International Cinema Festival of India

To quote Marlon Brando’s character in On the Waterfront, Vin Diesel, aka Mark Sinclair Vincent, “could of been a contender.” For a brief moment in time, Vin Diesel had all the makings of the next mega-star. He was poised to be a major player in the industry, not just some character actor. Unfortunately, he could have been a contender, if not for a string of terrible movies, not the least of which is The Pacifier.

Chances are, you’ve never heard of the film. If I’m not mistaken it ran at the box office for a week before it was mainlined into the straight-to-video market. From Steven Spielberg’s darling to prancing around for Mickey Mouse, it’s been a long, jagged drop from the limelight. It all started so well — he had guts and moxie and wasn’t afraid to call a spade a spade. And then, it all changed.

He was prominently featured in Saving Private Ryan back in 1998. A year later, his voice was featured in the animated hit, The Iron Giant. A year after that, he was in two back-to-back hits: Boiler Room and then Pitch Black. Everything was in alignment for this beast from the Bronx. Unfortunately, something went horrible, horribly wrong.

While Diesel is now a major proponent of the Fast and the Furious franchise, these exploitation films began the slide towards the career oblivion that is The Pacifier. Add to the mix the macho-fantasy of XXX and you can begin to chart how his reach exceeded his grasp. Of course, if he had stopped there, there could have been some hope of resurrecting his career.

Unfortunately, it only got worse with the release of two closely detonated bombs: A Man Apart and The Chronicles of Riddick. So, in an obvious effort to reinvent himself and appeal to a broader market, he took on this bit of Disney clap trap. While the calculation is praiseworthy, the execution leaves everyone involved in this de facto Kindergarten Cop fiasco with a black eye.

While you surely have seen better movies, The Pacifier manages to be enjoyable in a schlocky kind of way.