RottenTomatoes.com
Log In | Register | What is RT?
Check out the new RT Community
  • Home
  • Movies
  • DVD
  • Celebrities
  • News
  • Critics
  • Trailers & Pictures
  • CommunityBeta
  • Box Office
  • | Best Of
  • | Certified Fresh
  • | Showtimes
RT Search Powered by Google
help icon Enhanced RT
searches on Google
Click here to turn on enhanced search results from RT on your Google searches.
 
Movies / On DVD / Pitch Black
Pitch Black

Rate this Movie Help Icon

  • Write a Review
  • Read Reviews
  • Add to List
  • Buy Poster External Icon
  • Visit Official Site External Icon
Bookmark and Share

Pitch Black (2000)

  • T-Meter Critics
  • Top Critics
  • RT Community
  • My Critics
  • My Friends
  • DVD
57 %
Tomatometer
Template ImageTemplate Image

How does the Tomatometer work Help Icon

Reviews Counted:99

Fresh:56

Rotten:43

Average Rating:5.6/10

Consensus: This sci-fi flick fails to deliver enough spills and chills.

Runtime: 1 hr 52 mins

Genre: Science-Fiction/Fantasy

Synopsis: A spacecraft carrying an assortment of passengers including Riddick (Vin Diesel), a dangerous, shackled murderer between prisons, is forced to make a crash landing on a barren, triple-sunned planet... A spacecraft carrying an assortment of passengers including Riddick (Vin Diesel), a dangerous, shackled murderer between prisons, is forced to make a crash landing on a barren, triple-sunned planet after the craft suffers severe damage during a meteor shower. The ship is ripped into pieces, killing several crew members and leaving meek officer Fry (Radha Mitchell) in charge of the survivors. After two unfortunate deaths, the survivors discover that the only visible life form on the planet is a species of light-fearing, carnivorous, occasionally cannibalistic aliens dwelling in caverns beneath the desert surface. Using a model of the planet and its suns in an abandoned research station, Fry deduces that she and her fellow travellers have unfortunately descended on the planet on the day of its first total eclipse in 22 years, giving them mere hours before they are bathed in total darkness. Only then is it safe for the hungry subterranean creatures to emerge, seeking to feed on the remaining survivors. However, the dangerous Riddick, through black market injections received in lock-up, is able to see in darkness- causing the surviving crew members to reluctantly remain dependent on the potentially harmful criminal. As the survivors are killed one by one by the hungry creatures, they realize that Riddick may be their only hope. [More]

Starring: Vin Diesel, Radha Mitchell, Cole Hauser, Keith David

Starring: Vin Diesel, Radha Mitchell, Cole Hauser, Keith David, Lewis Fitz-Gerald, John Moore, Claudia Black, Simon Burke

Director: David Twohy

Director: David Twohy
Screenwriter: Ken Wheat, Jim Wheat, David Twohy
Producer: Tom Engelman
Composer: Graeme Revell

[See More Credits]

  • Trailers
  • Pictures
1 - 5 of 16

See More Movie Trailers & Pictures

Reviews for Pitch Black

  • T-Meter Critics
  • Top Critics
  • RT Community
  • My Critics
  • My Friends
  • DVD
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 6 >> >|
Arrange By:Fresh | Rotten | Comments | Name | Source | Date
 
 

A smart, suspenseful sci-fi movie from director Twohy, whose underrated 1996 film, The Arrival, also brought visual imagination and intelligence to the genre.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
06/24/06
Derek Adams
Derek Adams
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Features some lovingly crafted effects -- notably director of photography David Eggby's bleached colour palette -- and some vivid characterisation.

Full Review Source: Sight and Sound | comment Comment
12/03/02
Daniel Etherington
Daniel Etherington
Sight and Sound

[A] derivative, plot-hole ridden sci-fi flick, redeemed only by the blazing star-in-the-making quality of Vin Diesel.

Full Review Source: ViewLondon | comment Comment
10/30/02
Matthew Turner
Matthew Turner
ViewLondon

With a witty script and a cool sense of building dread, Pitch Black is a surprisingly entertaining sci-fi thriller.

Full Review Source: Shadows on the Wall | comment Comment
12/10/01
Rich Cline
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall

It is an entertainment and quite a good one too.

Full Review Source: BBC | comment Comment
04/17/01
Anwar Brett
Anwar Brett
BBC
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

This is filmmaking that's lean, mean and (in Diesel) boasts one hell of a fighting machine.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
01/01/00
Darren Bignell
Darren Bignell
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

This movie is so disposable and indistinctive that I don't want to review it -- I want to briefly mention it in a conversation about silly sci-fi and then forget it forever.

Full Review Source: UK Critic | comment Comment
01/01/00
Ian Waldron-Mantgani
Ian Waldron-Mantgani
UK Critic

...your typical run-for-your-life-the-monsters-are-coming science fiction adventure that requires one to park his brain at the front door of the theater before entering.

Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | comment Comment
08/02/09
Blake French
Blake French
Filmcritic.com
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Cinema Crazed | comment Comment
04/29/09
Felix Vasquez Jr.
Felix Vasquez Jr.
Cinema Crazed

A fairly efficient science fiction monster film, somewhat in the mold of an old 1950s B-movie.

Full Review Source: Cinefantastique | comment Comment
03/31/09
Steve Biodrowski
Steve Biodrowski
Cinefantastique

If only there had been as much time spent on creating believable aliens as there obviously was on the landscape.

Full Review Source: Big Picture Big Sound | comment 1 Comment
07/14/07
Joe Lozito
Joe Lozito
Big Picture Big Sound

Under the circumstances it's not really fair to blame the actors, whose amateurishness seems appropriate to the material (although Diesel's stolid machismo is so over-the-top as to be pretty laughable).

Full Review Source: One Guy's Opinion | comment Comment
07/24/06
Frank Swietek
Frank Swietek
One Guy's Opinion

Manages to surprise and delight, thanks to its small-scale attitude.

Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | comment Comment
05/26/06
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid

Hey man, it's February. You've already picked through all the leftover Oscar-bait you can take, so it's no time to be picky.

Full Review Source: Film Threat | comment Comment
12/06/05
Ron Wells
Ron Wells
Film Threat

PITCH BLACK deserves to be recommended as a solid piece of genre entertainment.

Full Review Source: Draxblog Movie Reviews | comment Comment
06/26/05
Dragan Antulov
Dragan Antulov
Draxblog Movie Reviews

The derivativeness of the script keeps any tensions from building into any kind of scariness.

Full Review Source: Reeling Reviews | comment Comment
04/09/05
Robin Clifford
Robin Clifford
Reeling Reviews

Lackluster both as science-fiction and horror.

Full Review Source: Reno Gazette-Journal | comment Comment
06/04/04
Forrest Hartman
Forrest Hartman
Reno Gazette-Journal

One of the best of the sci-fi spectacles cut from the Alien cloth.

Full Review Source: Creative Loafing | comment Comment
06/02/04
Matt Brunson
Matt Brunson
Creative Loafing

A solid entry in the genre of science fiction horror.

Full Review Source: Radio Free Entertainment | comment Comment
01/15/04
Andrew Manning
Andrew Manning
Radio Free Entertainment

The action scenes are good, if sparse.

Full Review Source: Reel Film Reviews | comment Comment
08/01/03
David Nusair
David Nusair
Reel Film Reviews
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 6 >> >|
all

Latest News for Pitch Black

August 03, 2009: David Twohy Talks Riddick Sequels Opens in new window
They're still at the idea stage, but David Twohy and Vin Diesel are committed to continuing "The Chronicles of Riddick" -- and in a new interview with Shock Till You Drop, Twohy... More...

March 10, 2009: Vin Diesel Talks Next Riddick Game, Sequel Opens in new window
Vin Diesel is out promoting his next "Chronicles of Riddick" videogame, "Assault on Dark Athena," so now seems like a pretty ideal time for a chat with GameSpot about the future... More...

August 26, 2008: Diesel Promises a Double Shot of Riddick Opens in new window
His latest movie, "Babylon A.D.," might be running at a woeful 0 percent on the Tomatometer, but Vin Diesel has bigger fish to fry; according to a recent interview with MTV, the... More...

November 20, 2007: A Third Installment for The Chronicles of Riddick?
Despite the underwhelming reviews and receipts that greeted 2004's Pitch Black sequel, The Chronicles of Riddick, writer/director David Twohy still hopes to film a third... More...

See All

More DVDs

Top Rentals
Tomatometer Percentage Movie
15% 15% The Ugly Truth
98% 98% Up
36% 36% G.I. Joe: The Rise of …
52% 52% The Taking of Pelham 1…
45% 45% Ice Age: Dawn of the D…

More Rentals…

New On DVD This Week
Tomatometer Percentage Movie
36% 36% Angels & Demons
68% 68% Funny People
25% 25% Four Christmases
45% 45% Shorts

More New Releases…

What’s Hot On RT

Prince of Persia

Prince of Persia

Your first look at the swashbuckler.

Vampires

Vampires

We rank cinema's bloodsuckers.

Avatar

Avatar

The full trailer for Cameron's epic.

2012

2012

12 facts about Emmerich's disaster flick.

Other News

  • Top Stories
  • Popular
  • Interviews
 
 

Comments

 
 
Top Stories
Headlines Comments
  
  • Disney Restructuring Has Broad Implications Source: Los Angeles Times
9
  • Joel Silver Talks Ninja Assassin, Sgt. Rock, Lobo, and More Source: Collider.com
1
  • Weekly Ketchup: Idris Elba cast in Thor, more Spider-Man 4 rumors
106
  • Idris Elba Joins Thor Source: Hollywood Reporter
112
  • Jackass 3D Coming in 2010? Source: Collider.com
32
  • 6 Reasons 'Twilight' Is Doomed Source: The Wrap
64
  • Forbes Names Hollywood's Most Overpaid Actors Source: Forbes
20
  • Chris Weitz Says He's (Almost) Done with Directing Source: Film School Rejects
26
  • Spider-Man 4 Casting Rumors Multiply Like Rabbits Source: Deadline Hollywood Daily
51
  • McTeigue Says Superman Is "In a Weird Place" Source: MTV
204
Popular
Headlines Comments
  
  • Box Office Guru Wrapup: New Moon Shatters Records
161
  • Critics Consensus: New Moon Wanes
129
  • Tomatometer Watch: Will Twilight's New Moon Dazzle?
97
  • Total Recall: Star-Crossed Lovers
74
  • Weekly Ketchup: Idris Elba cast in Thor, more Spider-Man 4 rumors
53
  • Five Favorite Films with Werner Herzog
50
  • Total Recall: John Travolta's Best Movies
36
  • Friday Harvest: New Moon, Avatar, and more!
31
  • "I Don't Hate Women": Lars von Trier on Antichrist
2
  • Ho, ho, ho! It's RT's Great Big Gift Guide!
0
Interviews
Headlines Comments
  
  • "I Don't Hate Women": Lars von Trier on Antichrist
1
  • Eric Bana talks Love the Beast - RT Interview
8
  • Fight Club Sound Designer Reflects on Film's 10th Anniversary
19
  • James Schamus talks Taking Woodstock - RT Interview
6
  • John Hurt Talks Harry Potter, Quentin Crisp and Alien - The RT Interview
15
  • Terry Gilliam Talks Doctor Parnassus
16
  • Wes Anderson Talks Fantastic Mr. Fox - RT Interview
8
  • Wolverine Creator Len Wein Talks About the Film
28
  • Gavin Hood Talks Wolverine; Possible Sequel
28
  • Duncan Jones talks Moon, Sam Rockwell, and Mute
14
 
 

Sponsored Links

Around The Network

  • Pitch Black at Rotten Tomatoes
  • Pitch Black at IGN

Fresh Links

Featured
RT on YouTube
RT on YouTube External Link

Subscribe to RT's YouTube channel and don't miss a second of our cracking video content.

RT on Twitter
RT on Twitter External Link

Follow Rotten Tomatoes and join us as we tweet about the week's releases.

 
 
About| Site Map| Help| RT To Go| Contact Us| Critics Submission| Linking to RT| Licensing| Movie List| Celebs List| Newsletter
IGN Logo

IGN.com | GameSpy | Comrade | Arena | FilePlanet | GameSpy Technology
TeamXbox | Planets | Vaults | VE3D | CheatsCodesGuides | GameStats | GamerMetrics
AskMen.com | Rotten Tomatoes | Direct2Drive | Green Pixels


By continuing past this page, and by the continued use of this site, you agree to be bound by and abide by the User Agreement.
Copyright 1998-2009, IGN Entertainment, Inc. About IGN | Support | Advertise | Privacy Policy | User Agreement | Subscribe to RT's XML feed! IGN RSS Feeds
IGN's enterprise databases running Oracle, SQL and MySQL are professionally monitored and managed by Pythian Remote DBA
Certain product data ©1995-present Muze, Inc. For personal use only. All rights reserved.