The Right Manny For The Job... "The Pacifier"

The Pacifier (2005)

Rated PG

Starring Vin Diesel, Lauren Graham, Faith Ford, Brittany Snow, Max Thieriot, Carol Kane, Morgan York, Kegan & Logan Hoover

Directed by Adam Shankman

The Story:

Navy SEAL Shane Wolf (Diesel) is reassigned to protect the family of a scientist who died.  While the mom (Ford) goes with the Navy to attempt to find out what her husband left behind, Shane must babysit the kids (Snow, Thieriot, York and Hoover).  Naturally, his way of doing things, and the way the kids think things should be done are at odds.  However, bad guys are lurking and if the kids and Shane don't kill each other first, the bad guys might take them all out.

It's Uncle Buck meets Under Siege.

Actually, that's a pretty good description.

Vin Diesel struck out into family friendly territory with The Pacifier.
Much like The Rock, Disney took an action star and tried to turn him into a family friendly movie star.

In both cases, it pretty much worked.

Now, you can dislike this film (or any of the Rock's) all you want, but Disney succeeded with what they set out to do.

That the Tooth Fairy and The Pacifier teamed up in Fast Five for one of the most successful movies in the Fast & Furious franchise?

Full circle.

:)

I like films like this that allow action stars to broaden their career into comedy.  It's one of the muscles they usually only get to flex with a quick one-liner or a sarcastic dispatching of a villain.

If you can pull off broad, family friendly slapstick and walk away with your career intact, you're going to be somebody.

It doesn't hurt if you've got the charisma of Vin Diesel or Dwayne Johnson though.

:)

Final Grade: B+

Rewatchability/Purchase Factor: Harmless fun for the whole family.  The kids love it, and it's an enjoyable film to revisit every so often.

100 Greatest Movies of All Time...That I Own. # 78 ~ Under Siege

Ah, don't let that hat and smile fool you, Steven Seagal will kill you, 8 ways to Sunday.  Welcome to today's installment, Under Siege.

The premise:

It's Die Hard...on a boat!

I'm pretty sure that was the marketing pitch, and with the success of Die Hard, this, and countless other pretenders to the throne were launched.  In a twisted sense of Hollywood irony though, several of them were pretty good on their own right.

Under Siege falls in that category.

To say it is Seagal's best movie in his career (should I quote "career" on Seagal?) is a limb I'm willing to climb out on.  The fact that it's the Seagal movie where he has the least amount of screen time...

I chalk that up to coincidence!

Instead, we get a boatload of terrorists out to steal the warheads from the Navy.  Led by the scenery chewing antics of Gary Busey and Tommy Lee Jones, Seagal really did just pop in as required to save the day.

However, the formula worked perfectly.  Seagal played his part to perfection, but didn't overpower the movie with how awesome he is, which is what grinds most of his other movies to a halt.

That, and the fact they were really cheesy. : )

His other best film, Above the Law, was helmed by Andrew Davis, so perhaps he was onto something with how to harness the talents of Seagal to perfection?

Mr. Davis will be back on the countdown later, harnessing the power of another great performer, pushing him all the way to an Academy Award.

But that's for another day.