A smart, suspenseful sci-fi movie from director Twohy, whose underrated 1996 film, The Arrival, also brought visual imagination and intelligence to the genre.
Pitch Black (2000)
Tomatometer
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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
Reviews for Pitch Black
Features some lovingly crafted effects -- notably director of photography David Eggby's bleached colour palette -- and some vivid characterisation.
[A] derivative, plot-hole ridden sci-fi flick, redeemed only by the blazing star-in-the-making quality of Vin Diesel.
With a witty script and a cool sense of building dread, Pitch Black is a surprisingly entertaining sci-fi thriller.
This is filmmaking that's lean, mean and (in Diesel) boasts one hell of a fighting machine.
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.
...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.
A fairly efficient science fiction monster film, somewhat in the mold of an old 1950s B-movie.
If only there had been as much time spent on creating believable aliens as there obviously was on the landscape.
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).
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.
PITCH BLACK deserves to be recommended as a solid piece of genre entertainment.
The derivativeness of the script keeps any tensions from building into any kind of scariness.
Latest News for Pitch Black
August 03, 2009:
David Twohy Talks Riddick Sequels ![]()
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 ![]()
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 ![]()
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...
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