1st watched 3/12/2005 - 3 out of 10(Dir-Lee Tamahori): Noisy, unspectacular, cgi-filled action movie. Ice Cube plays a kind of for-hire protector of the good-old United States of America as XXX in this second in the series which started with Vin Diesel in the starring role. Cube is expressionless, for the most part, and the action becomes pretty ridiculous and Bond-like even though we're dealing with too close to home locations like the Capitol building and people being involved like the President of our good-old United States of America. I realize that this isn't the first movie to include these icons of our society in danger, but we never really believe any of this is real and that's the problem here. The acting doesn't capture us and the character's don't either. So the promised action-fest is pretty boring overall. The supporting players just seem to be along for the ride and don't add much even though they include a few talented people like Samuel L. Jackson, Willem Dafoe, and Scott Speedman(who was great in the Underworld movies but is horrible here). I'm sure a lot of money was spent on this one, but overall it really wasn't money worth spent in my opinion.