BJ Shea’s BGA ep. 62: Mensa Select Winners

This week on BJ Shea’s Board Game Alliance, Joey Deez, Josh Utley, Sean Epperson and Vicky B. talk about the charity gaming event they will be doing May 19th: The Gauntlet: Cirque! They also go through the Mensa Select Winners, then Quickstarters with Sean!

BJGN02-27-19 – Capital Lux – Valeria: Card Kingdom’s Shadowvale – Apex Legends

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BJ reviews the games Capital Lux and Valaria: Card Kingdom’s latest expansion, Shadowvale; Joe & Rev discuss the latest updates to Apex Legends; the gang discusses the break-up between Marvel & Netflix; and we get the Geek Sheet with Vicky B!

XXX: The Return Of Xander Cage

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It is hard to believe that it has been fifteen years since audiences were introduced to Xander Cage (Vin Diesel) in “XXX”.  Ice Cube continued the series with “XXX: State of the Union” in 2005 but since then the series has been dormant with the occasional rumor of a new film arising.

The new film follows the long assumed deceased Xander Cage returning to action in the XXX program when a group of highly skilled operatives attack a meeting and steal a device known as Pandora’s Box which allows the users unlimited access to personal data and satellite control such as being able to use thousands of orbiting devices as weapons of terror by crashing them into cities the world over.

In a race against time, Cage must assemble a team of operatives and discover the location of the device and obtain it at any cost.

Things become more complicated as the investigation unfolds and Cage and his crew soon find themselves battling enemies from multiple sides which results in several over the top action sequences and stunts which have been a staple of the series.

The supporting cast is very strong especially Donnie Yen and Tony Jaa as well as the sadly underused Samuel L. Jackson.

The biggest issue with the film is that it takes insane liberties with the plot even by action film standards and seem little more than a device to get the cast into one action scene after another without any thought to logic or coherency. Even by action film standards it is all over the place and takes some great leaps of logic. The dialogue is often groan inducing at Diesel seems to be at times walking through his performance until he is required to do something of a physical nature.

The action is the saving grace of the film as the cast makes their action scenes a ballet of chaos as they nimbly smash, shoot, and destroy everything in their path which is essentially what fans of the series want in the end.

It has been reported that a new film in the series is already planned by the studio which would be a welcome adventure as it would be nice to see this crew back in action. My only wish is that they are given a script that is worthy of the assembled talent.

3 stars out of 5