Paramount Home Media announced this past week that director D.J.
Caruso’s xXx: Return of Xander Cage, with Vin Diesel returning as
“Triple-X,” will be heading to the home entertainment arena on May 16 as a
three-SKU product offering.
The ARR comes in at 116 days and the domestic box office
haul was $44.9 million.
Planned for release are a 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Compo Pack, a
Blu-ray/DVD Compo Pack and a stand-alone DVD edition.
xXx was a box office hit in 2002 and might have been a possible
film franchise, but Vin Diesel hit gold as both Riddick (Pitch Black and The
Chronicles of Riddick) and as Dominic Toretto (The Fast and the Furious),
so when the script for xXx: State of the Union was
presented to him he had the luxury of saying no. That film arrived in April of 2005 with Ice
Cube as a new xXx (Triple-X) recruit (Darius Stone) and it bombed badly, effectively ending the
franchise.
Skip-ahead
12 years and this new production, which had to have a script that resurrected
Diesel’s Xander Cage character (he faked his own death as it turns out) and it
also had to work around his relationship with Yelena (Asia Argento).
Those
issues aside, Xander is recruited out of retirement to help solve an internal CIA
“action” that revolves around the heist of “Pandora’s Box,” a gizmo that turns
orbiting satellites into guided missiles.
xXx: Return of Xander Cage is basically a well-told spy versus spy thriller that even
manages to work Ice Cube’s xXx character into the plot. The jury is out as to whether the series
will continue on for a fourth installment (the ending leaves it open).
As
to bonus nuggets, these are exclusive to the 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray SKUs. There are four featurettes — “Third
Time’s the Charm: Xander Returns,” “Rebels, Tyrants & Ghosts: The Cast,”
“Opening Pandora’s Box: On Location” and “I Live for This Sh#t!: Stunts” — and
a gag reel.
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