Yar, you be here: Pitch Black (Widescreen Unrated Director's Cut) > Customer Reviews

Pitch Black (Widescreen Unrated Director's Cut) Customer Reviews (37 - 39 of 69 Reviews)

A Good Modern B-movie
Vin Diesel stars as Richard B. Riddick, a potentially amoral and dangerous criminal being transported through space to prison. When the spacecraft crashes on an isolated planet, only a few survive, including Claudia Black (Farscape), Cole Hauser, and Radha Mitchell. During the day, the planet is a barren dessert, and the survivors worry that they will die of thirst; as night falls, they find that they are prey to a terrifying foe. The survivors find themselves relying on Riddick, despite their hesitation.

Pitch Black is a solid sci-fi thriller, despite its relatively low budget (23 million). The director, David Twohy (writer of "The Fugitive"), manages to maintain a genuinely creepy atmosphere throughout the movie and keeps the movie unpredictable. Ultimately, it's the type of well-crafted B-movie that is rarely made today, and it helped make Vin Diesel a star. Pitch Black is likely to become a cult classic, helped immeasurably by the forthcoming planned sequel "The Chronicles of Riddick."

Extras: The DVD features an excellent director commentary track, which sustains a nice balance between technical description of special effects and more general aspects of how the movie was created.

are YOU afraid of the dark?
Pitch black is easily one of my favourite sci fi films, as it combines more than just the typical 'kill/run from the aliens' scenario, it actually has good characters, and a few surprises. The plot is as basic as any other sci fi flick: a ship crash lands on a deserted planet. It's passengers include a dead captain, the pilot forced into command, a cop, a religious man, a few children, and a deadly prisoner, who makes a hasty retreat from the ship shortly after the crash. During their search for water while bearing the heat of the 3 suns that scorch the planet, the group comes across many skeletons and a tiny ship, that only needs a bit of fixing up to leave. But the escaped convict and whatever lives underground in the darkness has other plans. This movie has a lot going for it, especially the great acting from it's stars Vin Diesel, the underrated Keith David, and the beautiful Radha Mitchell. The special effects are great as well. The violence is a little weak (although women and children are not spared), but it's enough. As for the dvd itself, i was very surprised. Most of the time movies set in darkness are very fuzzy looking (like the horrible transfer of The Relic), but there were only a few moments in Pitch Black where it looked mildly grainy. The special features of the disc aren't very special, but i'm happy with what was included. It could have been worse, and had just a trailer with it. Bottom line: awesome movie, awesome transfer, and good dvd features.

A Surprise.
Stranded on a planet with two suns after their ships crashes, a varied group of survivors including a Mullah and some of his followers, a bounty hunter, a genetically altered criminal, an art dealer, and a little boy struggle for survival. At first, their biggest dilema is surviving the heat and finding water. If only it was a little cooler, perhaps if both suns would set? Unfortunately, this does not happen. The only time there is darkness on this planet is an lunar eclipse -which happens once every 22 years.

This group eventually finds an abandoned science expedition, and some abandoned ships. They also find the remains of that expedition. Something apparently ate them alive twenty two years ago, during the last lunar eclipse. The natural tension between this diverse group begins to explode into minor outbreaks of violence. Then, one of the survivors is butchered. Who is the killer? In addition, creatures, who are unseen for most of the movie, but whose presence is always felt are soon discovered. These creatures are deadly, but stay underground and away from the dual suns found on the planet's surface. Added to this tension, the navigator makes an important discovery, a lunar eclispe is coming very soon. It will soon be "pitch black" everywhere.

Pitch Black does a great job building the story at a good pace. The tension is believable as the remaining survivors fight for their lives. Nor does the story take most of the convential, easy ways out. For example, people who hate each other before they are attacked by these creatues, still hate each afterwards. This causes problems for their survival. With good special effects and actors who are well cast and do a good job, "Pitch Black" was a fun adventure/horror movie. I enjoyed it.

Previous Page

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23

Next Page