‘XXX: Return of Xander Cage’ — OK if you’re in on the joke

There are big differences between Rocky and Rambo, but I’m not sure what the difference is between Dominic and Xander Cage, the roles Vin Diesel plays in his two big movie franchises, “Fast & Furious” and “XXX.”

[...] they both invariably end up in some international intrigue, upon which rests the fate of the human race.

[...] the last movie action hero who smiled as much as he does was Douglas Fairbanks, and that’s going back 100 years.

Xander smiles when he’s piloting a plane into an exploding satellite.

To escape the authorities in pursuit, he dons skis, jumps 100 feet, and skis down a wooded hill.

[...] he borrows a skateboard and rolls down a busy road, at one point leaping up and skating across the side of a passing truck.

[...] somebody has invented a device that causes satellites to drop from the sky, and then enter the atmosphere and explode into the ground.

To find them, the government — embodied by Toni Collette — decides it needs someone equally off the grid, someone with underworld connections, someone who is daring and unconventional and has a deep voice, shaves his head and has tattoos all ...

In Vin Diesel movies, there is invariably some packed nightclub, where everyone really dangerous and really good-looking gathers, not to dance, exactly, nor to talk.

The trick is to catch the hand grenade in time to stop it from exploding.

Diesel is a terrific action star, in that he can give a movie a lift just by being there.

Collette embraces the cold-blooded extremes of her role as a government suit, so she knows she’s in a comedy.