Reminiscing on the past with rose-tinted glasses is a harmless pastime, but revisiting Rob Cohen’s xXx a full 20 years after it first exploded into theaters is a startling reminder of where we were as a society back in the summer of 2002, and what passed for “cool” in the pop culture sphere.
Vin Diesel stars as Xander Cage, who we know is a badass because he sports lots of tattoos, wears an alarmingly large fur coat, and makes his living as an extreme sports athlete who pulls off all sorts of sweet tricks to fulfill his existence as an adrenaline junkie, which of course extends to include the use of grinding a rail with a dinner tray in a display of defiance against the law of physics.
The movie itself was a fitfully entertaining romp if you remember to have your brain switched firmly in the off position before it starts, but it appears as though HBO Max subscribers have been struck by the desire to throw on their baggy jeans, frost their tips, and relive their youth all over again.
As per FlixPatrol, xXx can be found as one of the 20 most-watched titles on the platform’s global charts, after kick-flipping its way up the rankings to the dulcet tones of nu-metal.
Nothing encapsulates the early-2000s nature of xXx better than its cameos and soundtrack, though. Skateboarders Tony Hawk and Mike Vallely, BMX legend Matt Hoffman, the entirety of Rammstein, and Buckcherry frontman Josh Todd all show up at one point or another, while the tie-in album featured such luminaries as Drowning Pool, Mushroomhead, Nelly, and Hatebreed. Those were the days.
