The Pacifier (2005)

One of the better comedies from the Walt Disney Studios in the past several years has been the Pacifier. If Arnold Schwarzenegger can manage kindergarten, than Vin Diesel can certainly babysit a whole family of a scientist who's been killed under mysterious circumstances.

Tate Donovan was doing some top secret work for the government and whoever killed him didn't get what they want. That puts his family in danger. Vin Diesel's been sent to protect them.

Of course getting into their lives wasn't included in the bargain. Mother Faith Ford has a handful with her kids who range from the teens down to the toddler. The handful is now dumped on Diesel.

Diesel's tough guy screen image is nicely played against by the kids. Look for a very nice performance by Brad Garrett as a blowhard assistant principal who Diesel puts nicely in his place.

For the conclusion, the film glides effortlessly back into the action genre we're more familiar with in Vin Diesel films.

Nice film for the whole family and try to learn the Andy Panda dance.

Fmovies: Vin Diesel? In a Comedy? Yes! And he's awesome! I'm hoping this doesn't indicate a genre change for Diesel-I love watching his actioners, but when he decides he needs to retire, he should definitely give comedy a sincere consideration. This wasn't "awesome," but it was highly enjoyable.

The premise has been done before...when I saw the previews for this work, I thought, "Just another Suburban Commando ripoff." I'm happy to report that this endeavor is so much more than that, and stands alone, without any connection to that work than a military character in a suburban setting. Everything else is different, and well executed by these gifted child actors and Vin Diesel in his most lovable role.

I highly recommend this work to any family who are looking for something worthy in which to invest their movie time.

It rates a 7.6/10 from...

the Fiend :.

If you liked Kindergarten Cop, there's a good chance you'll like this film. It's in a similar vein, the plot of the hardened male (Vin Deisel) forced to deal with multiple children. But this movie could've been better. I thought a lot of the action scenes seemed forced and a little on the ridiculous side. I love ninjas, but they just weren't well-played. But the side-plots involving the children's school were mostly entertaining, Morgan York (Lulu) stole the show, and Brad Garret (Vice Principal Murney) was hysterical. Scott Thompson (the Director) was also quite funny, but I would've liked to see more of him. So though I found the action portions disappointing, your kids would probably like the movie and you won't be too tortured.

The Pacifier fmovies. It's not rocket science, but who cares. Turn off the brain, and sit down with the kids for a good solid family comedy. Vin Diesel plays a tough guy with a big heart, he just has to find it. In the process he helps to save the world and defeat the bad guys. The children playing the Plummer family work well together, you could believe that they could be a real family (problems and all). Lauren Graham plays the principal of the school and the "love" interest for Vin Diesel very well. Their attraction is "cute" but not overdone. Brad Garrett as the vice-principal provides the off the wall character that is often presented in this script formula. His character was probably one of the main characters that could have been written better, but was passable. Pop the popcorn for a bit of a corny film and have some fun

In brief: "A bit more cutesy than "Kindergarten Cop," but more family-friendly, and Vin Diesel shows his versatility."

I don't usually attend screenings for kids' movies, but when I first found out about this film, I was very curious to see how Vin Diesel would do in a kid's film. I've liked Vin Diesel ever since "Pitch Black", and while some may dismiss him as a muscle-bound action workhorse, I've long thought that there was more to him lurking behind that facade, and remembering the skepticism that greeted Arnold Schwarzenegger's attempts at comedy—skepticism that was greeted with what I thought were successful turns in "Twins" and "Kindergarten Cop", I was curious to see how successfully Diesel would play against type.

The result is a family film more cutesy and farcical than "Kindergarten Cop", (the model my mind kept going back to for comparison), with an unfortunately greater focus on infant waste products, but greater conflict between Diesel and his young charges, which lends itself to more heartwarming moments of rapport-building.

Diesel plays Lt. Shane Wolfe, a Navy SEAL assigned to protect the five children of a top scientist (Tate Donovan), and find a hidden computer program that may be secreted in his house while their mother (Faith Ford) and Wolfe's C.O. journey to Zurich to try and find the right code word for the scientist's safety deposit box. A simple assignment, it seems, except these kids have issues. Eldest son Seth is defiant, suffers bullying from fellow students and the school's V.P., and is negligent in his wrestling team responsibilities. Oldest daughter Zoe ("American Dreams"'s Brittany Snow) is truant in her Driver's Ed class, and willfully disobedient. The problems of the youngest three, Lulu, Peter, and Tyler, seem simpler, but are no less mountainous for Wolfe, who first tries addressing these problems with the roughshod military discipline he's accustomed to, but soon finds himself changing tactics by listening to these kids' problems, and helping them out more as a parent than a military bodyguard. Whereas Schwarzenegger's character was instantly ingratiated with the object of his protection in "Kindergarten Cop" by becoming friends and eventually boyfriend to his mom, and merely had to win his class' attention, here Wolfe has the more difficult task of cutting through the layers of resentment in a pair of teenagers, taking care of an infant and two young children, and protecting them from assassins that come crashing through windows, which lends itself to both some genuinely warm moments when he opens up to Seth and Zoe, and some surprisingly interesting but funny action sequences that seem evocative of Jackie Chan, with a really nice setup-and-payoff when Wolfe realizes the secret to getting to the computer program.

This is obviously a film geared more for the kids, as evidenced by the kooky overacting, the silly Swiss stereotypes (which I didn't even realized existed), and the goofy actions on the part of the bad guys, such as the revelation, for example, that squirting a juice box into a bad guy's face is akin to spraying it with acid (and somehow keeps the bad guy from falling backward in response), but while that may be a let-down to the older folk, the parents will probably be pleased, since I recall some parents being upset with the more adult scenes in "Kindergarten Cop".

The bottom line is,

Probably one of my most enjoyable movie experiences ever. My (22-year-old) daughter and her friend are Vin Diesel fans, and I like stupid movies, so we went off to see this with no particular expectations. It was delightful! The acting was good, the writing was just off-kilter enough to surprise, and the plot, while predictable, was only predictable a few seconds in advance (which is about how long it took for Vin Diesel's character to process a thought). Our little group of cynics was charmed and quoting lines from the movie all the way home afterwards. We agreed that it was indeed a Disney movie, but it didn't have the cheesy hollowness and wannabe withitness that has hampered those productions since Hayley Mills was my age. Bits of it were unexpectedly moving. Vin Diesel's little side romance was also charming, with a breath of gentle kinkiness ("On land, you're the superior officer," he says to his honey, and she smirks.) Basically it was funny, stupid, and sweet without being annoying, and Vin Diesel was excellent in it. I'll buy it when it comes out in video, or my daughter will--she works in a trendy video store, so that she liked the movie is saying a lot.