Early in xXx: The Return of Xander Cage, Vin Diesel rides a motorcycle across water like a gearhead Christ. Does he catch some sick tube? You bet your ass he does. And when this is all over, he emerges onto the beach, half naked and glistening wet, ogled by the camera like he’s Halle Berry in Die Another Day (or Daniel Craig in Casino Royale). Vin’s a muscular, attractive dude, but his physique isn’t in line with what we’re used to looking up and down on a beach. The ripples in his obliques don’t surround six pack abs. There’s muscle to go around on Mr. Diesel but not much in the way of chiseled god definition. Were this film anyone else’s baby I doubt we’d have this lingering moment.

But ignore the names of director D.J. Caruso and writer F. Scott Frazier in the turn of the century tacky opening credits. The newest xXx film is its star’s passion project and paean to himself. If ever I asked who this movie is for, the answer was close at hand: Vin Diesel. And thank god for that. While self-indulgent excess in the hands of nearly anyone else grates, Diesel’s ode to his 2002 self plays like a series of Rube Goldberg machines in which every moving piece is working towards putting a smile on your face. This is an incredibly stupid movie with a script that plays like secret agent MadLibs and direction that can sometimes be described as ‘serviceable.’ But its sheer dedication to winning over an audience delights in the age of the cynical blockbuster. A scene in which Xander Cage races down a mountain—on skis, through a jungle, in the summer!—to restore power to a village just in time for the soccer game everyone wants to watch is the whole affair in miniature.

Ruby Rose, Donnie Yen, Tony Jaa, Deepika Padukone and a bunch of other people who won’t read this and get offended I didn’t mention them, join Vin in a globe hopping adventure about recovering a government surveillance device to stop satellites from falling out of the skies. Every character has their own apparent specialization—one is a sniper, another a stunt drive and another a DJ—but these are mostly left unexplored in favor of general ass kicking. So it’s no surprise that Donnie Yen, whose athleticism can easily overcome clumsy camerawork and choppy editing, nearly steals the movie for himself. But every member of this cast has their big moments and fair share of screen time. Never has a lead actor’s vanity project been so keen to spread the wealth, but if Instagram is anything to go by, that’s just Vin Diesel’s style.

Two Marvel jokes (ok, the same joke twice) bookend the film, as if to suggest this crew is Diesel’s answer to the Avengers. But xXX: The Return of Xander Cage is a more diverse, idiosyncratic and fun movie than any of the Avengers’ most recent screen outings. What’s more, while Marvel Cinematic Universe films lead the vanguard of action movies that participate in moral hand-wringing in the face of purposefully ambiguous questions regarding fascism and the surveillance state (see: Captain America: Civil War, DC’s Batman V. Superman, whatever), this dumbass 2017 sequel to a 2002 movie about a spy who does extreme sports winds up taking a firm stance against the State’s ability to spy on its people. In a time when blockbusters are made to pander to the zeitgeist without alienating anyone, Vin Diesel’s passion projects have become refreshing. When was the last time one of these movies got made just because someone really wanted to make it?

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Directed by D.J. Caruso; written by F. Scott Frazier; starring Vin Diesel, Ruby Rose, Donnie Yen, Tony Jaa, Deepika Padukone, Kris Wu, Nina Dobrev, Toni Collette, Samuel L. Jackson, and Ice Cube; 107 minutes.

xXx: Return of Xander Cage is now playing in theaters everywhere.