For unexplainable reasons, any major action star is apparently contractually obligated to make a family comedy at some stage in their career, with the results typically being dire. Any big name actor to have mowed down armies of faceless goons or roundhouse kicked a series of henchmen in the face will eventually show up in a PG-rated kids movie where they subvert their entire screen persona, and it doesn’t appear to be negotiable.
Come to think of it, Jason Statham is probably the most notable holdout from this most bizarre of Hollywood phenomenons. Arnold Schwarzenegger starred in Twins, Kindergarten Cop, Junior and more, Sylvester Stallone was trolled into headlining Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot, Jackie Chan lent his talents to The Tuxedo, Dwayne Johnson disgraced himself in The Tooth Fairy, Dave Bautista was recently seen in My Spy, and Vin Diesel inevitably got in on the act with The Pacifier back in 2005.
The Fast & Furious figurehead plays a Navy SEAL who can handle the most dangerous missions possible, but finds himself caught up in the battle of his life when assigned to protect the five children of a scientist he’d saved from an assassination attempt. Naturally, hijinks ensue as Vin Diesel tries to prove himself as a physical comedian, and it would be an understatement to say the results are less than stellar.
However, no matter how bad these action hero family films turn out to be, they can typically be relied on to do decent box office business. The Pacifier was no different, raking in close to $200 million globally, and sixteen years later, Looper is reporting that it appears to have found new life on streaming after recently being added to the HBO Max library.
