I first took notice of Vin Diesel in the science fiction film Pitch Black. I thought this is a guy with a great look, he’s big, and he’s bad and looks tough. He also has a cool sounding raspy voice and he’s actually a good actor. I thought Vin Diesel could be the next big thing in Hollywood. Vin Diesel certainly still has his fans but his career hasn’t been all that spectacular due to poor movie choices. I still have faith that Vin Diesel can be a really good actor with a really good career. Until then let’s rank the movies Vin Diesel has made so far.
11. A Man Apart
Rotten Tomatoes ranked this Vin Diesel movie one of the worst reviewed movies of all time and with good reason. A Man Apart shouldn’t have been that bad, it’s your typical revenge plot. In the movie the wife of Vin Diesel is killed and Vin Diesel should then go guns a blazin’ and blow everything up. Instead there are these mind boggling scenes that make no sense. I think the writers must’ve stolen the “Scenes from a hat” game from Whose Line Is It Anyway when they wrote this script.
10. Boiler Room
Boiler Room got a lot of rave reviews, but I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s just me but I don’t like movies about Wall Street, it’s just boring to me. I’m also not crazy about any movie starring Giovanni Ribisi. Ben Affleck was good in a small role in this movie but Vin Diesel was just kind of there.
9. The Chronicles of Riddick
The Chronicles of Riddick was one of the most disappointing movies I can remember seeing. It wasn’t Vin Diesel’s fault though; the writing is what was so horrible. No plots, no character development, no nothing. Sadly the Chronicles of Riddick video game was a better movie than the movie was.
8. xXx
I don’t really even remember what happened in xXx, it was so forgettable. It was just your action movie with nothing else going on. Some people might think that is Vin Diesel’s purpose in movies but I think the guy can actually act and should be doing stuff better than this.
7. The Pacifier
Vin Diesel, this huge tough guy who plays an ex-Marine is going to be babysitting kids? Oh no! I’m having flashbacks of Mr. Nanny starring Hulk Hogan! Yeah, this movie was pretty dumb, but there were at least a few cute parts to keep the Pacifier at a respectable number on this list. Plus it had Brittany Snow and Lauren Graham, two of my favorites, so it’s gets points for that even if they weren’t particularly great in it.
6. Find Me Guilty
Find Me Guilty was hard to rank. On the one hand this might be Vin Diesel’s best performance and his character, Jackie DiNorscio, is very humorous and a very interesting person. The problem is the rest of the movie doesn’t do much for me. The plot is kind of boring and there aren’t any other characters that are that good.
5. The Iron Giant
As I said in another article I wrote, the Iron Giant to me was sort of like E.T. for the next generation. A young boy finds an alien (in this case the alien is a robot) and the alien is scared and threatened so the boy tries to protect him. The movie does a very good job of making a robot character have actual human-like feelings. That’s not an easy task to pull off.
4. The Fast and the Furious
Yeah, I know a lot of people will discard The Fast and the Furious as just a popcorn action flick but I think it is a pretty good movie. It does have Paul Walker, who I have deemed worst actor EVER and Jordana Brewster is not good either. Vin Diesel and Michelle Rodriguez are fantastic in this movie though and there are cool cars, chases and explosions.
3. Knockaround Guys
Knockaround Guys was not received well by critics but I think it’s an extremely underrated movie. Three of the main characters, played by Barry Pepper, Vin Diesel and Seth Green, are great in this movie. Seth Green plays the screw up of the group who everyone is rooting for to come through. Vin Diesel is just a huge no-nonsense tough guy, a role he plays well. Barry Pepper plays the son of a gangster who is trying to prove to the mob boss he is capable of working for them. Barry Pepper is great in the cocky ring leader role; he’s mostly cocky only because Vin Diesel is standing next to him. Throw in some John Malkovich and a little Dennis Hopper and you got a movie that is much better than the critics said.
2. Saving Private Ryan
If this list were simply Vin Diesel’s best roles then this movie would be ranked low just because Vin Diesel doesn’t have much of a role but since it’s simply best movies Vin Diesel was in, then this movie has to be pretty high. When I first saw this movie I didn’t even know who Vin Diesel was. Later when I was a fan of Vin Diesel and found out he was in Saving Private Ryan I went back to watch it. I was disappointed because I realized the reason I don’t remember Vin Diesel is because he dies first! This is obviously a great movie though; the opening scene is the best battle scene of all time, possibly the best scene of all time.
1. Pitch Black
One of the reasons Chronicles of Riddick was such a giant disappointment to me is because I absolutely loved Pitch Black (Chronicles of Riddick was the sequel to Pitch Black). The biggest reason to like this movie is because of Vin Diesel. Vin Diesel’s character, Riddick, is an extremely interesting character and everything about Vin Diesel is perfect for the part. His build, his voice, his tough guy look. Don’t write this off as just an action performance either, Vin Diesel actually acts very well in this movie. I know a lot of people will point out that Pitch Black is an “Alien ripoff” but really it’s more like a really good facsimile of a really good movie.
I think Vin Diesel definitely has some acting chops and has a great look for action movies too, as I said before he has just made some really bad movie selections. Chronicles of Riddick, xXx, A Man Apart, and The Pacifier are not worth checking out. Boiler Room might be ok (only because other people think it is good) and Find Me Guilty is decent. Still, I really like Vin Diesel’s top five on this list. I’d love to own all five movies (I do own three of them) and those five movies would make for a pretty good Vin Diesel marathon.
