"The Pacifier" DVD: 3.8 out of 5 stars
After a long, stressful and tiring day from work, watching "The Pacifier" is a great way to relax and be entertained. The laughs can be helpful for some who actually had the dire need for detoxification after a tiring work day.
Vin Diesel finally makes a decent film with this new family flick from Disney. Actually, he doesn’t need a lot of effort to get that charm for the film’s comic side. Humanizing his action skills from bloated action blockbusters to the movie’s flipside requirements has made things easily acceptable in the funny side of things. Though he is not the pioneer in this rare career shift from action to comedy by the “big men,” it is interesting to note that he doesn’t mind opening to such possibilities than staying stuck in the stereotypical zone.
With regards to the rest of the movie’s characters, looking at them as an ensemble, the overacting requirements and far from real characterization creates a completely funny and effectively light story.
Though the film has that same old story about the tough guy who needs to take care of a bunch of menacing and rebellious kids (remember Stallone and Schwarzenegger), the formula works and you’ll get pacified by a nice little family movie. It is actually a sloppy concept. It may not be a hard core critics’ bet for a good artsy review; but its very formula works for its intentions.
The film begins with typical serious action scenes that are not surprising for the ‘Vin Diesel character.” Then it shifts into a corny but acceptably funny plotpoints with extremely weirdo characters that can remind you of “Home Alone stints.” After failing from a mission to protect an important government scientist, Navy SEAL Shane Wolfe (Vin Diesel) aims to redeem himself by take care of the scientist`s children while their mother (Faith Ford) tries to discover the secret plans of her late husband in a foreign land. The Plummer kids become the military man`s greatest challenge: the rebel teen girl Zoe (Brittany Snow), the dreamer and insightful 14-year-old Seth (Max Thieriot), the Ninja wannabe Lulu (Morgan York), the weirdo toddler Peter and the cute baby Tyler.
Shane’s assignment is to protect the kids after the death of their scientist dad whose secret experiment has been left somewhere in the house. And from here, his life with the Plummer kiddos becomes against all odds and filled with the unorthodox ways of the characters from the house and even the school grounds where he becomes a baby sitter, family driver and body guard rolled into one.
Shane uses his own military skills and applies them into the domestic battlefield: the usual gags about changing the baby`s diapers, being a parent to a rebellious teenage girl, yielding to the bizaare ways of a little boy, trying to fit in the needs of the rest of the little brats, disregarding the unusual actions of foreigners around, attending to the weird ways of a former beauty queen turned nanny who has the looks of an Adams family character, teaching a lesson to a bullying high school vice principal, and even directing the musical play “The Sound of Music.” The script requires extreme characterizations. Most characters seem overacting and unrealistic. But overall, they are weaved to be effectively funny.
The subplot of trying to find the stuff of the dead scientist`s secret experiment, which, in the wrong hands, could spell great disaster, is not given much attention. And it has not been given much suspense and creativity in the script at all. So just get back to the comedy and everything would sail smoother. This family movie gives weight to the fun, the laughs and the morals of the story… such a light, escapist and feel good film.
This film delivers an easy, goodwill charm. Though it is completely a recycled material to begin with, it is considerably a simple family movie worth some fun, comic insights into the family dynamics. It is an escapist, feel good movie that catches the heart and can be embraced by an audience seeking some really light load.
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