An astoundingly awful actioner that parachuted off a cliff at the box office gets extreme on streaming

If you were to name an action movie revolving around extreme sports that released in 2002, then the answer would obviously be Vin Diesel’s blockbuster success story xXx. For those of you who would respond by naming Extreme Ops instead, we have serious questions, and more than a few reservations.

Arriving only a few months after the debut of Xander Cage, the similarities are there for all to see, but there’s not even a contest when it comes to naming the superior of the two. Let’s not forget that despite its healthy ticket sales, xXx wasn’t exactly lauded for its cinematic excellence, but it looks like Die Hard compared to Extreme Ops.

Not only does director Christian Duguay’s ludicrous thrill-ride hold embarrassing Rotten Tomatoes scores of only seven and 28 percent from critics and audiences, but it parachuted right off a precipitously high cliff during its theatrical run after bringing in only a shade above $10 million on a reported $40 million budget.

For those who remain curious, the plot finds a director recruiting a band of daredevils to shoot a high-octane TV commercial, but when the group accidentally stumbles upon the hideout of a Serbian warlord and capture him on film, they become targets of a rogue militia out to track them down and wipe them from existence before they can share the footage.

Every bit as ridiculous as it sounds, Extreme Ops was forgotten for a reason, unless you happen to be an iTunes customer. For unfathomable reasons, the critical and commercial disaster has unexplainably been reborn as one of the most-watched features on the iTunes global charts per FlixPatrol, because even the worst flicks apparently need a second moment in the spotlight.