xXx Parent Guide

Xander Cage (Vin Diesel) is not the kind of guy most parents want their daughters to bring home. The extreme athlete is tough, tattooed and carrying a tank-sized attitude on his brawny shoulders. He’s also exactly what the National Security Agency wants to help infiltrate a renegade band of European anarchists.

So giving Cage the option of voluntary enlistment isn’t on Agent Augustus Gibbons (Samuel L. Jackson) agenda. Instead he assails his “recruit’s” apartment with a military tactical team and he offers him the choice of cell time in a penitentiary to pay for his past misdeeds or a chance to serve his government overseas. Considering his restrictive alternatives, the newly employed mole is soon on a plane to Prague with an assignment to collect sensitive information about the group called Anarchy 99.

But conventional spy methods don’t appeal to this adrenaline addict who shoves his way onto the turf of the insurgents’ leader, Yorgi (Marton Csokas). Making demands of his own, Cage distances himself from his local Czech contact and takes aim to get in with the crime ring who specializes in prostitution, drugs and car theft. Portrayed as ever cool and in control, Agent Triple X keeps an interested eye on Yorgi’s mistreated girlfriend, Yelana (Asia Argento) while uncovering a plot by the rebels to annihilate the world’s population and bring down the existing governments.

Packed with outrageous testosterone-driven stunts, minimally clad call girls, and profanities, xXx places the future of the entire world in the hands of one brash bad boy—hardly the kind of hero parents want emulated at home. Aimed to attract high-action thrill seekers, the film also gives license to physical brutality, drug use and the exploitation of women while barely slapping the hands of hardcore criminals.

However, Triple X isn’t the only character to step outside the boundaries. Even Gibbons sanctions some highly unlikely methods of “testing” his candidates before choosing Cage as the government’s first agent in a new wave of covert operators.

With loads of content issues in all the categories, xXx and the muscle bound hero, Xander Cage, get three strikes for family entertainment.

About author

Kerry Bennett

Kerry Bennett is interested in media from both a journalist and parent perspective. Along with authoring articles for several family-oriented publications, she has written for Parent Previews for over 15 years. As a parent herself, she believes parents play a powerful role in teaching media literacy in their homes.