We were a bit restless after dinner last night and planning on seeing this Vin Diesel comedy sooner rather than later, so TS1 and I got off our duffs and went to the 9:00 showing. Despite generally poor reviews, we both enjoyed The Pacifier and thought it compared well to, say, Arnold’s Kindergarden Cop (reasonably similar warnings about suitability for children under, say, nine too), which we also enjoyed.
As I proclaimed in my review of xXx, I think Diesel has the charisma to be a major action star; this is really his first comedy, though, and he needs to develop a better understanding of the difference in rhythm and timing if he wants to break out of that genre. Director Adam Shankman, following up the Steve Martin/Queen Latifah Bringing Down the House, manages to smooth around the edges and writers Tom Lennon and Robert Ben Garant (partners on Comedy Central’s Reno 911, last year’s Jimmy Fallon English language remake of Taxi, cult troupe The State) thrown in a bit more creative whackiness than we often get in big studio fish out of water comedies.
For instance, there’s a subplot pitting Lt. Shane Wolfe (Diesel) against Vice Principal/Wrestling Coach Murney (Brad Garrett) over the behavior of oldest son Seth (Max Thieriot). Even lightly-used romantic interest Lauren Graham, playing the school principal, is taken in when Seth dyes his hair blonde and a Nazi armband is found in his locker. Lennon and Garant pull this one straight out of their lower body opening, so unexpected that I refuse to spoil it, but suffice to say much laughter ensued when Diesel’s bus chase on a little girl bicycle uncovered the reasoning. Later on, Wolfe and the Murninator settle their differences on the wrestling mat that also yields a couple of good laughs.
Laughter, after all, is the only useful measure of this type of movie. The Pacifier is entertainment, not art, and though there is a bit of the subversive via the scripters we’re after something different in watching this than, say, Heat or The Station Agent. Judged in this light, let’s list it as moderately successful.
recommended
Amusingly, this film beat out the favored Be Cool at the box office by over 25%, $30.2M v. $23.5M.
BillSaysThis 