Vin Diesel, star of "The Fast and the Furious," plays "a new breed of secret agent" for the middle-class teenage boy market. What's new about him? Well, when chased by bad guys on snowmobiles, 007 would outski them. In complete contrast, Diesel's XXX character, an X-treme sports outlaw star turned patriotic spy, escapes by out-snowboarding them. If you are 15, this distinction matters profoundly.

James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger pulled off this secret-agent-on-steroids combination more adroitly in 1994s "True Lies." Cameron had a $100 million budget, but director Rob Cohen has only a modest $50 million to work with, of which Diesel got $10 million.

The stunts look exciting -- if preposterous -- in the TV commercial, but seem a little cheesy in the theater. For instance, you almost never see XXX actually land one of his big air moves.

The announcement of Diesel's sizable salary generated far more than $10 million in free publicity as it inspired much debate over whether Diesel will be the action hero of a new generation.

Of course, at 35, the shaven-headed and tattooed Diesel, who looks like the progeny of a rhinoceros crossed with a fire hydrant, isn't exactly in the first bloom of youth. That's OK, though, because it's a rule of thumb among screenwriters that audiences want their leading men to be 35. (Leading ladies are supposed to be about a decade younger.)

Does Diesel deliver? He is terrific at acting nonverbally with his facial muscles. And he is at least as good as Sylvester Stallone or Schwarzenegger at the one-liners, of which Jeff Wilkes' script gives him quite a few funny ones. Yet, he can't articulate words quickly enough to keep up with ace actor Samuel L. Jackson, who plays XXX's mentor in the spy game. In this suddenly popular role, Jackson outperforms Sir Anthony Hopkins in "Bad Company," matches Robert Redford in "Spy Game," but falls short of Morgan Freeman in "Sum of All Fears."

Interestingly, XXX doesn't smoke or drink. Yet, his love interest, the Eurotrash waif starlet Asia Argento, is so unhealthy looking that she appears to have enough vices for the both of them.

Rated PG-13 for violence, non-stop action sequences, sensuality, drug content and language.