[Diallo B]

i really enjoyed this. it is not even in the same universe as battlefield earth.

yes it is flawed but the movie has balls. i am not sure why they wanted to stay with a pg 13 rating. from what i have seen lately an r rating does not really deter any money making.

i already knew that regardless of the movie's merits is was going to get lambasted. take, for instance, our resident critic, mr. weinberg's, review

Quote:

Since Boiler Room, Mr. "Diesel" (oh, gimme a break already; the guy's name is Mark Vincent!) has headlined Pitch Black, The Fast and the Furious, XXX and A Man Apart. Not once in this quartet of cacophonous clattering did Mark Vincent do anything impressive. And by "impressive" I mean 'anything above and beyond grunting, punching, driving, shooting and sweating'. The guy's a full-bore one-note action star these days, so keep that Boiler Room DVD handy, as Diesel's performance within will one day prove to be a real rarity.

diesel gets little respect from critics. but i enjoy him as an actor anyway.

i hope that they make the sequels. i would love to see where they go with the ending.

[Kyle McKnight]

I didn't go into this expecting the "next big thing"....especially after seeing Pitch Black, where there were aliens, now it's Riddick against a "human" race....but I gotta say I enjoyed it. $6 wasn't wasted from me. Yes, it was pretty predictable, but fun to watch.

At first I kept thinking of Stargate SG-1. Necromongers = Goa'uld, there were the small "zat guns"....but still, I recommend any sci-fi fan giving it a chance.

[Todd Terwilliger]

I saw this last night. I enjoyed it but it is very flawed. I thought they went crazy with the quick cutting during some of the fight sequences -- too much. This is one of those films that is fun -- I can appreciate what is on the screen and what Twohy was shooting for even if he comes up short.

[TheLongshot]

Sorry if my spoiler tag was screwed up. I almost never screw up like that. It looks like the mods fixed it. Sorry for all those who were spoiled. :b

I certainly won't argue that the movie is flawed, and that feels more like a first part rather than a complete movie. Still, it still has me interested...

Jason

[Scott Weinberg]

i already knew that regardless of the movie's merits is was going to get lambasted. take, for instance, our resident critic, mr. weinberg's, review

How very curious that you chose to excise the passage that came right before, the passage in which I say some rather flattering things about Mark Vincent.

Ah well. Seems I'm in the minority on the HTF Riddick Ranch, so I become the one to knock. Enjoy.

---

Chuck, your review was quite solid. Despite my own opinion of the thing, I'm glad you enjoyed the movie!

[Diallo B]

mr weinberg,

my apologies if it seems as though i was choosing soundbytes. that was not my intent. my intent was to point out that the majority of professional critics share your views with no positive remarks. this is clearly indicated at rotten tomatoes.

actually, i thought that the passage that i chose to quote was pretty reflective of how you felt about mark vincent considering that the only performance that you give him any credit for was his role in the boiler room.

i usually share your views of movies. but i know that in this world mr. vincent will never earn any critical acclaim. it is expected and accepted.

[Scott Weinberg]

Fair enough, Diallo, and apology firmly accepted.

But you seem to be putting forth the idea that "the critics" are content to just blindly bash the guy. Perhaps it's just that the guy's never done much of anything to earn any critical acclaim. Even in the most formulaic of action flicks, there may be ample opportunity for the leading man to do something other than grunt and sweat.

It's true that I consider Vin's performance in Boiler Room a stand-out moment in his career. Because that's the only time he's ever even shown me anything.

And I'm not saying you need a Shakespearean sonnet in the middle of xXx, but look at a performance like Kurt Russell's in Escape from New York or even The Rock's performance in The Rundown. These are guys who actually seem to be trying for more than one simplistic dimension. To my eyes, Diesel has become a lump, all but entirely devoid of personality or onscreen presence of any kind.

But I always like to be proven wrong. If Vin's next movie (and performance) come as a pleasant surprise to me, you can rest assured that I'll give the guy the credit for it. I certainly don't knock the guy just because he's an action star. I certainly can't speak for "critics" as a whole, but I sincerely doubt that they're "gunning" for the guy just because he's a muscle-bound action hero.

I respect that you dig the guy's work. I, for the most part, absolutely do not.

[Chuck Mayer]

Hey Scott,
Heretic!!! Unbeliever!!!

Just a B-movie Nothing for us to get worked up about.

As for Vin, I did enjoy him in PB and TFATF (I can't watch it now, but he was a high point). I still need to see Boiler Room. Vin is the kind of actor who's excellent in small doses.

Take care,
Chuck

[Andy Sheets]

Yeah, well, Weinberg's certainly free to dislike this movie, but he's forfeited his right to wax nostalgic about Krull from now on

I thought Diesel was geninuely good in Pitch Black. He had that menacing, enigmatic aura down pat, and that's probably why Pitch Black is a more fulfilling movie to me than Riddick is (not that I didn't have fun watching Riddick) - you really don't know what he's going to do in Pitch Black and you want to figure out what's happening inside his head, whereas in Riddick you're mostly just watching him kick ass. Actually, now that I've been thinking about Riddick, that's what makes the ending frustrating to me - they've gotten the character back to that point where you don't know what he's going to do now but then the movie ends! It reminds me of the ending to Dune (the book) but without that very last part that tells you what Paul ended up doing and which made the story kind of haunting.

[Chuck Mayer]

Hey, I prefer PB as well. One thing I liked about Riddick is that it wasn't PB2. But PB is a superior film.

We can always wax nostalgic about the mighty Krull. Lysette Anthony is/was HOT!

Take care,
Chuck

[Todd Terwilliger]

Nothing wrong with Krull! I'll save a spot next to it for the Riddick DVD.