This film was bad. There was nothing of value in this entire film. I have no idea how this film grossed a little over thirty million in its first weekend. There must have been a good trailer before it, or perhaps there was a generation of people that missed the film when it was originally called Kindergarten Cop. Either way, for an hour an a half we were duped into watching nothing more than scene after scene of diaper humor, a comically unbalanced Diesel wading through the supposed funny moments, a duck, scenes where the baby of the family is left unattended, sloppy (and I mean sloppy) editing, and quick resolutions that will leave the avid film watcher confused and disoriented. Coupled with cliché after cliché, Diesel proves that he is better left in the action genre, the leaving the humor to anyone else in the world except for him.
There are several people that I am extremely upset with in the world of film today. Tim Burton is currently at the top of my list, but right below him is Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon. I grew up with the humor of these guys by watching the decently funny Reno 911 and the hysterically funny MTV show, The State. When I saw that they had written this film, I was expecting to see a new level of comedy. I was hoping to see a film where the humor was sharp, the dialog was perhaps paradoxical, while laughing at all the ways they could play off the already cliché scenes that have been done in early 80s movies. Alas, this was not the case. They literally sold out. Garant and Lennon created a film that fit well into the structure of Disney by giving us bathroom humor, jagged bonding moments, and that inevitable anticlimactic ending which sums everything up in a nice little bow. Did they need the cash? My guess is "yes". For those that may be fans of Reno 911 or The State, I would not go into this film expecting classic humor, but instead be prepared for unfunny diaper scenes which seem to be the staple of this film.
Since the story was filled with more holes than Swiss cheese, it seemed only right for Diesel to fall into that one of those holes as well. He cannot do comedy. This film, The Pacifier, proves that. There were no scenes in which he was able to generate a laugh by anyone in our house. His comic timing seemed invisible to non-existent, all the while it just seemed as if he kept waiting for the chance to walk around without his shirt and perhaps fight some bad-guys. You could tell that he felt uncomfortable in this film and was not ready to handle the pressures of comedy. Perhaps it was the direction that he was given, but Diesel continually went in and out of character. His main focus was to watch the children, but whenever he had to do something else, he completely forgot about the children and moved on. This is hard to explain, but there were several scenes when Diesel left small children unattended in the house, or in the car, or somewhere off-screen while he went searching for his "actual" mission. I was surprised that Social Services didn't try to boycott this film. Perhaps it was Diesel's way of being funny, but for me it just came off as sloppy. Comedy is hard and Diesel needs more work at it before he headlines another Disney bomb.
Finally, I would like to say that Adam Shankman needs to really work on his direction skills. I know he has done more films than just this, but for some odd reason the editing was horrible in this film. Scenes would occur randomly while conclusions to those scenes would arise sporadically as well. It was chaos. We, as viewers, jumped around so much in this film that you just didn't get a feel of any of the characters. The Disney touch was so apparent that it forced the story to become unstructured and confusing. The wrestling to Nazi scene was especially bad, in fact, the entire Sound of Music moment was painful and disruptive to the entire film. Didn't these children's father just pass away horribly about two weeks ago? Nobody seemed to care and there wasn't one tear shed throughout the entire film. The structure on helping the children while continuously looking for "Ghost" just didn't fit. There needed to be more stories, more moments between the children, more glue instead of chaos holding these scenes together. The random relationship between Diesel and Graham was idiotic, while the entire concept of falling in love with these children in just short of two weeks blew my mind. We were all over the place in this film and it hurt.
Overall, this film was worse than pathetic. All three key elements to this film, the writers, the "major" star, and the director just didn't seem to be on the right page. It was sad to see such great comics like Lennon and Garant churn out duds like this. It was sad to see Hollywood resort to the clichéd 80s concept of bringing an action star into comedy and watch him fail miserably. The story was horrendous and glued together by a two-year old. The comedic moments were non-existent, while Diesel wandered through the entire film, in and out of character, hoping to revive a dying career. Nobody made me laugh. Nobody was funny. Nothing was worth viewing a second time. If you are looking for a decent comedy that fully represents the key elements in this film, I would check out the comedic actor John Candy tackle it in Uncle Buck.
Grade: * out of *****
There are several people that I am extremely upset with in the world of film today. Tim Burton is currently at the top of my list, but right below him is Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon. I grew up with the humor of these guys by watching the decently funny Reno 911 and the hysterically funny MTV show, The State. When I saw that they had written this film, I was expecting to see a new level of comedy. I was hoping to see a film where the humor was sharp, the dialog was perhaps paradoxical, while laughing at all the ways they could play off the already cliché scenes that have been done in early 80s movies. Alas, this was not the case. They literally sold out. Garant and Lennon created a film that fit well into the structure of Disney by giving us bathroom humor, jagged bonding moments, and that inevitable anticlimactic ending which sums everything up in a nice little bow. Did they need the cash? My guess is "yes". For those that may be fans of Reno 911 or The State, I would not go into this film expecting classic humor, but instead be prepared for unfunny diaper scenes which seem to be the staple of this film.
Since the story was filled with more holes than Swiss cheese, it seemed only right for Diesel to fall into that one of those holes as well. He cannot do comedy. This film, The Pacifier, proves that. There were no scenes in which he was able to generate a laugh by anyone in our house. His comic timing seemed invisible to non-existent, all the while it just seemed as if he kept waiting for the chance to walk around without his shirt and perhaps fight some bad-guys. You could tell that he felt uncomfortable in this film and was not ready to handle the pressures of comedy. Perhaps it was the direction that he was given, but Diesel continually went in and out of character. His main focus was to watch the children, but whenever he had to do something else, he completely forgot about the children and moved on. This is hard to explain, but there were several scenes when Diesel left small children unattended in the house, or in the car, or somewhere off-screen while he went searching for his "actual" mission. I was surprised that Social Services didn't try to boycott this film. Perhaps it was Diesel's way of being funny, but for me it just came off as sloppy. Comedy is hard and Diesel needs more work at it before he headlines another Disney bomb.
Finally, I would like to say that Adam Shankman needs to really work on his direction skills. I know he has done more films than just this, but for some odd reason the editing was horrible in this film. Scenes would occur randomly while conclusions to those scenes would arise sporadically as well. It was chaos. We, as viewers, jumped around so much in this film that you just didn't get a feel of any of the characters. The Disney touch was so apparent that it forced the story to become unstructured and confusing. The wrestling to Nazi scene was especially bad, in fact, the entire Sound of Music moment was painful and disruptive to the entire film. Didn't these children's father just pass away horribly about two weeks ago? Nobody seemed to care and there wasn't one tear shed throughout the entire film. The structure on helping the children while continuously looking for "Ghost" just didn't fit. There needed to be more stories, more moments between the children, more glue instead of chaos holding these scenes together. The random relationship between Diesel and Graham was idiotic, while the entire concept of falling in love with these children in just short of two weeks blew my mind. We were all over the place in this film and it hurt.
Overall, this film was worse than pathetic. All three key elements to this film, the writers, the "major" star, and the director just didn't seem to be on the right page. It was sad to see such great comics like Lennon and Garant churn out duds like this. It was sad to see Hollywood resort to the clichéd 80s concept of bringing an action star into comedy and watch him fail miserably. The story was horrendous and glued together by a two-year old. The comedic moments were non-existent, while Diesel wandered through the entire film, in and out of character, hoping to revive a dying career. Nobody made me laugh. Nobody was funny. Nothing was worth viewing a second time. If you are looking for a decent comedy that fully represents the key elements in this film, I would check out the comedic actor John Candy tackle it in Uncle Buck.
Grade: * out of *****