Vin Diesel goes Disney in family comedy
MICHAEL CIDONI
Associated Press
Posted on Thu, Mar. 03, 2005
LOS ANGELES - After a string of menacing action roles, Vin Diesel finally participates in a movie that's actually supposed to generate laughs: the Disney family comedy "The Pacifier."
"This film is about a guy who has overcome many obstacles, many missions, and is confronted with the task of baby-sitting a whole family," the baldheaded, musclebound actor told AP Television News at the film's world premiere this week.
"What was so cool about this picture is that it played off the perception of previous characters I've played ("The Fast and the Furious," "XXX") and incorporated that into a comedy. Very funny, so much fun for me."
From director Adam Shankman ("The Wedding Planner"), "Pacifier" casts Diesel as a Navy SEAL out of water: a tough guy who's brought down to size when he's forced into the role of a father figure.
"You know what?" asked Shankman at the Tuesday night premiere. "(Vin is) the new Noel Coward. Thank you, very much - from Adam Shankman," he joked. "No! One of the great things about him doing this is that I told him, 'If you dare to try to be funny, I will literally have you murdered. I will have you murdered, because you are the straight guy in this movie."
The actor's hardcore fans still get a little action, thanks to a scene where Diesel and Brad Garrett (TV's "Everybody Loves Raymond") get down and wrestle. Garrett's the big loser on the screen, but Garrett says a real-life throwdown would be different.
"First of all, I'd take him, I would stick him back in the lamp. That's the first thing I would do," jokes Garrett. "Then I would tell him who his mommy is, and his daddy. I think Vin, if he threw the steroid bottle at me, and I didn't duck in time, I'd get a shiner."
Then Garrett got serious: "No, he could beat me up and he made that clear many times."
In the film, Diesel's not only a fighter, but a lover, locking lips with Lauren Graham (TV's "The Gilmore Girls").
"He's got a really nice mouth," the actress observes. "And he'll let you rub the top of his head because it's all bald up there, you know what I mean? You can be, like, 'Woooooooo!' 'What will the genie grant me today?!' I never actually did that. If I did, I don't think I'd be standing here."
All joking aside, cast consensus is that the their leading man is really a child at heart.
"I haven't done a movie that my niece and nephew can see, my godchildren can see," Diesel says. "When I was growing up, I remember the movies that we went to see as a family, together. And that experience, I think, is cool."
Lordy, Lauren makes me laugh.
'The Pacifier' Surprisingly Delivers More than Expected
Movie Review
By Matt Soergel
Morris News Service
Story last updated at 12:27 AM on Mar. 3, 2005 AP
As movies have long known, a man changing a baby's diaper - when he's not accustomed to such sticky tasks - is a guaranteed laugh-getter.
"The Pacifier" proves that again when Vin Diesel, playing a buff and no-nonsense Navy SEAL, has to baby-sit five suburban kids in their big house while protecting them from terrorists.
A thoroughly mainstream movie from Disney, it comes from the director of "Bringing Down the House," which most people liked more than I did.
You might not expect much from this one. But danged if "The Pacifier" isn't utterly charming and quite a lot of PG-rated fun. Credit Diesel, who's usually one bad (shut your mouth), for a nifty change of pace.
Without once acting overly cutesy, he's a self-deprecating blast as a muscled tough guy dealing with minivans and high-spirited children ("Do you have to wear a bra?" one asks).
Can he defuse the nasty vice principal (an amusing Brad Garrett, the hulking co-star of "Everybody Loves Raymond")? Can he help the girl pass driver's ed? Can he cope with the plight of a boy who only wants to act? Can he bond with some girl Firefly scouts as they sell their fund-raising cookies?
And are those sparks that fly when the foxy school principal ("The Gilmore Girls'" Lauren Graham) walks into the office?
Making such a movie is a required career step for tough guys such as Diesel, from Arnold in "Kindergarten Cop" and Hulk Hogan in "Mr. Nanny" to Ice Cube in "Are We There Yet?"
In fact, grumpy Tommy Lee Jones and some cheerleaders are doing the same thing in the next auditorium in "Man of the House."
Still, though there's nothing new here, Diesel and Co. make it a sweetly funny time anyway. There are even a couple of sentimental moments that - hard to believe - actually ring true.
It helps that Diesel's SEAL is not a diehard hater of children, as a lazier script would have it. And it helps that the kids aren't all precocious über-brats, but instead seem, well, kind of normal.
"The Pacifier" smartly shows some actual restraint, and is all the better for it.