E-Mail This Article to a Friend XXX: STATE OF THE UNION

They should call this sequel to 2002 potboiler "Triple XY," even though most of its testosterone has been sublimated not just into the usual guns but also into trains, planes, and automobiles. Especially the last — they must have emptied Jay Leno’s parking lot to make this. When Darius Stone (Ice Cube), the new "XXX," or deep-cover agent for the National Security Agency, tells an old flame that the supercharged sports car she lent him was the second best ride of his life, it’s clear the best was not her but her aqua ’66 Mustang. Darius, though, has changed after nine years in the pen, where he was sent after breaking the jaw of his CO, George Deckert (Willem Dafoe), during a mission in Bosnia. George has since been elevated to Secretary of Defense (you know this is make-believe because the president is a liberal and his hawkish advisors have actually served time in combat) whose Seven Days in May ambitions unfold after a mystery raid on an NSA headquarters leaves top dog Augustus Gibbons (Samuel L. Jackson) on the run. Darius uproots the conspiracy with the help of his raffish homeboys, and that makes for the amusing spectacle of an armored, gangbanger attack on the Capitol for the purpose of saving our freedom. Mercilessly assaultive, frequently hilarious, borderline tedious, XXX benefits from Cube’s playing it straight and from Lee Tamahori’s being a little subversive, knowing full well no one is going to take him seriously. (101 minutes)