Apparently Vin Diesel doesn`t want to be pigeonholed as the next big tough guy. He should have a word in his studio`s shell-like then, because Columbia Tristar reckon he`s the next Bruce Willis. And he could be if xXx director Rob Cohen and scriptwriter Rich Wilkes were more proficient in their craft. Diesel`s cooler than cool charismatic presence, to-die-for body and animal magnetism have catapulted him into the big-league after sci-fi horror Pitch Black and last summer`s sleeper The Fast and The Furious. With xXx2 already in the pipeline, it seems that the Diesel marketing phenomenon is still in its infancy.

The best thing about xXx is Diesel as Xander "My friends call me `X`" Cage. Ring any bells? But before his life as the new 007, Cage was an extreme sports enthusiast who stole a senator`s car and parachuted off the bonnet as it cascaded 700ft off a bridge. With the threat of another spell in prison, he`s "persuaded" into spydom by NSA agent Augustus Gibbons (Samuel L.Jackson). The mission? To infiltrate dissident Czech nutters, Anarchy 99, headed by Yorgi (Marton Csokas), who for some unfathomable reason want to obliterate Prague with George Bush`s favourite - the biological weapon.

It`s best not to analyse the inconsistencies of the plot too much. Let`s just say it could do with some work, but if we wanted realism we could watch a documentary or Mike Leigh. `X` gets all mushy when he meets Yorgi`s girlfriend Yelena (Asia Argento), even though she`s dressed like a Cyndi Lauper reject, and there is a horrible snogging scene between them with Diesel looking more like a puffer fish sucking on plankton than a sexy anti-hero bagging the girl.

What the film lacks in direction, is made up for in the action sequences and at various stages `X` can be seen sky-surfing out of a plane and then snowboarding down a mountain with an avalanche millimetres from his arse; jumping over buildings and through fireballs on a motorcycle; driving cars with a chocolate box assortment of weapons and even sliding down a staircase on a silver tray. Rest assured these interludes are what makes xXx worth watching and sent shivers of excitement down my spine.

Diesel is being compared to every action hero created in the last decade. He has more attitude and cred than Arnie and makes James Bond look like an Etonian fairy (apart from the snogging that is!). The man most definitely has promise, he just needs to find a better film.

Released 17 October