Star: Vin Diesel

Riddick (2013) – Vin Diesel and Dave Bautista

This movie starts out more slow, grimy and unpleasant than the original – possibly an attempt to replicate the mood of the original, but failing. It could easily pass for an upper B movie with some of the sound effects, camerawork and acting going on here, if not for the CGI of the animals. In terms of enemy, at least early on, it’s a revert back to the concept of the original in that the enemy is animal.

While it does become watchable, as a slow and lonely but well crafted movie, it’s not until 40 minutes in when it has a change of pace and actually becomes properly entertaining, when Dave Bautista arrives on scene, as part of a pair of rival crews looking to capture Riddick who has spent the last hour hour plus alone with his canine on a desert world infested with deadly swamp scorpions. When the two teams arrive, the movie really gets going – it doesn’t become very complex but it becomes respectably interesting at least.

Team 2 are properly on the scene 10 minutes later, and we get a nice flash of humour from Dave Bautista on the 1 hour mark. The next hour continues a bit slow but it’s not a bad movie per se. Even with more nudity and sexual expletives than one might expect after watching the last two Riddick movies, the balance of pros and cons make this one probably deserved of a Bang Average rating – about as good as the original and slightly inferior to the second of the three in terms of general action hero movie entertainment value, although some people will consider the second the inferior of the three if they prefer the slow grimey mood and super simple story of the first and third movies but that’s not the preferred genre of myself or my ratings system – I prefer the second, and this differential is only magnified when it comes to rewatch value.

The Chronicles of Riddick (2004) – Vin Diesel

This movie is a bit more action packed and interesting from the outset but it eventually settles into a consistent pace. Although it’s got less of a moody intrigue than the original, it’s got more dimension to the movie and is generally more entertaining for the fast action movie fan. With decent script, cinematography and supporting cast, I rate The Chronicles of Riddick a bit Above Average – thus a bit better than the original – not in terms of pure movie value, but in terms of action hero movie value, since that’s what I’m mainly interested in here. If we’re looking at pure originality and production quality, I would give the slow & focused original (Pitch Black, 2000) a higher rating since it’s a bit of a masterpiece in its own right, while the Chronicles here seem higher budget and simultaneously cheaper around the edges – still better for fast action hence Above Average on our scorecards here.

There’s no mockery of Islam like in the last movie, but there’s a very strong satanism vibe here – they’re literally worshipping the underworld realm, treating it as the ideal afterlife realm for some twisted reason.

Pitch Black (2000) – Vin Diesel

This movie carries a similar genre to Blade, but with less exciting action and more moodiness. Rarely would such a grimy genre — such a slow but mixed-pace action-drama-horror — appeal to those who prefer smooth action hero movies, but this movie is an exception — it kind of works, and does quite well in sustaining attention.

On the down side, it plays to stereotypes in such a way that’s subtly making a mockery of Islam and Muslims.

Overall I rate it Bang Average and that may be a bit generous considering it probably deserves a bit lower if we’re strictly considering genre but considering the overall quality of production it could even be an under-rating, so Bang Average is probably a happy medium here.

If you enjoyed this movie, don’t miss the sequel that came a few years later: The Chronicles of Riddick (2004), and the threequel a decade later: Riddick (2013).

XXX 3: Return of Xander Cage (2017) – Vin Diesel

Well it seems they eventually managed to persuade Vin Diesel to come back for the trilogy, after his absence from the second in the series. Probably a factor in his return, was going all-out with a star-studded supporting cast that includes Neymar Júnior, Donnie Yen, Michael Bisping, Deepika Padukone, Tony Jaa and Nina Dobrev – plus Samuel L Jackson who dies early on, and Ice Cube who returns from being the star of the previous movie where Vin Diesel was absent.

The opening has a bit of a Ghost In The Shell vibe, with one very similar scene near the start. Great action early on, but it slows down and gets a bit drama-ish after that.

There’s a very long action scene in the late middle, and a lot of cringeworthy acting from the supporting cast members too.

Overall I rate it just about Above Average and that may be being a bit generous.

XXX (2002) – Vin Diesel and Samuel L Jackson

It’s no wonder this movie spawned into a trilogy (2002, 2005, 2017) which unravelled adjacently alongside the Riddick trilogy (2000, 2004, 2013). Although not perfect – although having slight downsides – this is actually a decent action movie pretty much from start to finish. It’s like a cross between James Bond and Rush Hour, in genre, since it’s got that secret agent touring the world element to it, but it’s also got a bit of a cheesy slapstick gangster element to it.

Vin Diesel holds this movie down almost singlehandedly. There are some decent supporting cast members including Samuel L Jackson (Vin Diesel’s boss), and the lead female (Asia Argento as Yelena), as well as Marton Csokas (chief muscle of the baddies from The Equalizer) as the main baddie here. But Vin Diesel is by far the main focus of the show in this movie – a role he handles very well.

Although early there is slight promotion of being dismissive of those criticising violence in video games and movies, and later on there is a bit of a bioweapons fearmongering theme, this is still relatively mild conditioning compared to what we get in most mid-budget Hollywood action movies these days. Considering this, and its successful execution of a simple concept, I would say this movie is about equal to Bloodshot – a more modern movie by Vin Diesel which has a more fascinating concept but darker undertones. I put it on a par with the best James Bond movie (Living Daylights) since that’s a bit slow & dated but a richer and more intense classic so it kind of balances out with the faster, smoother, high budget, lighter weight, more modern movie that is XXX. As such, it gets a rating of Decent.

Bloodshot (2020) – Vin Diesel

Bloodshot is a novel concept – creative and action packed – great for anyone who’s never seen it before. It is a bit one dimensional still though. The introduction of the hacker is a nice plot development but aside from that it’s all very simple.

Vin Diesel is his usual self – a fairly entertaining action hero, but a bit dryer and slower than my favourite action movie stars, although he oozes energy from underneath the surface. This role doesn’t perfectly suit him, but he does pretty well in it nevertheless.

Supporting cast includes Eiza González, the lead female – she does quite well in her role as an attractive assassin being controlled by Guy Pearce’s character. Lamorne Morris does quite well as the coding whiz who hacks the controlling technology to set Vin’s and Eiza’s characters free.

Guy Pearce does alright as the main nemesis on the brains side – the guy who controls Vin Diesel’s character until he breaks free – but he is a bit too meek in demeanour for such a power hungry role – a naturally stronger character here could have made this is more convincing movie.

Sam Heughan does a good job as the main nemesis on the (tech assisted) muscles side – he has a very convincing attitude for the role.

Alex Hernandez also does alright as one of the main team members. Good attitude for the requirement of the role.

Toby Kebbell also does quite well, as the first victim of the mind-controlled main character played by Vin Diesel. He displays an impressive contrast of acting styles here, from a savage psycho killer with a screw-loose wacky side, to an innocent and vulnerable victim with strong understanding and quick reactions.

Talulah Riley plays Vin Diesel’s wife – her performance was fair enough, although it was a bit washed & wafery – a more attractive & powerful woman like Eiza González could have done a better job in this role and helped make the movie more convincing since the plot is so heavily based on Vin Diesel’s character being so attached to his wife and so moved and vengeance-seeking when she’s killed.

Overall it’s a busy action packed movie and quite creative in its core concept, but is a bit one dimensional in terms of extended plot detail. It’s especially interesting for those who haven’t seen it before or in many years. Due to the strong special effects, fairly rich action, generally decent cast, and quirky concept, but with a dodgy nanite theme in-keeping with so many movies released around 2020; I rate Bloodshot about equal to its rival Hobbs & Shaw, or Black Panther 1 and 2. Indeed it’s disappointing to see so much pushing of the idea that technology in our body is a beneficial and even cool thing, especially when it comes to nanobots messing around in our blood according to their own discretion or an outside controller. Bloodshot is an awesome movie the first time you see it, if you can forgive its dodgy theme features, but significant tedium sets in and significant flaws become much more apparent if you rewatch it too often.