"Spellbindingly Mesmerizing!" says Janet Maslin

Rating: 10/10 (13 December 1999)

I'm usually a sucker for intergalactic junk food action movies (I hesitate to call them sci-fi because science fiction can and should be more literary and thought-provoking, not synonymous for blowing up alien spaceships with lasers/tasers/phasers), but I was a little shocked to find out how delicious this flick was compared to some of the trash I've seen in recent years. For those that don't know the premise, a space freighter carrying an incredibly dangerous criminal crash lands on a desert planet and finds out it is inhabited with ferocious flesh-rippin' critters that hide in the darkness. Well, what happens when said planet, usually brightened by its three suns (no Fred MacMurray jokes), has a total eclipse? Wackiness ensues! For such a simple plot, this movie plays out with so many twists (what do you expect from the screenwriter of Elm Street 4 and the Fly 2? Kidding.) and even more style to boot. Vin "Zoo-perr-mann" Diesel, who plays the criminal Riddick here, is simply a bad-ass and makes this movie his own. I would love to see a prequel or sequel involving his character, but ecccch, now I'm just sounding like a geeky throwback from the Ain't It Cool News website. So go see this movie in February in a multiplex with an impressive sound system, but make sure you leave your brain in the lobby. Cheers.