Agency by Augustus Gibbons (Samuel L. Jackson) after being charged with criminal damage for stealing and destroying a prominent California senator's car as an act of protest.

In return for helping the NSA, Gibbons promises Xander that his criminal record will be expunged. With the mission completed, Xander is last seen swimming near a tropical beach. A sequel followed, however because of Diesel's other work commitments the film featured Ice Cube as the new xXx, explaining that Xander Cage had been killed in an attack.

The third in the film franchise sees Diesel return as super spy Xander Cage, tracked down and found to be alive by his new CIA handler Jane Marke (Toni Collette) after the death of Gibbons (Samuel L. Jackson).

After rejecting the team chosen to help Xander he is charged with recruiting a group of misfits known to him, with the mission of recovering a satellite hacking device known as “Pandora’s Box”, which has the ability to bring down any satellite on a specific target. The device has been stolen by the extremely skilled Xiang (Donnie Yen) and his equally skilled cohorts, including Serena Unger (Deepika Padukone) and Talon (Tony Jaa).

Cage (Diesel) and his team manage to track Xiang and his renegades to the Philippines and begin the task of recovering "Pandora's Box" only to discover that it's not the unique prototype that they'd been led to believe and that there's another device...

The film moves along at a fast enough pace to keep you engaged, but with the sheer number of characters involved in the film some of them feel slightly under utilised especially when you have the martial arts talents of Donnie Yen and Tony Jaa. This being said the various characters are fleshed out just enough to give you an understanding of them and their strengths, skills and personalities.

Throughout the movie you do feel that it could very much be part of The Fast and the Furious franchise, if not an immediate member of the family, it is certainly a very close first cousin. This is not necessarily a bad thing, especially if you're a fan of the later franchise.

Add into the mix elements of The Expendables and a few nods towards The Avengers series of films and you have a thoroughly entertaining 'popcorn' movie with enough action and fun for an enjoyable evening of escapism. The tone of the film suggests the classic saying 'they don't make them like this anymore', however expect a sequel in the near future, without the 15 year wait.