Managed to catch The Pacifier a couple of days back and as usual, here's my take on Disney's 'action' comedy.

Ok... this doesn't make sense, Why would Vin Diesel, a guy with the emotive power of a rock, do comedy? Sure, his previous roles are action hero roles like XXX, Fast and the Furious and Chronicles of Riddick, where being a buffed works well, but I reckon, The Pacifier completely wastes Diesel's limited talents. IMHO, he must have hoped that The Pacifier could do for him what Kindergarden Cop did for Schwarzenegger. IMHO, it was a combination of various factors that made this movie a so-so movie.

The Pacifier starts promisingly with Vin Diesel, as Navy SEAL Shane Wolfe, trying to rescue a professor who developed some sort of code scrambler. However, everything does not go according to plan and the professor is killed. Several months later, instead of being sent back out to look for the professor's invention, Shane is assigned to protect the professor's family while his superior and the widow travels to Switzerland to retreive a safe deposit box. Thus, this leaves Shane smack in the middle of suburbia to guard the five children with varying personalities. Despite the challenging prospect of keeping these kids in line, Shane treats this 'babysitting' gig as a top-notch military mission. After all, it's his job to see that no harm comes to his minor assignments should their father's killers come knocking at the door unexpectedly.

There's nothing exciting about the story. It's more a Shane-centric story line on how he deals with the kids. I guess, it's relatively funny to see a buffed guy like vin Diesel be a nanny and how he handles various obstacles (changing diapers and reading bed time stories), but the writers aren't imaginative enough to come out with originality to put these scenarios forward, thus making the plot predictable and spoiling the laughs. I guess and I can see it coming. I would say they managed to put in a few hilarious dialogs that saved the day.

There's nothing special about the soundtrack in the movie and most songs and effects blend in with the movie nicely which makes this movie less tedious to watch.. :P seriously, I yawned a couple of times.

As for the actors, they generally did a good job... nothing memorable really. The two outstanding actors would be Everybody Loves Raymond's Brad Garrett (Raymond's tall brother) who plays the vice-pricipal for his hilarious kung-fu/wrestling expressions and Morgan York who plays Lulu, a kung-fu-girl scout wannabe. As for vin Diesel, I reckon that he should just stick to what he does best... being the macho-no-nonsense-action-hero. Being funny for him just doesn't cut it. It's just like watching Jim Carrey doing an action film. :P

Overall, an OK movie if you wanna bring the kids along for the movie... no blood, no swearing and being a Disney movie, clumpsy bad guys! If you're looking for a comedy to watch, this movie is watchable and it's actually quite entertaining (I had a few good laughs). But I would recommend Hitch if you want good comedy. If you don't fall in any of the category above, don't bother.

Ratings (Scale of 1 to 5, 5 being the highest)

Cast : 3
Sound : 3
Picture : 3
Storyline: 3 [Too Predictable]

OVERALL : 3