Cast: Ice Cube, Willem Dafoe, Samuel L. Jackson
Director: Lee Tamahori

Please hand the earplugs!

Yes, it's that time of the year again when the screen erupts to a babble of undecipherable sounds, so much so, after the fifth or sixth explosion, one just surrenders to the mindless mayhem.

The soundtrack of "XXX2..." - the sequel to the 2002 flick starring Vin Diesel - is so flush with "fundas" that you sometimes want to shut your ears out.

But don't mind them - they mean only to entertain. Even if Triple "XXX2..." is silly, it's engaging. Fast-paced and politically simulated, the film re-invents the no-brainer, all-basher.

Rapper Ice Cube takes over from the original "XXX..." hero Vin Diesel - managing to carry one single immovable expression throughout the film - as he plays the soldier Darius Stone.

He prefers food to sex. And when he is not eating, he's fighting to save the country from the clutches of an evil army man George Deckhert (Willem Dafoe).

But director Lee Tamahori - who had executed the James Bond flick "Die Another Day" - certainly knows how to blow up cars without blowing up our patience. Every chase and stunt is staged with élan, though they certainly spark cynicism.

Violence can be fun in the right hands. But hijacked tanks and rumbling guns rolling into the besieged White House as the pacifist president looks on as though he hasn't a clue, is a bit hard to digest.

Tamahori plays up the hero's African-American identity by constantly showing the hero's dude pals as being more patriotic than their anglo-saxon counterparts in the White House.

The absence of vulgarity helps Tamahori build his case. But what's lacking is the Martini-dry humour of James Bond.

Tamahori allows no breathing space in the narrative. No matter how absurd the going gets, there is a flair for action underling every manoeuvre in the plot.

The patriotic super-hero here is too uni-focussed to be wry or even attractive - just a subverted satirical avatar of the burnout mean machines earlier played so famously by Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Seasoned Samuel L. Jackson who plays Ice Cube's senior colleague is more internalised. At the end, he promises another Triple X flick, another super-hero, a totally unappetizing thought.

Watch "XXX2..." only if you are looking for a tongue-in-the-cheek re-working of the James Bond formula, or, if you like your comic book heroes as strong, silent and dumb.