If you feel the need for speed and like your action heroes with more brawn than brain, then Rob Cohen's outlandish action-adventure might just set your pulse racing.

Xander Cage (Vin Diesel) is a renegade with little interest in the law or public property.

He gets his kicks by stealing cars and driving them off bridges, then parachuting from the free-falling vehicle while his friends videotape the daredevil action.

Invariably, the police catch up with Xander and threaten him with a lengthy stay behind bars.

National Security Agent Augustus Gibbons (Samuel L Jackson), however, offers the thrill-seeking law-breaker a tantalising alternative: Work as an undercover operative for the agency.

Caught in a no-win situation, Xander accepts and is posted to Prague, where he must infiltrate a hi-tech terrorist group led by the megalomaniac Yorgi (Marton Csokas).

But the mission is quickly compromised by Xander's infatuation with Yorgi's sexy, double-crossing girlfriend Yelena (Asia Argento).

Even with gadgets and gizmos aplenty at his disposal, the fledgling agent has to put all of his extreme sports skills to the test to save the day, and his own skin.

Diesel's secret agent is licensed to thrill, with a penchant for kamikaze antics and mass destruction with director Rob Cohen only too keen to oblige by orchestrating some OTT and outrageous all-action set-pieces.

xXx accelerates from a chase between a motorcycle and two helicopter gunships which results in the total destruction of a village, to a snowboarding sequence, in which Xander attempts to outrun an avalanche.

Unfortunately, the stunts are the only element likely to leave you shaken and stirred.

Sadly, the secret agent has little personality.