Men who make me happy, #3
Jun. 22nd, 2004 08:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwynI finally got a chance to see The Chronicles of Riddick this weekend, and it was every bit as bad as I was expecting it to be. I had no real hopes, based on the trailer and ads, especially after hearing umpteen thousand times what has to be the stupidest line I've ever heard in a movie, "Convert now, or fall forever." What does that even mean, I wanted to scream. Instead I scream it at my friends. But it was a good indicator of the sheer unadulterated moronity of this movie, which going into with low expectations helps. But it was hard, because... I love Vin Diesel. I do. And I'm not going to apologize for it; in fact, I will defend my favorite musclebound bad boy, because someone's gotta do it.
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feochadn and I had been driving around Manhattan Beach in LA when we saw all these signs for this movie called Pitch Black, and at the movie we went to that day, saw a trailer for it. We were intrigued -- we hadn't heard anything much about it, but it seemed unusually polished for a b-movie sci-fi actioner. So when it opened in Seattle, where there were no posters for it and it seemed to be advertised only on TV, we slogged up to one of the only theaters showing it, and were completely blown away. By the movie, but also, by Vin. The voice, the body, the mystique he cultivated in that role, just thrilled us, and the next weekend we brought a friend, and then another friend. We kept going back for almost as long as the movie played, because the movie was damn great -- an exquisite piece of b-movie making elevated to A level -- and because Vin was just sooooo sexay. Every time I heard that voiceover at the beginning of the movie, where he purrs "What route? what route" my legs got all rubbery. And those shiny eyes, and that scene where he comes up behind Radha Mitchell and turns on the sex while having that conversation about Johns (the homoerotic subtext wasn't much sub at all), just made me giddy.
After the movie left theatres, we went on a Vin hunt. I'd only barely remembered him from Saving Private Ryan, but he'd definitely made an impression as Caparzo, the doomed soldier who sacrifices himself to save the little French girl. We found a copy of his short Multi-Facial, which he wrote, directed, and starred in, and were completely amazed at how really versatile and talented he was. I hadn't known, either, that he was the voice of the giant in The Iron Giant, and when I bought that and watched the making of features on the disc (as well as the incredibly charming WB special about it, which he hosted and seemed like nothing more than a big, fanboy kid), there was a whole other picture of this actor than I'd got from either the commentaries about making Multi-Facial (which is on one of the Shorts collection discs, a series of outstanding DVDs that collect some of the best short films being made) or the publicity, what little of it I could find, on Pitch Black.
And of course, not long after that it seemed like Vin was everywhere, and his ambition and attitude were all anyone wanted to write about. And yeah, I definitely get the impression this is a guy who has no problem with his ego except fitting it into a room, but it hasn't stopped me from admiring the guy. He knew he always wanted to be an action star, apparently, and single-mindedly went after that, but Multi-Facial, and what little I've seen of his other self-made feature, Strays, are proof that he really can act and write and direct, and that he's not just a big lunkhead. His voice work on Iron Giant is fantastic, and in his brief screen time in Ryan and his shot in Boiler Room, I think it's pretty obvious that the guy has more talent than people are giving him credit for, which makes me sad. The bad boy/party animal image, the apparent lack of humility (though every time I've seen him talk about himself, he's been wonderfully self-effacing but confident, so I'm not always sure where this comes from), the focus on becoming a big star, all seem to have earned him a rep that makes everyone hypercritical of everything he does now.
Though, strangely, I don't care -- a lot of times people's 'tudes about themselves put me off, because it can often come across in their performances. But I never get that feeling from Vin, for some reason, despite the overblown action of his last few movies, or the clothes carefully chosen to highlight that incredible body, and so on. And it's too easy to mock him for the name he chose (which, I dunno, if I could change my name to something that cool? I would, totally), or the movies he's elected to do and how confident he is in trying to create franchises, but it makes me wonder why that should matter. He's making the mistakes of the young and very confident, and that makes him an easy target, but I admire some of that. I don't get confidence at all, and like many, I often see confident people as arrogant, but objectively, I understand that those two are not the same things. Unfortunately, this is how he's been branded.
I know he has a 'tude, and a major one -- he got kicked off Reindeer Games (and how I wish he'd been in that awful film, it might have made it more tolerable to have him sparring with my beloved Gary Sinise instead of ultra-bland Ben Affleck) for giving that 'tude to Frankenheimer for various reasons, and probably his rising star and ego didn't help with getting Diablo made well (later renamed as A Man Apart, and a potentially cool movie that was messed up), and XXX is a piece of shit by any definition, that often seems like nothing more than a love letter from Vin to himself, which is sad. But despite all that, and the crappy movies and all, I still love him, because of those really good movies, and because he is the sex.
The friend I saw Riddick with told me that while she thinks he has an incredible body, she doesn't like his face because his features are outsized and his nose is too big -- which is partly why I think he's so gorgeous. I love that about him, and the shaved head, and in PB and Riddick, the goggles (has anyone ever made goggles sexy? I think not -- as far as I know, Vin Diesel is the only guy who's ever managed to make such a dorktastic piece of gear look so cool). A few years ago, GQ did a photo essay featuring Vin, and he wore these leather trousers with a lace-up front, and I thought I might actually perish of fits when I saw that photo, he was so damn hot. A number of reviewers called him mushmouthed and a lunkhead and whatnot when reviewing Riddick, but I get the impression that they're not really paying attention, because he can show incredible diction when called for, and then not, and he radiates a kind of feral intelligence as Riddick that I wouldn't, frankly, demean that much. I like the fact that he so easily embodies all these disparate qualities (well-spoken or uncouth, scary or soft, macho or sensitive), that he is handsome in a non-standard way (thank god for his multicultural heritage, it makes his face fascinating to my eyes), that he can seem to be many things at once depending on your attitude about him.
Which is, of course, part of the problem. By now, most people have a very bad attitude about him, which may or may not be deserved. I keep hoping that he will eschew this action star thing and maybe try to get back to some good stuff to show people what he really can do. XXX was indefensible, and Riddick, while I can see what he was trying to do, just wasn't a good enough movie to carry on the legacy of the sublime Pitch Black. Not that it wasn't fun, but... it had none of the qualities the original did. I immeditely went home and put on PB to get the taste back for the original, and one of the things I noticed this time (you'd think that I'd have noticed this the first, oh, 60 times I watched it, but I'm slow) is that Riddick only mentions a few times that he is a killer. Everything we know about him primarily comes from Johns, and Johns has a very deep ulterior motive for keeping the crash survivors terrified of Riddick. I found this fascinating, especially in light of how much they tried to take that mystique away from Riddick in the new movie.
Now they have to give him this whole Furian race background, and make it something larger than the humans who are trying to survive in PB, and Riddick more mythical in an overblown way. What made Riddick so unforgettable, besides Vin's talent, was that he ends up redeeming himself to save others even while staying a killer, and we don't really know whether this is a huge character change for him, or not. We have no knowledge of whether he's a sociopathic murderer, or if he killed for some other reason. The Chronicles of Riddick, unfortunately, loses sight of that mystique and diminishes a lot of what was so cool about him (though they kept the hilarious, .sig-worthy lines), makes him nigh-on invincible (which is boring), and only gives us a glimpse of the guy who would go to enormous lengths to keep the girl he rescued in PB safe from harm (and that, frankly, is the best part of Riddick as a character -- the battle of these two highly divergent parts of his emotional life).
And I think that's a huge missed opportunity, because Vin could do that, and could show people once again that he really does have those acting chops that we were so taken by when we first saw him. The bod and the voice and the head are probably always going to be the focus with him, but I'd love to see his talents be taken as seriously, too. Criminy, if Arnold can do it by carefully mixing his roles, why can't Vin? I like him too much to see him disappear into the Hell of the Steven Seagals.
feochadn and I had been driving around Manhattan Beach in LA when we saw all these signs for this movie called Pitch Black, and at the movie we went to that day, saw a trailer for it. We were intrigued -- we hadn't heard anything much about it, but it seemed unusually polished for a b-movie sci-fi actioner. So when it opened in Seattle, where there were no posters for it and it seemed to be advertised only on TV, we slogged up to one of the only theaters showing it, and were completely blown away. By the movie, but also, by Vin. The voice, the body, the mystique he cultivated in that role, just thrilled us, and the next weekend we brought a friend, and then another friend. We kept going back for almost as long as the movie played, because the movie was damn great -- an exquisite piece of b-movie making elevated to A level -- and because Vin was just sooooo sexay. Every time I heard that voiceover at the beginning of the movie, where he purrs "What route? what route" my legs got all rubbery. And those shiny eyes, and that scene where he comes up behind Radha Mitchell and turns on the sex while having that conversation about Johns (the homoerotic subtext wasn't much sub at all), just made me giddy.After the movie left theatres, we went on a Vin hunt. I'd only barely remembered him from Saving Private Ryan, but he'd definitely made an impression as Caparzo, the doomed soldier who sacrifices himself to save the little French girl. We found a copy of his short Multi-Facial, which he wrote, directed, and starred in, and were completely amazed at how really versatile and talented he was. I hadn't known, either, that he was the voice of the giant in The Iron Giant, and when I bought that and watched the making of features on the disc (as well as the incredibly charming WB special about it, which he hosted and seemed like nothing more than a big, fanboy kid), there was a whole other picture of this actor than I'd got from either the commentaries about making Multi-Facial (which is on one of the Shorts collection discs, a series of outstanding DVDs that collect some of the best short films being made) or the publicity, what little of it I could find, on Pitch Black.
And of course, not long after that it seemed like Vin was everywhere, and his ambition and attitude were all anyone wanted to write about. And yeah, I definitely get the impression this is a guy who has no problem with his ego except fitting it into a room, but it hasn't stopped me from admiring the guy. He knew he always wanted to be an action star, apparently, and single-mindedly went after that, but Multi-Facial, and what little I've seen of his other self-made feature, Strays, are proof that he really can act and write and direct, and that he's not just a big lunkhead. His voice work on Iron Giant is fantastic, and in his brief screen time in Ryan and his shot in Boiler Room, I think it's pretty obvious that the guy has more talent than people are giving him credit for, which makes me sad. The bad boy/party animal image, the apparent lack of humility (though every time I've seen him talk about himself, he's been wonderfully self-effacing but confident, so I'm not always sure where this comes from), the focus on becoming a big star, all seem to have earned him a rep that makes everyone hypercritical of everything he does now.
Though, strangely, I don't care -- a lot of times people's 'tudes about themselves put me off, because it can often come across in their performances. But I never get that feeling from Vin, for some reason, despite the overblown action of his last few movies, or the clothes carefully chosen to highlight that incredible body, and so on. And it's too easy to mock him for the name he chose (which, I dunno, if I could change my name to something that cool? I would, totally), or the movies he's elected to do and how confident he is in trying to create franchises, but it makes me wonder why that should matter. He's making the mistakes of the young and very confident, and that makes him an easy target, but I admire some of that. I don't get confidence at all, and like many, I often see confident people as arrogant, but objectively, I understand that those two are not the same things. Unfortunately, this is how he's been branded.
I know he has a 'tude, and a major one -- he got kicked off Reindeer Games (and how I wish he'd been in that awful film, it might have made it more tolerable to have him sparring with my beloved Gary Sinise instead of ultra-bland Ben Affleck) for giving that 'tude to Frankenheimer for various reasons, and probably his rising star and ego didn't help with getting Diablo made well (later renamed as A Man Apart, and a potentially cool movie that was messed up), and XXX is a piece of shit by any definition, that often seems like nothing more than a love letter from Vin to himself, which is sad. But despite all that, and the crappy movies and all, I still love him, because of those really good movies, and because he is the sex.
The friend I saw Riddick with told me that while she thinks he has an incredible body, she doesn't like his face because his features are outsized and his nose is too big -- which is partly why I think he's so gorgeous. I love that about him, and the shaved head, and in PB and Riddick, the goggles (has anyone ever made goggles sexy? I think not -- as far as I know, Vin Diesel is the only guy who's ever managed to make such a dorktastic piece of gear look so cool). A few years ago, GQ did a photo essay featuring Vin, and he wore these leather trousers with a lace-up front, and I thought I might actually perish of fits when I saw that photo, he was so damn hot. A number of reviewers called him mushmouthed and a lunkhead and whatnot when reviewing Riddick, but I get the impression that they're not really paying attention, because he can show incredible diction when called for, and then not, and he radiates a kind of feral intelligence as Riddick that I wouldn't, frankly, demean that much. I like the fact that he so easily embodies all these disparate qualities (well-spoken or uncouth, scary or soft, macho or sensitive), that he is handsome in a non-standard way (thank god for his multicultural heritage, it makes his face fascinating to my eyes), that he can seem to be many things at once depending on your attitude about him.
Which is, of course, part of the problem. By now, most people have a very bad attitude about him, which may or may not be deserved. I keep hoping that he will eschew this action star thing and maybe try to get back to some good stuff to show people what he really can do. XXX was indefensible, and Riddick, while I can see what he was trying to do, just wasn't a good enough movie to carry on the legacy of the sublime Pitch Black. Not that it wasn't fun, but... it had none of the qualities the original did. I immeditely went home and put on PB to get the taste back for the original, and one of the things I noticed this time (you'd think that I'd have noticed this the first, oh, 60 times I watched it, but I'm slow) is that Riddick only mentions a few times that he is a killer. Everything we know about him primarily comes from Johns, and Johns has a very deep ulterior motive for keeping the crash survivors terrified of Riddick. I found this fascinating, especially in light of how much they tried to take that mystique away from Riddick in the new movie.
Now they have to give him this whole Furian race background, and make it something larger than the humans who are trying to survive in PB, and Riddick more mythical in an overblown way. What made Riddick so unforgettable, besides Vin's talent, was that he ends up redeeming himself to save others even while staying a killer, and we don't really know whether this is a huge character change for him, or not. We have no knowledge of whether he's a sociopathic murderer, or if he killed for some other reason. The Chronicles of Riddick, unfortunately, loses sight of that mystique and diminishes a lot of what was so cool about him (though they kept the hilarious, .sig-worthy lines), makes him nigh-on invincible (which is boring), and only gives us a glimpse of the guy who would go to enormous lengths to keep the girl he rescued in PB safe from harm (and that, frankly, is the best part of Riddick as a character -- the battle of these two highly divergent parts of his emotional life).
And I think that's a huge missed opportunity, because Vin could do that, and could show people once again that he really does have those acting chops that we were so taken by when we first saw him. The bod and the voice and the head are probably always going to be the focus with him, but I'd love to see his talents be taken as seriously, too. Criminy, if Arnold can do it by carefully mixing his roles, why can't Vin? I like him too much to see him disappear into the Hell of the Steven Seagals.
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no subject
Date: 2004-06-22 10:33 am (UTC)Pitch Black blew my mind. The revolving monochromatic color schemes. The visuals. The slash. Taselby made a great vid to Oingo Boingo's "When the Lights Go Out." Have you seen it?
We went to see Riddick a week ago, and it was exactly as bad as I thought it would be. We MSTed it, along with the group of people behind us (there were only about 30 of us in the theater, and we all had the right attitude, I think), and great fun was had by all.
I really don't think he's going to fade away. Fingers crossed.
no subject
Date: 2004-06-23 12:47 pm (UTC)The theatre I saw it in was almost packed on a sunny Sat. afternoon, a rarity in Seattle. So I was glad that it performed well, but still worried about the effect of these action franchises on him. I'll cross fingers along with you.
no subject
Date: 2004-10-06 08:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-06 09:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-06 09:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-06-22 10:34 am (UTC)erm...hello
Date: 2004-06-22 11:47 am (UTC)Because, you see, I could've written this. In fact, a friend and I have been emailing fervently on this exact topic for a few days now, but you've managed to sum it up much more coherently than we've done so far.
In particular, with regards to The Iron Giant: I can't think of any other instance in voice-over work where a single word has been able to reduce me to tears the way the robot's last line has done. As far as I'm concerned, no matter what else Vin does, he always gets a free pass because of that.
Thank you for this lovely and articulate post.
Re: erm...hello
Date: 2004-06-23 12:55 pm (UTC)I think the only other movie that has had the same kind of emotional effect on me was Lilo & Stitch -- when Stitch is out in the forest at night with The Ugly Duckling book, and cries out, "I'm lost." Turns me into a blubbering heap every time, the same way the Giant's death does. Sometimes I think I must be an easy mark. ;-)
And, um... now that you've posted, I am going to be rude and ask if you know of any screen caps sites for PB. I've been trying to find a good pic of him with the shiny eyes, and the only ones I can find I don't quite like. I've wanted to make an icon for a while, but can't find exactly what I want to use. I haven't had any luck getting screen caps -- it seems like there are sites, but they have only a few publicity stills -- and I guess if there aren't any, I'll just use the one I'm not so fond of, or one with the goggles.
Re: erm...hello
Date: 2004-06-23 03:19 pm (UTC)There should be a t-shirt! Or a cool logo at the very least.
Nope, you're not an easy mark (and I agree with the Stitch moment, too. I know of several very large, very butch men who get big eyes and trembly bottom lips the instant they hear the words "Iron Giant" and "Superman" in the same sentence. Really. It's adorable.
I've been very frustrated, myself, with the lack of PB material out there, but I don't know of any cap sites. However, as I have the director's cut DVD and a program that does halfway decent captures, if there's some particular images you want, I'd be happy to grab them and email them on (I don't have a good site to upload to). I've been thinking about doing that for myself anyway. Also, you are--and anyone else is--more than welcome to use this icon, if you like; it's shots from PB, the animated Dark Fury, and the CoR promotional material.
no subject
Date: 2004-06-22 12:44 pm (UTC)I'm with you there. He really intrigues me -- I loved Pitch Black and paid good money to see TripleX just because of him. He needs to get better roles.
no subject
Date: 2004-06-23 01:06 pm (UTC)And speaking of lovely men, who is that gorgeous guy in your icon?
no subject
Date: 2004-06-22 06:33 pm (UTC)