From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Feb 22 12:39:02 2000 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!nntp.primenet.com!nntp.gctr.net!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: "Berge Garabedian" Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Pitch Black (2000) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 20 Feb 2000 18:44:51 GMT Organization: None Lines: 102 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <88pcn3$fn8u$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer10.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 951072291 515358 (None) 140.142.17.37 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #23185 Keywords: author=garabedian X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer10.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:22283 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2601 PITCH BLACK RATING: 7 /10 --> Good movie For more reviews and movie screensavers, visit http://www.joblo.com/ Vin Diesel rocks! Harumph...well, now that I got that out of my system, I feel it my duty to pre-announce how I enjoy different kinds of films depending on my mood at times, and how I am generally prone to thumb up the higher quality entertainment flicks, but also more than open to appreciate an all-out, turn-your-brain-off-at-the-door cheezefest presentation of film. And guess what...this film is just that! PLOT: A bunch of good folks, along with one bad mutha, fall upon a desolate planet infested by crazy, alien monsters who hunt their prey exclusively in the dark. Unfortunately, these folks apparently picked the worst time to have an accident on this planet, since a solar eclipse is just about to take place, and the chompin' critters are ready to take a bite out of any human left unprotected by light. CRITIQUE: Vin Diesel rocks! Or did I mention that already? Fact one about this film is that it doesn't truly stray into any original ground. Fact two about this film is that most of its characters, mostly no-names, do little to allow themselves to be given a shit about, except for the "bad guy", Vin Diesel, who kicks major ass! And fact three about this film is that it includes one of the coolest opening crash scenes that I have ever seen, is charmed with an intriguing look of filters, yellows, blues and reds clogging the screen one at a time, and simply pumps the last 30 minutes with enough tension, cool alien freakazoids and dark undercurrents to register a "fun time" stamp on my face. Is this the next sci-fi classic? Certainly not, but it also doesn't pretend to be, with just enough one-liners from Diesel to vie for a nomination into the cult movie favorite category of the year. This movie is pure cheese with a touch of arty pretension, all draped under the banner of a simple good time at the movie theatre. I thought that it started with a bang, slowed considerably once they all settled onto the planet, but then took off again when Diesel and crew took to shelter after the eclipse. I mention Vin Diesel so often in my review because his character truly made this film memorable for me. Where else could you see a buff dude with silver eyes and slick sunglasses run around and knife-fight alien bat-thingies? Not sure but this film delivers on the Diesel meter full-force! Unfortunately the rest of the two-bit characters are one-dimensional at best, with a contingency of Muslims and the proverbial Obi-Wanesque guy simply getting on my nerves. However, on the whole the film did provide me with enough thrills, money shots and cool moments with Diesel to warrant a full membership to the club of enjoyment. The two elements which could have been improved upon in my opinion, include the soundtrack, which was almost non-existent and the quality of the rest of the characters in the crew. I assume that this flick was on a low budget, but that doesn't really justify the exclusion of any other interesting characters from the mix. But don't cry for me Argentina, cause all in all the movie delivers its punches on the targets of its choice, which include the fun special effect-laden aliens, the slick stylings of director Twohy and the charismatic performance by Vin. So if this "type" of film is your schtick, then wait no longer to catch this dark son-of-a-gun in the theatres right now. But if you're looking for something a little different and more intellectual, I suggest that you wait a little longer and check into the two Mars movies still to come later on this year. Either way, Vin Diesel rocks! And if not for anything else, just see this movie in order to witness a character go mano-a-mano with a friggin' alien! Very cool! Little Known Facts about this film and its stars: This film was originally titled NIGHTFALL. So who the heck is Vin Diesel, you might be asking yourself? Well, you might remember him from a small role that he had during the first 30 minutes of SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (8/10) as Private Adrian Caparzo, his deep voice, which was used as that of THE IRON GIANT (5/10) and his more recent role in BOILER ROOM (7.5/10), a film which ironically opened on the same day as this film. He's also written and directed two films of his own, MULTI-FACIAL and STRAYS, which were screened at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival and 1997 Sundance Film Festival respectively. Not too shabby for a 32-year old. No surprise is the fact that the "lead" lady in this film, played by Radha Mitchell, hails from Australia. My buddy and I noticed an accent come and go during the movie, which made us suspicious to this little known fact. If any of you are wondering where the heck David Twohy, the director of this film, comes from, well it's actually a pretty short resume. This is only his second directing gig, his first being the under-achieving THE ARRIVAL (7.5/10) with Charlie Sheen, and he is mainly known as a screenwriter to such films as G.I. JANE (6.5/10), WATERWORLD, THE FUGITIVE and CRITTERS 2? Yup. The Wheat brothers, who are two of the writers of this film, also have a sorted background writing unmemorable sci-fi and horror flicks including SILENT SCREAM, AFTER MIDNIGHT, FLY II and IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE II. Review Date: February 19, 2000 Director: David N. Twohy Writers: David N. Twohy, Ken Wheat and Jim Wheat Producer: Tom Engelman Actors: Vin Diesel as Riddick Radha Mitchell as Fry Cole Hauser as Johns Genre: Science-Fiction Year of Release: 2000 -------------------------------------- JoBlo's Movie Emporium http://www.joblo.com/ -------------------------------------- (c) 2000 Berge Garabedian From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Feb 22 12:39:02 2000 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!newspump.monmouth.com!newspeer.monmouth.com!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: "Sean Molloy" ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews ~Subject: Review: Pitch Black (2000) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies ~Date: 20 Feb 2000 18:45:37 GMT Organization: None ~Lines: 113 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <88pcoh$fn9q$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer16.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 951072337 515386 (None) 140.142.17.35 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #23193 Keywords: author=molloy X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer16.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:22288 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2603 Pitch Black Starring Vin Diesel, Radha Mitchell Directed By David Twohy USA Films, Rated R, 2000 Running Time: 1 Hour 47 Minutes By Sean Molloy LIGHT SPOILERS Pitch Black, a new entry in the sci-fi action category of "people vs. space bugs", manages to avoid the pitfalls that lots of other films in this genre inevitably stumble into. Far too often I've witnessed these things spiral headlong into a black hole of stupidity, where scenes that are supposed to be cool and shocking instead wind up inducing groans and laughter. Recent victims of this phenomenon include Event Horizon and Alien Resurrection - both are films that had promising buildups, and both wound up building towards events that were just plain ridiculous. So I'll say this much for Pitch Black - it never crosses the fine line into the well-traveled territory of sci-fi cheesiness, and for that I am grateful. Unfortunately, it tends to tread firmly on the safe side of that fine line, rarely managing to create those moments of uber-cool that would put it on a level with Aliens, the reigning champ of the people vs. space bugs film. When people set out to battle space bugs, I'm more than willing to suspend logic and accept plot contrivances - Pitch Black is guilty on both counts - if it makes for a promising set-up. Sure, have a crew of space travelers crash land on a tri-sunned planet just as it has it's only night in 22 years, that doesn't bother me. And give this crew of advanced space explorers two blowtorches and a couple glow-sticks as their sole sources of light, I have no problem with that. Have a convict who can coincidentally see in the dark and has mysterious motives, why not? And sure, have this planet populated by an inexplicable species that is hurt by light on a planet that doesn't ever have a night except for this one convenient moment... Never mind that such a species in such a habitat doesn't make a lick of sense... why would they have evolved on the planet in the first place? What the hell do they eat? There's an implication that they're cannibals, but anyone who's taken a single science class knows that a population can't sustain itself like that. You can certainly come up with some far-fetched answers and explanations on your own, but in the end, it just plain doesn't matter. Just go with it, cuz the contrivances here are outweighed by the potentially cool situations. And that's really what you're here for, now isn't it? Alas, potential is really all we get. Pitch Black has its share of moments, mostly occurring in the first half, but when I walked away in the end, it felt as if a lot of good ideas had been greatly wasted. The film opens with a spectacular crash sequence, akin to the horrific plane crash that that opens Alive. A later scene that occurs when the suns are still shining finds the reluctant Captain Fry (Radha Mitchell) underground, tethered to a rope trailing behind her in a series of caverns, protected from the things lurking in the dark only by spotty shafts of sunlight. Moments like these are exquisite, but unfortunately they do not come often enough. Love it or hate it, if there's one thing The Blair Witch Project accomplished, it was to make us remember how powerful simple suggestion can be in a suspenseful situation. Pitch Black, thankfully, adheres to this forgotten school of thought. These creatures lurk in the darkness; when we see them, we see just enough to assemble their forms in our heads. A frightening moment can be easily ruined by a bad computer graphic, and Pitch Black never succumbs to overplaying its hand in this department. The special effects never overstep their bounds, and we're treated to that rarity in the modern age of blockbuster filmmaking - restraint. The flip-side to this coin is that a select few of the action sequences were too dark and confusing to make out what was happening. The planet these folks land on looks beautiful, the film has been overexposed and saturated with different colors to effectively simulate what light from three suns would look like. The moment of the eclipse is absolutely beautiful, and stands as one of the most striking visuals I've ever seen in a film like this. The whole film somehow feels refreshingly like a British, independent art- house take on the sci-fi monster movie. But eventually it all just kind of fizzles out. By the third act, frankly, I was more than a bit bored. Not too long after the sun sets, the action starts to plod generically along, and the thrills are too few and far between. The focus seems to dwell too much on the only fairly interesting crew, and there are simply too many of them around for us to care about their problems. When a supposedly key 'revelation' is made about the kid traveling with the group, you kinda shrug and wonder why it was even mentioned. The deep-voiced and aptly named Vin Diesel, who voiced the Iron Giant and here plays the shady convict Riddick, is admittedly extra cool. His psychological interplay with Captain Fry almost got to the point of being interesting, but couldn't quite make it over the hump. The film also missteps by providing us with an ending that is, well, just sorta there. When I walk into a movie like Pitch Black, I expect something epic to close things out. But I suppose, at the same time, I'd rather have it just kind of stop than see things ruined with something ridiculous and laughable (see, once again, Event Horizon and Alien Resurrection for examples of how not to handle an ending). For a couple of minutes, Pitch Black seems like it's on its way to exactly ripping off the conclusion to Aliens - and I do mean exactly. But at least it has the wisdom to stop itself from going in that direction. In the end, I was thankful to have seen an example of a sci-fi action thriller that never once seemed overtly stupid or absurd... they are a rare breed indeed. There's enough unique and good stuff here that Pitch Black certainly isn't a waste of time. Sadly, it's just a very well-crafted waste of potential. ____________ Media Junkies - Movie reviews, music, books, games and more http://www.mediajunkies.com Contact: sean@mediajunkies.com From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Feb 22 12:39:02 2000 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!nntp.primenet.com!nntp.gctr.net!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: Ross Anthony ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews ~Subject: Review: Pitch Black (2000) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies ~Date: 20 Feb 2000 18:45:06 GMT Organization: RossAnthony.com ~Lines: 91 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <88pcni$hfp2$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> ~Reply-To: "ross@rossanthony.com" NNTP-Posting-Host: homer36.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 951072306 573218 (None) 140.142.17.39 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #23187 Keywords: author=anthony X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer36.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:22290 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2604 Looks Clear... Pitch Black By Ross Anthony This sci-fi horror flick is at its best simulating a hypothetical three sun solar system. Amateur astronomers (myself one) will raise many a deliberating eyebrow at the assumptions we swallow in order to accept this conjectural reality. The film opens with a space vessel transporting a load of commercial passengers (average people, save for the hardened criminal) all enjoying dreams in cryo-sleep (save for the hardened criminal). Suddenly, unknown objects rip through the walls of the vessel awakening all while killing the captain (of course). Now if this is bad luck, just wait ... "Pitch Black" defines the meaning of the phrase. The first mate, a sassy blonde, jumps to the pilot seat in time to see the surface of some planet swiftly approaching. In an effort to gain control of the speeding ship she quickly purges large sections of it ... including the payload (the passengers); but something's wrong, the lever sticks and she's forced to land with all on board. This sequence displays perhaps the most exhilarating graphics of the film. Atmospheric debris shatter the windshield into a splash of dust (miraculously, the pilot's pretty face isn't in the slightest marred). But still the menacing rush of dust and wind create a thrilling ride for the audience as the ship slides across the burnt orange surface of an unknown land. You'll sigh in relief when it finally comes to a stop. Looking out on the horizon, survivors quickly conclude that there will be no nightfall due to the multiple suns. Which is a good thing, because the planet is inhabited by "a lot" of nasty pterodactyl type aliens that don't like the light. But don't forget the bad luck factor; though the place is devoid of anything else, our travelers quickly stumble across an old mining factory, pick up one sample, instantly evaluate it as the last one, decode its age at 22 years (in unknown planet time, that is), then run over to a rather cool mechanical replica of the current solar system left by the human minors mysteriously killed 22 years back. The sharp unmarred pilot hand-revolves the geared planetary assemblage 22 times back into the solar system's history. The convenient counter clicks backward. Ah-oh, an eclipse! What are the chances of that? These poor kids just happened to be marooned on a planet inhabited by light-hating beasts on the very day of its 22-year cycle eclipse. With an hour's warning, the quickly dwindling troop still isn't prepared as the huge second planet with parallel rings rotating in opposite directions (not sure that's possible) rather swiftly blots out the sun. Despite the potential impossibility, it's a beautiful scene; the second planet's horizon cracking the sun as if to release from it a swarm of bat-like monsters into the honey-golden sky. Of course, just then one passenger finds the necessity to run out into the darkness while the remaining group attempts to determine the duration of this eclipse in order to assess a plan. Given the pilot's lightening speed at predicting the eclipse and that nifty solar-system model, she could have easily determined the duration. But she didn't. As a viewer in the theater, witnessing the rate of the eclipse, you could have reasonably guessed its duration to be brief - an hour or so. But, no strangers to bad luck, this entourage embraces the ever-so remote possibility that these two planets are orbiting in sync, thus they assume the darkness may be very very long lasting and therefore need to rush out into it and prepare their departure. Silly kids, have they forgotten about the other sun(s)? A murderer in the midst and thousands of hungry aliens to dodge, "Pitch Black" is still meant to scare you. With many a cheap (sometimes tedious) set up, suspenseful build, followed by either a kill or a fake out to progress it along. Nice performance by the bad guy, Vin Diesel (voice of "Iron Giant" by the way). Respectably acted, filmed and directed, "Pitch Black" caps off with a surprisingly Christian theme, but may make a better platform for a beginning astronomy class than action-packed thriller. Pitch Black. Copyright © 2000. Rated R. 107 minutes. Starring Vin Diesel, Radha Mitchell, Cole Hauser, Keith David, Lewis Fitz-Gerald, Claudia Black, Rhiana Griffith, John Moore. Directed by David Twohy Written by Jim and Ken Wheat and David Twohy Produced by Tom Engelman at USA films. Grade..........................B- -- Copyright © 2000. Ross Anthony, currently based in Los Angeles, has scripted and shot documentaries, music videos, and shorts in 35 countries across North America, Europe, Africa and Asia. For more reviews visit: http://RossAnthony.com From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Feb 22 12:39:02 2000 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: Ssg722@aol.com (Susan Granger) ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews ~Subject: Review: Pitch Black (2000) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies ~Date: 20 Feb 2000 18:46:33 GMT Organization: None ~Lines: 32 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <88pcq9$hfs0$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer10.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 951072393 573312 (None) 140.142.17.38 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #23203 Keywords: author=granger X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer10.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:22286 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2602 http://www.speakers-podium.com/susangranger. Susan Granger's review of "PITCH BLACK" (USA Films): A disabled spacecraft crash-lands on a harsh desert planet at the beginning of this tedious sci-fi disaster. Among the grungy survivors are the female pilot (Radha Mitchell), a Muslim priest (Keith David), a prissy antiquities dealer (Lewis Fitzgerald), a convicted killer with huge muscles and surgically-enhanced laser vision (Vin Diesel) and the bounty hunter (Cole Hauser) who is bringing him to justice. Squabbling, they're all vying for leadership power - until they're terrorized by armies of voracious, carnivorous, nocturnal creatures who are fiendishly determined to devour them. Australian writer/director David Twohy (The Arrival), working with writers Jim and Ken Wheat, lifts elements from the Alien films, among others, and treacherous, pterodactyl-like creatures from Godzilla. The formulaic dialogue is all their own and there's little tension in the episodic plot which involves a solar eclipse. The only commendable originality is in the stylish lighting, utilizing various filters, and cinematography, drawing on several types of film stock which complement the strange, ominous planet with its intense heat from three different suns and bizarre desert landscape. However, on a parched, cloudless planet supposedly devoid of all water, a sudden downpour which drenches the hapless survivors is one of the most obvious discordant occurrences which is never explained. And if Vin Diesel's voice sounds familiar, you might recall that he did the title character in The Iron Giant. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, Pitch Black is a dismal 1 - a noisy, nightmarish waste of time and money, the producers' and yours. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Feb 22 12:39:02 2000 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: "Stephen Graham Jones" ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews ~Subject: Review: Pitch Black (2000) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies ~Date: 20 Feb 2000 18:46:28 GMT Organization: None ~Lines: 72 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <88pcq4$hfru$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> ~Reply-To: "stephen graham jones" NNTP-Posting-Host: homer10.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 951072388 573310 (None) 140.142.17.38 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #23202 Keywords: author=jones X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer10.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:22298 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2605 Pitch Black: don't let the sun do down on me Pitch Black operates on the same premise as Asimov's "Nightfall": when the sun goes down, the calamity starts. In "Nightfall," however, what darkness brings with it is social upheaval, the breakdown of civilization, all that, which is to say the cycle of destruction functions as some kind of vague statement, warning us that the same thing can happen to us if we panic in the face of the unknown, if we don't pay heed to the old stories, etc. With Pitch Black, as there are some nocturnal aliens that would do Sigourney Weaver proud, the imperative is worlds simpler: just don't let the sun set on you. This isn't to say that the movie is unsophisticated, however. Far from it. The attention paid to the photography and the editing here is your first indication, how director David Twohy says so much with camera movement and composition that it takes the burden off the characters, allows their dialogue to be that much less contrived. The second indication is simply the quality of writing, how Jim and Ken Wheat manage to graft so many disparate conventions into Pitch Black, yet do it subtly enough that things never quite become predictable--or at least not that kind of predictable we're accustomed to with effects-dependent horror. It all starts with a worst-case scenario, a deep space transport proving that Con-Air rule, that convicts are far too heavy to remain aloft for long. So, in a camera-shaking fit that would do Blair Witch proud, Pitch Black's 2001-ish looking ship crash lands, and, per Supernova, the captain is the first to die, meaning that now a leader has to emerge from the ragtag survivors. Meet Caroline Fry (Radha Mitchell), who, as all final girls must, goes by the gender inspecific 'Fry' and isn't afraid to get her hands dirty. Getting top-billing along with her are Johns (Cole Hauser, with a "nickel-slick" badge) and his escape-artist prisoner Riddick (Vin Diesel, still anti-gun here, as with Iron Giant), perhaps the naturalest born killer ever. For an unusually long time, too, there are no Starship Trooper bugs to contend with, just a sun-scorched, washed-out planet, shot with the same lens as Three Kings, it seems. That bright. It's all about contrast, though, setting us up for nightfall, which, due to some Thing-type discoveries (abandoned research post, etc), Fry & Co. slowly learn to fear. At times it feels a lot like Screamers, just without that Phillip K. Dick distrust of reality. As with Screamers, however, there is some distrust between the characters. Will Riddick kill them all? Will he steal the ship and leave them for alien-bait? To Pitch Black's credit, you really don't know until the final frames, simply because it's hard to tell who the main character here is. You expect it to be Fry, the final girl, but then, too, Riddick's voice-over started the whole thing, introduced us to everyone. As if this was his story. So you just don't know, and that's refreshing. You do, however, know that, once nightfall catches them unaware, anyone without a name is expendable. And these hammerheaded bats of space make short and graphic work of them. That's all to be expected. But then there's the tagline, too--'Fight evil with evil.' Which is to say that, in the absence of society, Riddick's sociopathic tendencies aren't that bad, might in fact be what saves this crew, what redeems him. Nevertheless, though--and counter--intuitively-Pitch Black's strongest moments are after the crash and before the darkness comes, when Twohy can effectively fill the frame with so much, so fast. After dark, he can't do that, and Pitch Black gets reduced down to action and special effects. Still, as far as off-world sci-fi goes, Pitch Black combines strong writing and excellent direction which establishes it well above the crowd, makes the genre somehow more legitimate. And, as far as the horror-aspects go, prepare for something different. Fry could very well be the final, final girl. (c)2000 Stephen Graham Jones, http://www.cinemuck.com From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Feb 25 17:10:52 2000 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!cam-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!paloalto-snf1.gtei.net!news.gtei.net!newsfeed.stanford.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: Michael Dequina Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Pitch Black (2000) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 23 Feb 2000 06:59:00 GMT Organization: None Lines: 65 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <8900fk$8ld0$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer39.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 951289140 284064 (None) 140.142.17.35 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #23232 Keywords: author=dequina X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer39.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:22307 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2606 _Pitch_Black_ (R) ** (out of ****) Much imagination can be seen in the science fiction thriller _Pitch_Black_--and I mean "seen": in a time where all the far-off worlds in distant galaxies have come to look the same, cinematographer David Eggby has given the film's central planet a look that is distinctly new and alien. But that is the only thing free from the cookie cutter in David Twohy's otherwise derivative action film. The plot is a ripoff of _Aliens_, with a group of people marooned on a desert planet being hunted down by ravenous alien creatures; these creatures themselves resemble the Alien, with a couple of alterations (the most major one being that some have wings). There is another added wrinkle--they only come out in the dark, and when the planets multiple suns undergo simultaneous eclipse, the humans must band together to survive. Just who are these humans, anyway? There is very little characterization in the script by Twohy and Jim and Ken Wheat. The ostensible lead is fry (Radha Mitchell), a pilot with the requisite personal trauma, which is linked to the crash that placed them on the planet. The other two main characters are just as shallow, but at least they're given some type of memorable characteristic (everyone else isn't). Johns (Cole Hauser) is a lawman who is perhaps even shadier than his prisoner, the murderer Riddick (Vin Diesel), who has special night vision enhanced eyes. Riddick's escape from custody makes for a tedious timekilling subplot before the alien story gets underway; with all the others fearing for their lives while trying to locate him, the film resembles an outer space slasher film. Character is not as important as action and effects in films such as _Pitch_Black_, and while competently done, nothing here breaks any new ground in those departments; the slow-mo and quick cut style Twohy uses is a pale imitation of John Woo. What is fresh, as I had mentioned, is Eggby's sterling cinematography. The early exterior shots on the planet are striking, with all the colors washed out other than garish shades of yellow. Another interesting conceit is that each of the planet's three sons bear a different hue; as such, when in the light of the blue sun, for instance, the image is awash in blue, etc. Such striking use of color goes out the window when the key eclipse takes place, and _Pitch_Black_'s look matches its title. From that point on, with the action and effects failing to really dazzle, one looks to Twohy to provide something of interest in the story. But no such thing ever comes, and the virtual absence of humor backfires, ironically making the some of the proceedings laughable (the overwrought "emotional" moments come off especially ridiculous). _Pitch_Black_ may actually please most audiences for capably executing most of its desired task, but it takes something a bit more to make a lasting impression in a crowded genre. Michael Dequina twotrey@juno.com | michael_jordan@geocities.com | jordan_host@sportsmail.com | mrbrown@iname.com Mr. Brown's Movie Site: http://welcome.to/mrbrown CinemaReview Magazine: http://www.CinemaReview.com on ICQ: #25289934 | on AOL Instant Messenger: MrBrown23 ________________________________________________________________ YOU'RE PAYING TOO MUCH FOR THE INTERNET! Juno now offers FREE Internet Access! Try it today - there's no risk! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Feb 25 17:10:52 2000 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: Sean Townsend ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews ~Subject: Review: Pitch Black (2000) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies ~Date: 23 Feb 2000 07:03:34 GMT Organization: None ~Lines: 75 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <8900o6$f4o6$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer18.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 951289414 496390 (None) 140.142.17.40 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #23235 Keywords: author=townsend X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer18.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:22331 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2607 PITCH BLACK STARRING: Vin Diesel, Radha Mitchell, Keith David, Cole Hauser DIRECTOR: David Twohy WRITTEN BY: Jim Wheat, Ken Wheat, David Twohy Remember when you were a kid, and you were afraid of the dark? Come on, now, it wasn't that long ago, and don't hand me any of that crapola about how you never needed a night light or a partially open bedroom door. As far as fears go, it's pretty much universal, hard-wired into the primitive part of our brains that still recalls what times were like before we figured out the fire thing. As a result, it's also a handy emotional trigger, one that fright films have always relied upon as a cheap and easy way to heighten the emotion of horror. In the movies, what we can't see can (and usually does) hurt us, and it almost always happens in the dark. Light, in all its forms, means salvation. Pitch Black takes this tradition and extrapolates it in a way that's so ridiculously literal it should be awful. Thanks to Diesel's great charisma and a few well-handled scenes, though, it's actually quite a bit of fun. All you really need to know about the film is that it places a typically diverse group of interstellar crash-landing survivors on a barren, sun-soaked planet. These include a strong-willed female pilot (Mitchell), a Muslim imam (David) and his youthful followers, a fussy antiquities dealer, and a sort of galactic cop (Hauser) along with his prisoner (Diesel), who just happens to have surgically altered night-vision eyes. The film goes to great lengths to make it clear that said prisoner is one bad dude before his obligatory escape, but I doubt I'll be spoiling anything by saying he plays a key role in the group's survival. As the group attempts to find water, they discover a hostile species that requires darkness for survival. They also discover that the planet's three suns are about to be eclipsed for an indeterminate amount of time, rendering the entire place, well, you know. The rest is standard scare-flick stuff as the group's numbers (and light sources) dwindle as they try to make it back to an escape ship. In order to enjoy this film, it helps to purposely overlook the implausible sci-fi trappings and horror-movie obviousness, because there are elements that work. The scenes dealing with the actual eclipse are effective, building suspense as the suns are gradually blocked, then showing hordes of light sensitive nasties coming out of what look like huge termite mounds. As for the creatures themselves, they're a reasonably threatening bunch, created by Patrick Tatopoulos (also responsible for the new-look Godzilla). While comparisons to certain H.R. Giger-designed Aliens will be inevitable, they reminded me more of the creatures in Stephen King's novella "The Mist." They fly, issue deceptively cute sonar calls, and generally creep around menacingly, always just outside the dimly lit perimeter of the group's flares and flashlights. In one memorable scene, a character is shown only by the light of a Zippo, until a brief burst of illumination reveals that he's completely surrounded by the things. It's good for a shock (unless you've seen the trailer), but it's better as a quick jolt back to a time when you were certain that something waited just beyond the night light's reach. Diesel (an indie director also seen in Saving Private Ryan and heard in The Iron Giant) never takes himself too seriously, and it helps. Physically, he's a striking presence, with a deep, pliable voice to match. After the novelty of the creatures wears off (and it happens pretty quickly), he's by far the most interesting and entertaining thing about the movie. While Twohy can't be accused of showing too much of the creatures, neither does he leave enough to the imagination. Given the film's premise, it would have been nice if he had trusted Diesel's ability to hold an audience and used sound and dialogue clues instead of computer graphics to bring the beasties to life. In shedding a bit too much light on the subject, Twohy restrains the power that makes the imaginary monsters of childhood so terrifying. GRADE: **1/2 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Feb 25 17:10:52 2000 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!news-peer-europe.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!howland.erols.net!sunqbc.risq.qc.ca!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: Homer Yen ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews ~Subject: Review: Pitch Black (2000) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies ~Date: 25 Feb 2000 06:27:44 GMT Organization: None ~Lines: 97 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <8957d0$7de$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer36.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 951460064 7598 (None) 140.142.17.39 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #23270 Keywords: author=yen X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer36.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:22352 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2608 "Pitch Black" - Sci-Fi Thriller Not Totally in the Dark by Homer Yen (c) 2000 In the opening scene of "Pitch Black," an interstellar transport ship with dozens of passengers that are in cryo-sleep pods, runs into a devastating meteor shower. The ship is skewered and casualties are heavy. Fry (Radha Mitchell), the only surviving crewmember, tries to attempt a crash landing on a desolate planet. She frantically works the controls as the ship careens out-of-control towards the planet's surface. The opening scene is frenetic and successfully establishes its pace. And I'm enjoying the ride. Ten people are lucky enough to survive the spectacular crash landing. But they may regret their seemingly good fortune when they discover that the planet is an arid ball of sand. Worse, they learn that subterranean Pterydactol-resembling aliens inhabit it. With raptor-sized teeth and claws that can easily rip apart flesh, it's a good thing that these aliens don't come to the surface because they can't stand sunlight. Even luckier for these marooned travelers, this planet's system has three suns, which provides perpetual daylight. Well, at least that's what they think. Soon, their situation gets increasingly dark, and they'll need to work quickly to get off the planet. Otherwise, they'll all become alien bird feed. Sci-fi movies in the style of "Alien" (and that's exactly what this is) follows a familiar formula. And "Pitch Black" stays true to the blueprint. You can expect several of the survivors to be killed off (and it's usually the characters that either panic and run, wander off into the night by themselves, or the inconsequential characters that we don't really care about). You can expect a modicum of tense moments as the aliens close in. And, you can expect a mad dash at the end as the survivors grittily make their way to the final destination in a final attempt to escape. Indeed, the last twenty minutes offer a satisfying finish. But what makes this a little meatier than other films of this type are the human-interest stories. One involves Riddick (Vin Diesel), a vicious murderer that was being transported to a prison. As a result of the crash, he has now awakened from his cryogenic slumber. He feels nothing for the other survivors or their perilous situation and only wants to escape. He is incredibly cunning and possesses an acute sense of smell and the ability to see at night. He may be even more dangerous than the predators that live beneath the planet's surface. The other features the feisty Fry who is referred to as "Captain" by the survivors, but is unable to cope with her responsibility and the burden of saving everyone. "Pitch Black" also manages to satisfy on the visual level. Bleached hues accentuate their desolation and camera views are frequently seen through the infrared eyesight of Riddick, which adds color and beauty to the events happening on screen. The component about this film that was most underwhelming, however, was the aliens themselves. In a genre where there is no limit to creativity, these aliens looked inexplicably ordinary. Although I enjoyed this offering (and probably much more than I had originally anticipated), this film's life span may be as short as some of the victims of the film. I say that because there are no big stars to attract anyone's attention, and if you've seen other sci-fi films about people-as-alien-fodder, then you'll probably think that you're experiencing a 2-hour case of deja vu. But "Pitch Black" does offer interesting story lines, a varied spectrum of likable personalities, and the enjoyable sensation of seeing who will survive and who won't. With a sustained atmosphere of suspense and just the right amount of pace, this film is a good choice for the weekend moviegoer in search of some entertainment. Grade: B S: 0 V: 2 L: 1 __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger. http://im.yahoo.com From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Mar 1 23:19:31 2000 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!uio.no!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: Scott Hunt Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Pitch Black (2000) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 26 Feb 2000 18:15:22 GMT Organization: None Lines: 82 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <89957q$djv0$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer38.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 951588922 446432 (None) 140.142.17.40 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #23275 Keywords: author=hunt X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer38.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:22369 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2610 Pitch Black (2000) Review by Scott Hunt Movie Hunt: http://netdirect.net/~hunt/index.html Rating: Good Shot (3 out of 4 stars) Cast: Vin Diesel, Radha Mitchell, Keith David, Cole Hauser, Rhiana Griffith, Claudia Black, Lewis Fitz-Gerald Writers: David Twohy, Ken and Jim Wheat Director: David Twohy Pitch Black is a sheep in wolf's clothing. It is full of darkness, danger and violence and if you buy into the marketing hype, an unsettling and scary film going experience. Don't be fooled. Pitch Black is a morality play masquerading as a scare-fest. It starts off with blistering intensity. A cargo spaceship crash lands on a planet apparently leeched of life by the scorching heat of three suns. Among the survivors is Fry (Mitchell), the ship's pilot, who spends the film wrestling with the fact that she tried to jettison the other passengers in her effort to land the craft safely. There is Imam (David), an Islamic leader whose faith in his god is tested repeatedly throughout the film. There is a law enforcement officer in the form of Johns (Hauser), who attacks every situation with square jawed authoritarian zeal. And there is Riddick (Diesel), a menacing, muscle-bound convicted murderer who's being brought back to justice by Johns. The group quickly sizes up the situation and each other. Confident in their assessment of matters, a plan is set in motion to escape their hellish environment. Those plans are shredded by the appearance of one of the planet's wildlife, a predatory, sometimes winged, species that enjoys the taste of blood and flesh. Fortunately, the creatures are light sensitive and are forced to live in networks of catacombs under the planet's surface. Unfortunately, the group has managed to land on the planet moments before an eclipse is about to occur, taking away their one protection from the monsters. The group's savior comes in the form of Johns, whose decisive leadership looks to deliver them from purgatory. Or does it? Pitch Black deviates from the standard sci-fi fare by avoiding some of the stock "escape the boogieman" conflicts the genre typically serves up. Just as the planet gave a false facade of lifelessness, first appearances given by the survivors proves to be just as false. The excitement of the film comes not from the danger posed by the creatures, but rather from watching the shifting allegiances and emotional growth of the characters as the planet serves as a deus ex machina of sorts to catalyze emotional growth. A recurrent theme runs throughout the movie of faith, whether it be religious or in a person, and how that powers their motivations. I found it telling that an accidental death occurs early on due to the misperception of a self professed atheist. Conversely, Imam constantly contributes any good fortune to Allah. One by one, his perceived heaven sent blessings are taken away and crushed. Imam is forced to reassess his faith. Another character expresses belief in god, along with a life long hate. Yet another character makes a decision that echoes the sentiments of Christ about selflessness and has lasting repercussions for several of group. It is a fascinating character study hiding under the guise of a scare flick. Special mention should be made of Vin Diesel, who intriguingly conveys feral menace combined with a truly mesmerizing presence. His character could have easily slipped into a parody of the baddass killing machine, but Twohy and Diesel add surprising depth to Riddick. They can be excused for the two or three Shwarzenegger-like catch phrases that growl their way out of Diesel's mouth. The movie has its flaws that can be nitpicked. The creatures do look derivative of the ones in Alien. The dialogue isn't the freshest at times, reminiscent of a bad comic book. Yes, the appearance of Riddick's vision skills are more than a little timely considering the situation. These trappings are on the periphery of the story Twohy is really trying to tell. Twohy may have lured you in under the pretense of scaring you with film fabricated boogieman, but he shows the real boogieman to be the prejudices and beliefs we use to direct decisions in our lives. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Mar 1 23:19:40 2000 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!nntp.primenet.com!nntp.gctr.net!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: swpstke@aol.com (Frankie Paiva) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Pitch Black (2000) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 29 Feb 2000 05:16:45 GMT Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com Lines: 80 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <89fknt$if94$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer15.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 951801405 605476 (None) 140.142.17.40 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #23337 Keywords: author=paiva X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer15.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:22427 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2618 Pitch Black rated R 108 minutes USA Films starring Radha Mitchell, Vin Diesel, Cole Hauser, Keith David, and Rhiana Griffith written by Ken Wheat from a story by Jim Wheat directed by David N. Twohy The entire science fiction genre has been beaten to death again and again and again. There's nowhere to go with this type of movie, except head into the direction of The Matrix, one of the few movies that has breathed life into this flailing category for many years. However, some recent films made too early to be influenced by The Matrix are still sticking to the formula. Witness the disaster that was Supernova. But when a film like Pitch Black comes along, that has just enough (and for this type of movie that's barely a drop) of originality to fuel it off the ground it makes you feel that sometimes, just rarely, they can get it right. They've obviously been paying attention to the movies of the past. While this still does feel like yet another version of Alien (how can a sci-fi movie today not try to be?) it manages to break free from the mold. Fry (Mitchell) is forced to crash land a spaceship on a deserted planet. Almost everyone on the passenger ship dies, but some are awakened from cryogenic slumber. These handful set foot on a desert-like planet which they later discover has three different suns. They also discover an alarmingly high amount of bodies hidden in the basement of a sealed building. When one of the passengers is attacked by something hidden beneath the planet's surface they fear the worst. Especially when they find out that a triple eclipse in going to occur, spreading the planet with "pitch black" darkness. Strange, bony, and silver evil bat-like things come crawling, swooping, and lurking in the night to feed on human blood. They have one weakness, light makes their skin dissolve. There are other dangers as well. The film's most fun twist is the extremely muscular Riddick (An awesome Diesel, who looks to be one of our major upcoming actors) he was a murderer imprisoned on the ship, and now he's free to join the group of survivors. He shaves his head with a huge knife and plays mind games with some of the crew. He also possesses a special talent which will aid to the group's survival. Fry and Riddick take command to try and save themselves and others from the monsters. Should Riddick be trusted? Is he just trying to save himself? Is he more dangerous than what's attacking them? These questions keep the film alive for it's second half. There are several ideas in this movie that I found very interesting. The first had to be the beginning of the film which was shot obviously by hand and is very jerky, making the process of the crash more exciting. The second must go to the idea of placing different color filters on the camera while each different sun on the planet is up. In the first thirty minutes or so, we are treated to the entire movie in an orange tint or a blue one. Kudos to the casting director as well, Vin Diesel is perfectly cast, as is Radha Mitchell. Though well cast, the acting is what you would expect for a sci-fi movie. There isn't much Oscar stuff here, but Diesel gives it a surprising amount of effort. The bad acting isn't entirely the actor's fault though. Of the ten remaining people on the planet, we only get to know about three of them. The amazingly underdeveloped other seven characters we never really know anything about, and that makes us care less about who makes a stupid mistake, and is eaten to death by the creatures of the night. This greatly impairs the building of tension that the movie tries so hard for near the end. Speaking of those creatures, they look pretty cool themselves. While it's rare that we ever get a full on glance of them (that helps the film keep it's excitement) the brief glimpses we get to see are pretty cool. Writer's block is apparent in snippets of the film. There is an awfully slow middle where nothing really happens, and the ending is kind of abrupt. But it doesn't take away from the entire experience. Obviously a male film, despite the amazing lack of nudity, and most of the time cleavage. Of the seventy or so people at my screening no more than five of the attendees were women. But this picture would be most enjoyable for anyone who's looking for some cheese. This is one to see in the theaters, as a video experience will take away much of the mood and atmosphere of the movie. But this is not an epic film (or an entirely good one), so please, take my advice, go to a matinee. C Frankie Paiva SwpStke@aol.com http://www.homestead.com/CinemaParadise/mainpage.html From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Mar 6 12:33:39 2000 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: Jamey Hughton Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Pitch Black (2000) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 5 Mar 2000 20:08:30 GMT Organization: University of Washington Lines: 108 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <89ueru$hfss$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> Reply-To: bhughton@sk.sympatico.ca NNTP-Posting-Host: homer26.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 952286910 573340 (None) 140.142.17.40 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #23399 Keywords: author=hughton X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer26.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:22499 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2627 PITCH BLACK *** (out of four stars) A review by Jamey Hughton Starring-Vin Diesel, Radha Mitchell, Cole Hauser, Keith David, Lewis Fitz-Gerald and Rhiana Griffith Director-David Twohy Canadian Rating-14A MOVIE VIEWS by Jamey Hughton http://Welcome.to/MovieViews Total crap. That would be the most accurate choice of words when describing the majority of sci-fi monster movies that have been exposed to in the past few years. Characters were pursued down flooded cruise liner hallways by fake tentacles (“Deep Rising”), stalked by robotic aliens (“Virus”) and swarmed by ugly flying mammals (“Bats”). And let’s not forgot this January’s “Supernova”. Holy Lord, did that movie reek. But before you reject “Pitch Black”, a science-fiction film with no A-list stars or special trimmings, keep in mind that director David Twohy is behind the camera. You may recollect that Twohy’s directorial debut was the highly intelligent (and highly underappreciated) alien takeover film “The Arrival”. Sure, Charlie Sheen was in it, but the film was executed with an unusual aura of imagination and style. Twohy also co-scripted the excellent cat-and-mouse thriller “The Fugitive” in 1993, so with “Pitch Black”, I was expecting more than just a bloody parade of stock characters pitted in unoriginal situations. There was also my knowledge that, in addition, Twohy penned “Waterworld”.... but hey, we all make mistakes. “Pitch Black” opens with a bang. A transport ship carrying several passengers and some particularly dangerous cargo collides with space debris and plummets through the stratosphere in an astounding 10-minutes of seat-gripping disorientation. The unscheduled landing site is a desolate, seemingly uninhabited desert planet with three suns. The handful of survivors include captain Fry (Radha Mitchell), the strong-minded heroine with more than a dash of Ripley in her soul, rugged lawman Johns (Cole Hauser), and the dangerous cargo - a murderous convict by the name of Riddick (Vin Diesel). Riddick’s chilling opening narrative defines his character to a tee: “They say in cryo-sleep, the only part of you that doesn’t shut down is the primitive side...the animal,” he says. “I guess that’s why I’m still awake.” When Riddick frees himself from his confinement to roam the planet by foot, the remaining passengers get spooked. But what they really should be concerned about is the local wildlife: an endless swarm of nocturnal creatures that could be described as carnivorous hammerhead pterodactyls. Luckily, they only attack at night. Johns has a breakthrough: “They seem to stick to darkness, so if we stick to daylight, we should be alright.” And then, a total eclipse occurs. Isn’t that always the luck of characters in this type of movie? At any rate, the survivors must scramble across the desert plain with the necessary amount of energy cells they will require to takeoff. The real question at hand is this: placed in a life-threatening situation, will Riddick help the crew or flee for the sake of his own freedom? Would you believe that this, the extra dimension of character development, is one standout factor that makes “Pitch Black” so refreshing? ‘Tis true. The screenplay, by Twohy and brothers Jim and Ken Wheat (who penned several forgettable sci-fi movies), is a competent tension builder that boasts an absorbing set-up and some palpable character interaction. There are memorable scenes, all stemming from the character of Riddick. Inman (Keith David), the leader of a small group of Islamic pilgrims, approaches Riddick to question his faith in God. The timid English boozehound Paris (well-played by Lewis Fitz-Gerald) is positively horrified of him, and finally there’s the kid (Rhiana Griffith), who wants to be Riddick. Diesel, tough and lean, makes quite the lasting impression. But the real star here is the alien foe - a massive, skittering army of clawed monsters, sensationally well-devised and sleek in their appearance. Twohy builds tension nicely by keeping the creatures in the shadows until the eclipse, when they emerge from under the planet’s surface in tremendous numbers. All around, the visual effects - including the well-edited crash sequence - are top-of-the-line in quality, despite the relatively meager budget. The script offers us intelligence, but it eventually degenerates into a leftover creature feature ghoulash. The stylish, visually polished appearance of “Pitch Black”, often bleached out in a manner reminiscent of the Gulf War comedy “Three Kings”, is the film’s most vital component. Effective images such as the towering skeletonized remains of past inhabitants are scattered across the alien landscape, and the cinematography is spellbinding. The only time Twohy really indulges is during a few attack sequences which reveal that he could have graduated from the Brian DePalma school of editing; these fast, choppy cuts are rather ineffective. My major complaint was the lack of action during the 2nd act. This all changes, however, when the lights go down and the beasties come out to play...and not in a friendly sense. All three primary actors - Diesel, Mitchell and Hauser - do splendidly with building their characters. “Pitch Black” offers some aspects that regular science-fiction does not: characters that we can identify with, a thoughtful visual look, and a few genuine surprises for such a simplistic plot. So, without further ado, sci-fi fans may rejoice: the sleek, intelligent “Pitch Black” is superior monster mayhem. (C) 2000, Jamey Hughton MOVIE VIEWS by Jamey Hughton http://Welcome.to/MovieViews Your Comments Appreciated! movieviews@hotmail.com From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Mar 8 12:10:41 2000 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: Serdar Yegulalp Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Pitch Black (2000) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 8 Mar 2000 07:10:48 GMT Organization: Jackie Chan's Kung Fu Process Servers Lines: 49 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <8a4udo$61dk$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer06.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 952499448 198068 (None) 140.142.17.38 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #23456 Keywords: author=yegulalp X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer06.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:22547 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2637 Pitch Black (2000) * * * A movie review by Serdar Yegulalp Copyright 2000 by Serdar Yegulalp I don't know what I was expecting from "Pitch Black", but certainly not an extraordinarily slick and well-made little SF action movie. Made for less than the catering costs of some big-budget films, "Pitch Black" has the same flavor of "The Terminator" or "The Hidden", other indie SF adventures that made good on little resources. The premise: A spacecraft with human cargo in deep-freeze gets blasted by a meteor shower. Many of the passengers die, and the female second-in-command (Radha Mitchell) jettisons many of the other passengers as a way of trying to stabilize the craft for a crash landing. The crash, by the way, is spectacularly well staged, and shows how much can be accomplished on a small budget these days with good computer graphics. The planet itself is a sun-scorched wasteland -- actually, three suns, each keeping the planet bathed in perpetual daytime. The survivors salvage what they can from the wreck (there are the usual Robinson Crusoe cliches, but they're done with style) -- and then people start vanishing, and then turning up dead in grisly ways. Turns out one of the passengers is Raddick (Vin Diesel), a multiple murderer and sociopath who has had his eyes surgically altered so that he can see in darkness. He is adamant, though, that he's not the one who's been slaughtering people. "You got a lot more to be afraid of than me around here," he says enigmatically. He is right. Do the captain and the killer band together to fight off what's worse than either of them? Do bears shine their shoes in the woods? There's a lot more to the film, of course, a good deal of which is not to be spoiled, and some of which is painfully obvious. What struck me, though, was not the plot (which isn't particularly original,and frankly has holes you could drive the Death Star through), but the level of craftsmanship on a small budget and the smartly-written script. Part of the production was Australian; there's an edge and a wit to the lines that a wholly American movie wouldn't have. At one point one of the younger passengers shows off his knife skills and his intended victim retorts, "Did you run away from your parents when they were younger, or did they run away from you?" I appreciate the effort it takes to make a good, entertaining film. "Pitch Black" is not a work of art and will not live forever, but it is fun to watch and is several notches above the usual level of SF-themed junk that Hollywood grinds out anually. And probably cost a lot less. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Mar 13 12:46:08 2000 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!fu-berlin.de!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: ram.samudrala@stanford.edu ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews ~Subject: Review: Pitch Black (2000) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies ~Date: 10 Mar 2000 05:27:10 GMT Organization: Movie ram-blings: http://www.ram.org/ramblings/movies.html ~Lines: 50 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <8aa13e$gdso$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer13.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 952666030 538520 (None) 140.142.17.35 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #23478 Keywords: author=samudrala X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer13.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:22572 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2645 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Pitch Black http://www.ram.org/ramblings/movies/pitch_black.html /Pitch Black/ is standard sci-fi action fare that has its moments in terms of the visual cinematography, but the plot is mostly derivative and uninspiring. The film follows a simple plot: a group of space-faring voyagers are stranded on a planet. The planet is inhabited by a race of aliens that appear only in the dark, and go about on a killing spree feeding on other living things that have become stranded. The planet is surrounded by three suns, which means constant sunlight and safety for the stranded voyagers, but as luck would have it, they happen to have crashed just before a total eclipse is about to occur (design or coincidence?). There is some tension between the people stranded on the planet, but it is secondary to the feel of the movie itself: among the motley crew, Fry (Radha Mitchell) is the captain who almost jettisoned the passengers who were in cryosleep to save herself; Riddick (Vin Diesel) is a sociopath with special talents being transported shackled; and Inam (Keith David) a religious preacher whose primary purpose is to inject some form of a spiritual/religious message into the film. Of course, they must all work together to combat the greater evil (calling an alien species that just wants to survive "evil" is amusing to me). The acting is passable and the pacing is decent, if you're comfortable with the "aliens kill off survivors until the last few manage to triumph" story line. The visuals are surreal and are done incredibly well, this is what rescues /Pitch Black/. Thinking back about this film, I feel as though I was dreaming about what I saw. The many views of the aliens (from looking through the killer's specialised eyes to their complex flying patterns) are done in an excellent manner (though the alien creatures themselves are modelled after the ones in /Alien/, albeit with wings). Director and writer David Twohy does a fine job in giving us a visual glimpse of his universe, and while the plot of this film is not as conceptually sophisticated as his previous work, /The Arrival/, it is a great piece of eye candy to look at and enjoy on the big screen. Worth the matinee fare. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- email@urls || http://www.ram.org || http://www.twisted-helices.com/th Movie ram-blings: http://www.ram.org/ramblings/movies.html From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Mar 13 12:46:08 2000 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!newsfeed.direct.ca!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: John Beachem ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews ~Subject: Review: Pitch Black (2000) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies ~Date: 10 Mar 2000 05:28:27 GMT Organization: University of Washington ~Lines: 81 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <8aa15r$7tc$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer21.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 952666107 8108 (None) 140.142.17.39 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #23484 Keywords: author=beachem X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer21.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:22567 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2642 PITCH BLACK Review by John Beachem * * Directed by: David Twohy Written by: Jim Wheat (story), Ken Wheat I've got to hand it to actors recently, they've really been saving writers' butts. From last year's "The Hurricane" being saved by Denzel Washington's amazing performance, to last week's "Reindeer Games" being held afloat by Charlize Theron and Gary Sinise, actors have been the only reason to see several films recently. I'm afraid that "Pitch Black" is no exception. It's a bleak, dreary, boring movie, made bearable only by the presence of Vin Diesel ("Saving Private Ryan", "Boiler Room"), as the film's very reluctant hero. Radha Mitchell is fairly good as the film's female lead, but no one could have hoped to match Diesel for sheer intensity. There aren't many actors who make you anxious to hear what they're going to say next. A starship filled with colonists has just crash landed (for reasons never fully explained) on a planet with three suns. Of the forty passengers, only ten have survived. Seven are colonists, led by Iman (Keith David); one is the ship's pilot, Carolyn Fry (Radha Mitchell); one is a police officer named Johns (Cole Hauser); and the last is his captive, a murderer named Riddick (Vin Diesel). The group soon finds an abandoned mining camp, where the former residents don't appear to have left voluntarily. While there, they discover that the day never ends on this planet, and its natural habitants can only come out when it is completely dark, because the light harms them. It would seem that the colonists have chosen a bad time to crash land because an eclipse is about to take place, and the entire planet will be plunged into darkness. One of the things I first noticed about this movie was the way it was filmed. Everything has a rather bleached, dried-out look to it. I think this was intentional, and the film makers were attempting to show the effects of three suns beating down on the planet at once; but all they succeeded in doing was making the movie look so low budget that they had no money to spend on good film. As if this weren't enough, the camera constantly jostles about or quick cuts from person to person in a confusing manner. While this might make sense during scenes when the creatures attack, it is used all the time - even when people are only talking. I think the biggest problem with "Pitch Black" is that it commits the ultimate sin for a horror film. That is, of course, that a horror film should never be dull, and "Pitch Black" is frequently. I believe that a good horror movie should never let you relax for too long. I'm sure fans of "The Blair Witch Project" will argue this with me, since that film managed to be dull the whole way through but still scared some people. During "Pitch Black", I actually saw people in the theatre falling asleep during the movie's frequent, very long conversations about things no one could care less about. For example, there is a scene where we apparently learn some grave secret about Johns; though they talk endlessly about it, I still couldn't tell you just what exactly the secret was supposed to be. Two more things I must make note of. First, despite Diesel's great performance, his character's transformation is more than a little hard to swallow. Second, could someone please explain to me how a desert planet, with no plant life and therefore no herbivores, could support hordes of massive, meat eating creatures? We never see anything else they could snack on, so how do they stay alive? Oh well, just another stupid oversight in a stupid movie I suppose. "Pitch Black" runs 108 minutes, which will feel much longer than it actually is. I'd recommend it only to see Vin Diesel's performance, and if you really want to see that, do yourself a favor and wait for video. I give it two out of five stars. Comments? Feel free to e-mail them to: johnbeachem@dependentfilms.net For past reviews, movie news, and other fun stuff, visit: http://www.dependentfilms.net * * * * * - One of the greatest movies ever made, see it now: * * * * - Great flick, try and catch this one. * * * - Okay movie, hits and misses. * * - Pretty bad, see it only if you've got nothing better to do. * - One of the worst movies ever made. See it only if you enjoy pain. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Mar 20 12:46:47 2000 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!newsfeed.direct.ca!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: shannon@morgan.ucs.mun.ca (Shannon Patrick Sullivan) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Pitch Black (2000) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 17 Mar 2000 03:54:57 GMT Organization: Memorial University of Newfoundland Lines: 105 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <8asaah$hvqm$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer27.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 953265297 589654 (None) 140.142.17.35 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #23578 Keywords: author=sullivan X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer27.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:22648 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2661 PITCH BLACK (2000) / * Directed by David Twohy. Screenplay by Jim Wheat, Ken Wheat and Twohy. Starring Vin Diesel, Radha Mitchell, Cole Hauser. Running time: 108 minutes. Rated AA for offensive language and violent scenes. Reviewed on March 16th, 2000. By SHANNON PATRICK SULLIVAN My first exposure to "Pitch Black" came when the preview was played in front of "Girl, Interrupted" a month and a half ago. The preview hinted at monsters which lived on a sun-drenched planet but could only come out in the darkness. Then: "an eclipse!" How convenient, I thought; I could see the whole movie playing out in my mind. I held out some hope that the filmmakers might surprise me, but sadly, actually watching "Pitch Black" did not prove to be a revelatory experience. "Pitch Black" is indeed as improbable, formulaic and predictable as its preview implies. The film is set sometime in the future. Men travel the stars in enormous ships, cryogenically frozen for the duration of the voyage. One such spaceship is knocked off course and crashlands, killing all but a handful of the passengers and crew. The survivors include docking pilot Caroline Fry (Radha Mitchell), uneasy with authority and plagued by self-doubts; no-nonsense mercenary William Johns (Cole Hauser); and Richard Riddick (Vin Diesel), a convicted murderer. The planet on which they are marooned has three suns, and as a result is a dry, blasted terrain without plants or water. Soon, though, the survivors discover evidence of a previous human expedition to the planet which appears to have been violently wiped out. The culprits soon become obvious: in underground caverns live hideous creatures which thrive in darkness and emerge onto the planet's surface only during a total solar eclipse, which in a feat of mathematical and physical improbability occurs like clockwork every twenty-two years. Of course, the cycle is almost up and soon the survivors find themselves under assault from wave upon wave of the terrifying, merciless monsters which are almost invisible in the pervasive darkness. Their only hope lies with the enigmatic Riddick, whose eyes have been surgically altered to permit him to see in the dark. Convenient indeed. But to be fair, films have to be permitted a certain degree of latitude when it comes to such coincidences; without them, in many cases there just wouldn't be much of a movie. This is particularly true of science-fiction movies, which are so totally dependent on the imagined and the improbable to begin with. But such a leap of faith would be far easier to make if it were in the service of an entertaining movie. "Pitch Black" simply is not. The entire movie is little more than one long, drawn-out chase scene. The characters have to get from Point A to Point B while avoiding the monsters, and there isn't much more to "Pitch Black" than that. The movie is punctuated only by a few token nods to character development, as well as the obligatory deaths which occur with almost comical timing. It is so easy to forecast right from the start the identity of those characters who survive to the end, it's criminal. This is a classic example of writing by the numbers; the screenplay by Jim Wheat, Ken Wheat and director David Twohy could just as easily have been generated by a computer program, it is so routine. The best aspect of "Pitch Black" is the computer-animated special effects. There are some beautiful shots of the spaceship cruising past the rings of a Saturn-like planet, and of the onset of the solar eclipse. The monsters are also well-designed, although they do seem to owe something to "Alien". Twohy at least has the presence of mind to keep the monsters mostly out of sight for much of the film, adding to their sense of menace. Even when they are fully unveiled, the lighting and camerawork keeps them indistinct. It's a shame, then, that "Pitch Black" utilizes them in such tired, unimaginative situations. They hammer against doors. They follow the party just out of sight in the darkness. They pop out of nowhere in an apparently empty corridor. There aren't many genuine frights here, and even the rare creepy moments are obvious and predictable. Part of the movie's problem is that it develops few sympathetic characters to generate viewer interest. I found it difficult to be absorbed into the atmosphere of terror "Pitch Black" attempts to generate when I had absolutely no emotional investment in the characters whatsoever. I think it says something about the movie that of the three principals, the most sympathetic is the mass murderer, Riddick. Sort of a hunky Hannibal Lecter with super-powers, Diesel does a good job of making Riddick an intriguing anti-hero while not forgetting that he is, after all, still a criminal. Mitchell and Hauser, meanwhile, struggle futilely with their unmemorable, unlikeable characters. The rest of the ragtag band is largely forgettable, although Keith David does what he can with the underdeveloped role of the spiritual Imam. "Pitch Black" is a dismal and tedious exercise in moviemaking, failing even to provide the requisite thrills and chills, let alone living up to the enormous potential of the science-fiction genre. Sci-f provides filmmakers with the opportunity to exercise the entire breadth of their vision and creativity, to do things no other genre permits. It is all the more unfortunate, then, to see a movie like "Pitch Black" dismiss this opportunity in favor of the banal and the ordinary. While the characters spend the entire movie running around the deathtrap planet, the audience is well advised to run in only one direction: away from the theater. Either that, or go into cryogenic sleep until "Pitch Black" is over. Copyright © 2000 Shannon Patrick Sullivan. Archived at http://www.physics.mun.ca/~sps/movies/PitchBlack.html -- _______________________________________________________________________ / Shannon Patrick Sullivan | "We are all in the gutter, but some of us \ | | are looking at the stars." | \ shannon@morgan.ucs.mun.ca | -- Oscar Wilde / From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Jul 13 11:36:02 2001 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!luth.se!arclight.uoregon.edu!hammer.uoregon.edu!feed.textport.net!sn-xit-04!sn-post-02!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: Dennis Schwartz Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Pitch Black (2000) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2001 20:41:19 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RT-AuthorID: 1315 X-RT-TitleID: 1095092 X-RT-RatingText: C- Summary: r.a.m.r. #28689 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 71 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:26860 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2864 PITCH BLACK (director/writer: David Twohy; screenwriters: Jim and Ken Wheat/based on a story by the Wheat brothers; cinematographer: David Eggby; editor: Rick Shaine; cast: Vin Diesel (Riddick), Radha Mitchell (Fry), Cole Hauser (Johns), Keith David (Imam), Lewis Fitz-Gerald (Paris), Claudia Black (Shazza), Rhiana Griffith (Jack/Jackie), John Moore (Zeke), Simon Burke (Greg Owens); Runtime: 108; USA Films/Polygram; 2000) Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz When a spaceship crash-lands on a planet of three suns that is plagued by darkness as a solar eclipse hits, the survivors must fight the nocturnal, batlike, alien creatures. These aliens avoid the light and strike when it's dark. The survivors include a dangerous murderer serving a life sentence in maximum security, Riddick (Diesel), who has surgically implanted eyes that shine enabling him to have night vision. He also has awesome muscles that are pumped for action. He wore specially fitted contact lenses to give him that shine job look. The survivors include: Riddick, who is in chains as he is being transported to another prison; the cruel guard, Johns (Cole Hauser), who it turns out has a few flaws in his personality -- which include a morphine habit; and, the spacecraft's landing pilot, Fry (Radha Mitchell), who becomes the captain when it's discovered that the captain's throat had been slashed. These two leaders of the plan to get off the dark planet argue all the time, and trust among the survivors becomes the issue. Fry had her moment of cowardice when landing the plane, as she almost panicked and pulled the cord to eject the passengers. This is something Johns uses against her. The other survivors include: a preachy Muslim imam, a holy man, talking up a storm about God; a prissy English antiquities dealer whose wine collection is used as lighting fuel to get them off this wasteland, when it's covered in pitch darkness. And a boy called Jack who turns out to be a girl named Jackie, as discovered through the efforts of Riddick's nose for female hormones. This sci-fi formula action flick is noteworthy for its splendid cinematography, as it was filmed in the Australian Outback, and for its innovative editing cuts. The story line left me gasping for more light and the acting left me in the dark searching for one line of dialogue that wasn't shrill or trite. No actor was provided with a challenging part, but Diesel uses his powerfully muscular presence and deep baritone voice to dominate this action story. He comes to say one-liners such as this: "They did not know who they were f*cking with!" He says this to the dead aliens after he puts them out of their misery, but he might as well have spoken it to a dead audience. The writer/director David Twohy (The Arrival) tries to bring some intelligence to the story, but the script is too predictable to keep one interested in it. The characters ranged from a shrill Radha to a cartoonlike Diesel, making it easy to root for the aliens to possibly, against all formula film odds, pick off all the survivors of the spacecraft. But three do survive and, in my opinion, that's three too many! This film didn't have a clue about what point it wanted to make. It was particularly unclear how good or bad they wanted to portray Diesel's character, as he kept changing from bad to good guy at every alien sighting. By the film's end I had an empty feeling, knowing I saw another special effect sci-fi film that couldn't bring on a story. REVIEWED ON 7/4/2001 GRADE: C- Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews" http://www.sover.net/~ozus ozus@sover.net © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DENNIS SCHWARTZ ========== X-RAMR-ID: 28689 X-RT-AuthorID: 1315 X-RT-TitleID: 1095092 X-RT-RatingText: C- From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Dec 1 18:03:10 2003 Path: news.island.liu.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!uninett.no!ntnu.no!uio.no!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!sn-xit-03!sn-xit-01!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: John Ulmer Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Retrospective: Pitch Black (2000) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.past-films Date: Fri, 26 Sep 2003 19:58:25 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 35859 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 1200733 X-RT-TitleID: 1095092 X-RT-SourceID: 1382 X-RT-AuthorID: 6769 X-RT-RatingText: 4/5 Summary: r.a.m.r. #35859 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: abuse@supernews.com Lines: 74 Xref: news.island.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:7682 rec.arts.sf.reviews:658 PITCH BLACK Rating: 4 out of 5 stars REVIEW BY JOHN ULMER I must say that I didn't expect much sitting down to watch "Pitch Black," but I got a lot back, in terms of excitement and pure fun. It's the type of flick where you can just lean back, relax, and have a great time just being entertained. This isn't a deep film by any means. Everything that it offers is either recycled or ripped off of other movies such as "Alien," "Predator" or such. But when I watch a rip-off, I want it to be good, and this rip-off is great. It opens with a galaxy of stars. Some of the greatest films of all time open with this type of scene - "2001," "Star Wars," "Alien," "Predator." A ship is cruising through space when inside the entire cryogenically frozen crew is awoken. The ship has been hit by something. They crash land on a nasty little planet with three suns. Everyone flocks out of the ship when they find that their prisoner transport, Richard Riddick (Vin Diesel), has escaped confinement. They scan the desert planet in search of him and eventually find him, but they have no way of getting their ship to fly again. They search the planet for water and civilization but it seems that everyone suddenly disappeared from the planet not too long ago. Then they find out that every 22 years the planets line up in a solar eclipse and the entire planet turns pitch black. There also happen to be hoards of aliens that thrive in darkness living on the planet - what are the chances? They happen to be on the planet right as the eclipse happens - what are the chances? And Riddick has a rare talent - he can see in the dark - again, what are the chances? There seems to be a lot of coincedence in this movie, but a film like this isn't out to get Oscars for originality or believability. It's there to entertain the audience - it does so with ease. Vin Diesel is a big gorilla of a man with no acting talent whatsoever. But I've got to say if there's anyone who can fit the part of a trashy, homicidal felon it is Diesel. Listen to him mutter, "He did not know who he was fu**ing with." Great stuff. The aliens in this movie are a mix between hammerhead sharks, those from "Alien" and Predators. They've got long, horizontal heads like a hammerhead, the quick-moving agility of the aliens, and the stealth of a Predator. I assume David Twohy (director and writer of the movie) didn't expect audiences to believe his creatures were truly something never seen before. At least I hope not. "Aliens Redux" might be a better name for this movie, but then again, it is better than both the second and third "Alien" films put together. In a time when apparently ended series are getting revived - "Terminator 3," "Alien 5," "Predator 3," "Alien vs. Predator" - "Pitch Black" stands out as a new series altogether. Two more sequels are planned. Let's just hope they don't get carried away. I can just picture it twenty-five years from now: "Aliens vs. Predator vs. Pitch Black Aliens: *The Fight of the Year." *Fight of the Year title may be shared with the upcoming film "Freddy vs. Jason vs. Michael vs. Leatherface vs. Norman Bates vs. Alien vs. Predator vs. Terminator vs. James Cameron vs. Barny the Dinosaur." - John Ulmer Webmaster of The Movie Portal http://www.wiredonmovies.com/ Updated daily, offers over one thousand free movie scripts and hundreds of free reviews, plus posters, sounds, quotes, and more. ========== X-RAMR-ID: 35859 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 1200733 X-RT-TitleID: 1095092 X-RT-SourceID: 1382 X-RT-AuthorID: 6769 X-RT-RatingText: 4/5