He's a new kind of secret agent. He throws out the martinis, but keeps the promiscuity. He's sly, not suave. He doesn't cotton to conventions -- he creates his own rules. He apparently doesn't really care about music, if the soundtrack to XXX -- better known as Vin Diesel is triple X! -- is to be trusted. Where James Bond had
John Barry, XXX has a bunch of alt-metal meatheads and hardcore hip-hop hombres, providing a soundtrack for the extreme sports that are XXX's background. Yes, it's another soundtrack specifically directed at its target audience, and while it can't be faulted for that, it's hard not to wish that there were less of the dunderheaded
Hatebreed and
Rammstein (who have never sounded stupider than they do on "Feurer Frei," with its chorus of "BANG BANG!"), especially because there are good moments:
Drowning Pool's "Bodies" sounds better than ever in its Vrenna XXX Mix,
Gavin Rossdale's first solo track, "Adrenaline," is
Bush with a hip makeover, and
Queens of the Stone Age show why they're considered the great hard rock of the time by delivering melodic -- that's right, melodic -- counterpoints to the verse and chorus of their contribution, "Millionaire." The hip-hop is more or less a wash, and while there isn't anything particularly noteworthy anywhere here, it does sustain its mood throughout, which is all that it really needs to do. Still, it's hard not to think that a new kind of secret agent should at least have something more than mood music for his soundtrack, especially if he isn't going to wind up with his own theme.