In “”The Pacifier”” Vin Diesel is Shane Wolfe, the leader of a crack Navy Seal unit whose specialty is search and rescue. When the operation goes horribly wrong and he loses the hostage he is put on probation. The man he lost invented a magnetic pulse system that will wipe out the U.S.’s ability to launch their nukes he’s called in to protect the man’s family.
The first problem with “”The Pacifier”” is the fact that we’re never sure what exactly happened to Dr. Plummer (Tate Donovan), at one point they say he was kidnapped again, but there appears to be no effort to rescue him, and at another point in the film they tell his family that he’s dead, you are never quite sure what happened to him. But this is a Disney Family movie so asking logical questions like that will only make you hate the film. And believe it or not, as someone who can’t stand Vin Diesel and think he sucks the life out of any movie that he’s in, I liked this. This is yet another film where all of the best parts are in the trailer.In “”The Pacifier,”” Vin Diesel is actually likable, someone that you would want to spend 90 minutes with. He has an energy level that he’s never shown before, he seems like he’s finally learning how to relax in front of the camera and learn to let himself go. However, there were still a few scenes where he was desperately trying to come up with that single memorable line only to have it fall flat, luckily he only does it a couple of times.The Plummer Family is so generic and white bread that it’s not even worth mentioning their individual names. And apparently the producers, writers, and director felt the same way as they resorted to having Vin call everyone by code names. I will say the entire cast was likeable – if you like plain vanilla (and in this case I did). The film does a good job of setting up the fact that their father was always gone and never around much anyway, so the fact that he supposedly “”died”” (even though earlier they said he was kidnapped, let me stop before I get a headache again) didn’t seem to phase the kids one bit. Of course the kids – at least the two teenagers, didn’t want Shane in the house, and tried to pull some half-hearted, lame “”Home Alone”” style tricks to get rid of him. Instead they only succeeded in getting rid of their babysitter, Helga (Carol Kane). And thank god, because she was annoying and horrible, I’ve never liked Carol Kane, and she is awful in this. One of the unsung heroes of this film was Brad Garrett as Vice Principal Murney.If you are in the mood for a classic Disney style “”Family Comedy”” then there’s no reason why you wouldn’t like this. If you don’t like sugar coated films like this, this one won’t change your mind, it plays it safe and as a vehicle for Vin Diesel to explore another genre, it’s perfectly serviceable. “”The Pacifier”” isn’t a laugh out loud film, but it is a pleasant experience that will give you a few chuckles. Worth a matinee ticket or DVD rental. Final B-EM Review by Michelle AlexandriaOriginally Posted 03/04/05